Sore back

• best position and board for typing - getting old
  • I use a pillow that I prop against either my desk or my - me
  • I also transcribe with my keyboard in my lap and....sm - oldtimer
  • Getting Old? So am I - babe
  • Get a keyboard tray for under your desk to keep it low. - Top of monitor should be even with eyeball level.
    • ... to prevent neck strain. Lift it up on something if it's - too low. NM
  • Getting old. - GoGranny
    • I tried a split keyboard once . . . - Ouch!
    • I disagree. To each his own. I have rheumatoid arthritis and....sm - oldtimer
      • Yes to each his own. sm - Anon
        • I demonstrated to my rheumatologist how I transcribe and...sm - oldtimer
  • sore back - mandiemt
    • Sore back - CB
    • Not that expensive - Patti
      • I found one for $5 on ebay-sm - mls
        • I have the MS 6000 wireless laser keyboard...sm - Jus' another MT
        • I use the microsoft wave keyboard - tnmt
          • Yes, that one looks exactly like mine - tnmt

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Smart Gloves.  Google them.  They're wonderful.  About $20 bucks apiece but well worth the money.

Carpal tunnel type straps.  Wal Mart.  $10 bucks apiece.

I have both and I alternate.

I ended up with numbness in my right index finger, but after buying these, it just went away after a few weeks.  My fingers and wrists have some discomfort on occasion, but nothing like they were before.

One more thing, and I know people that do this, if you do "pound" the keyboard with your fingertips, relax those hands, elbows and shoulders and just tap. If that doesn't work, you may want to get a better keyboard.

Good luck!

   I use elbow pads to save my shoulders & neck, but find that continually resting my elbows on anything (or keeping them bent at a 90-degree angle or greater) for any period of time exacerbates the pain.  My problem is bone-spurs in the elbows - combination of arthritis and/or overuse from sports, etc.  But typing, sleeping with it bent, etc. do make it worse.  I've found gentle exercises on the machines at the gym to be helpful, provided I don't overdo it.  I also use glucosamine & chondroitin supplements for a knee problem that might help a little. 

Sometimes sleeping curled around an extra pillow, with my arm stretched out underneath it to help prevent it from being over-bent, seems to help.  Also avoiding over-use.  I try to keep my med. dictionary on my desk during the day, so I don't have to reach for it, and when I first take it off the shelf in the morning, I do it while standing up to lessen the stress on the joint. 

When it does flare up, I've experimented with different pain remedies to find what is most effective.  While aspirin works best on some of my parts, my own elbow pain seems to respond best to extra-strength Tylenol, and second-best to two ibuprofen (even though the bottle says take just one.)  And the neck and shoulder pain is best relieved by Flexall cream, second-best by ibuprofen. 

Best of luck finding the right cure! 

In a way it's nice to know I'm not the only one who has this problem.  Not that I wish pain on anybody... :)

Fortunately, I did not need any injections.  I had physical therapy--heat, iontophoresis, and exercises--and anti-inflammatories. 

The occupational health physician I saw also recommended a keyboard tray adjusted so that my arms were at a 90-degree angle while typing.  I know someone mentioned having their arms at that angle made it worse, but my problem at that time was having my keyboard too low so that my arms were going down.  Changing the angle did help.

Now when I have a flare-up, ibuprofen usually helps as well as a topical gel called Biofreeze which I buy it from my chiropractor but some independent pharmacies carry it, also.

Does anybody have trouble with a sore left thumb from doing speech recognition in ExText? I have been doing it now for 5 months and have constant pain in my thumb. Just wondered if there was a better way of doing it.

My legs from the calves down, and especially my ankles, have been swollen

since about the first part of February.  I walk around like a "weeble-wobble" doll.

And I thought, gosh, am I too fat?!, eating too much salt?!

Why don't they go down overnight or when I prop them up?

Well, finally I found out that I probably have Hoen-Schoenlein (or something like that) purpura.

They say it recurs.  It usually is in kids, but can happen in adults. 

IT HAPPENS AFTER A SORE THROAT.  It is in the autoimmune family.  Sometimes they will give you steroids for it -- but mostly you have to just ride it out. 

They really don't know what causes it - but like I said they do suspect it comes in correlation with a sore throat.......and I have had that horrible flu that hit in Feb and I have had recurrence of the flu/sore throat about every 6 wks (as do a lot of  the folks I know). 

They say the purpura/swollen legs and ankles can last for 6-8 wks or longer.

So, if you have really funky swollen legs and don't have luck with them going down after leaving off salt, drinking plenty of water, and not drinking caffeinated drinks -- it may be HENOCH-SCHONLEIN purpura.

What is HSP?

Henoch-Schonlein purpura (HSP or anaphylactoid purpura) is a form of blood vessel inflammation or vasculitis. There are many different conditions that feature vasculitis. Each of the forms of vasculitis tends to involve certain characteristic blood vessels. HSP affects the small arterial vessels called capillaries in the skin and frequently the kidneys. HSP results in skin rash (most prominent over the buttocks and behind the lower extremities associated with joint inflammation (arthritis) and sometimes cramping pain in the abdomen.

What causes HSP?

HSP occurs most often in the spring and frequently follows an infection of the throat or breathing passages. HSP seems to represent an unusual reaction of the body's immune system that is in response to this infection (either bacteria or virus). Aside from infection, drugs can also trigger the condition. HSP occurs most commonly in children, but persons of all age groups can be affected.

What are symptoms of HSP?

Classically, HSP causes skin rash, pain in the abdomen, and joint inflammation (arthritis). Not all features need be present for the diagnosis. The rash of skin lesions appears in gravity-dependent areas, such as the legs. The joints most frequently affected with pain and swelling are the ankles and the knees. Patients with HSP can develop fever. Inflammation of the blood vessels in the kidneys can cause blood and/or protein in the urine. Serious kidney complications are infrequent, but can occur. Sometimes a biopsy of skin and/or kidney is used in assisting the diagnosis, which is typically made based on the clinical findings.

Symptoms usually last approximately a month. Recurrences are not frequent, but do occur.

neck and my body was kind of stiff all over, but I ignored it, got the kids off to school, and went about my usual routine of having my morning coffee and reading the paper.  I don't start work until noon every day.  As the morning wore on, my body got achier and achier and I started having chills and basically had to huddle under three blankets so I would quit shivering.  I took my temperature and it was 102.3 and I'm wonder if I have strep throat or something.  I tend to pick that up about once a year and amy pretty familiar with the symptoms.

I couldn't bare the thought of calling sick especially because I work at home and I always think it's kind of lame to call in sick when you don't physically have to go much farther then down the stairs.  I always feel extremely guilty whenever I have called in for illness in the past.  Do you guys feel that way?  Like we're somehow not entitled to take sick days because we already working from home.  I mean, I have them accrued and I am truly sick, why should I feel bad about taking one when I actually need it?

Anyway, I took a handful of Motrin and the aching has eased up and I'm sweating like a pig so the fever broke for now, and now I just feel really tired and would love to lay down and take a nap, but just feel like I shouldn't and dread the idea of calling my boss.

Oh well, guess I'll suffer through like I always do.  Every once in a while working at home doesn't feel quite fair. 

I'm not sure how many people they are hiring but you shouldn't stress too hard over it. Do the best you can.

It started with a mild sore throat, then went to a REALLY BAD sore throat, tickly throat so I coughed and couldn't sleep, started getting a runny nose, then sinuses stuffy/sinus headache, sore throat got worse - was starting to think it was strep.  Yesterday was the worst; felt like crap.  Last night - started to feel better!  Finally last night I was able to SLEEP.  Today I have felt SO much better.  Not back to normal, but at least I was able to drink a cup of coffee.  Every other day I have poured myself a cup and then it just sat on my desk all day.  My throat is MUCH better and althought I am getting twinges of pain in it from time to time, it's not constant like it has been the last several days.  I don't like this, whatever it is!

I would think it was strep except DD had it too and she got over it.  She said her teacher had it and the teacher said her doctor told her it's a viral thing.

I actually tried to dump a report today, which I never do, because it somehow got into my pool in error (not my area of expertise), but it jumped right back up at me after the next report.  So I decided to just do it.  I don't know how well I did, but I did it.  It was over 150 lines long and took me forever.  Lo and behold, 5 reports later, same guy, same type of report 145 lines. Second time around was easier and faster though.  The way I see it is that if I get negative feedback, I'll let them know that those kind of reports really shouldn't come my way.

But cherry picking for line count is just plain wrong.

The other jobs I took involved quite a bit of computer use, too.  I got tired of the office politics and other garbage, so I'm doing MT again.  Now, I prop my keyboard up with a block of wood, although you can use a telescoping keyboard drawer/shelf to do the same thing.  I have a habit of letting my wrists rest on the keyboard, so I had to modify it to get my hands into the proper position.  It might have helped if I had taken piano lessons.  LOL  The only time my wrists ache now is if I work too much, which has been the case lately.  I don't know if it would be helpful for you to try.  I've been doing data entry or some form of computer input work for 17 years now, so I'm hoping carpal tunnel or repetitive motion injury isn't definitely in my future.

I was told the same about two years ago by recruiter in Midwest.  She did not give specifics, but basically said that the full time employees would get priority if the work was low. 

I have a 1936 medical dictionary that the hospital I used to work at was going to throw  out. It's leather bound, but the cover is missing. There is actually a section on using leeches for medical treatment.

Think about it. How far back does MT go? The docs used to write notes and then they had the nurses write the notes, but how far back does the first actual typewritten MT report go?  Did they hire someone to type while they talked to them. Someone posted below about an MT that sat in on autopsies to type the findings. Hmmmmm. Interesting.

The old doc I used to work for (with the typewriter) was from the old school and always did handwritten notes until the insurance companies required them either printed or typed. He reluctantly hired a Transcriptionist but this was in the mid-1980's and he was still grumbling about paying someone to type what he could write when I worked there in 1994.