Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mcnc!ecsvax!husc6.harvard.edu
From: lloyd!kent@husc6.harvard.edu (Kent Borg)
Newsgroups: comp.society.women
Subject: Re: Injuries from mouse device
Message-ID: <7271@ecsvax.UUCP>
Date: 23 Jun 89 22:15:32 GMT
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In article <7214@ecsvax.UUCP> howard@cos.com (Howard C. Berkowitz) writes:
>My wife has developed a severe inflammation (tendosynovitis for sci.med)
>of her thumb and wrist following a period of extensive work (approximately
>12 hours per day for 7 days) with the Macintosh SE standard mouse.
>The problem seems due primarily to pressure from the "hump" of the 
>left front corner of the mouse against the ball of the thumb,
>and secondarily from her need to hold her wrist unsupported while
>using the mouse (her hand is not long enough to rest the wrist on
>the mouse pad).

Go into the Control Panel and click on the mouse icon.  Set the
tracking to ``Fast''.  This will make the little rodent (or trackball)
much more sensitive.  I never move my hand any more, I can get from
corner to corner with just finger movement.  (The faster you make a
gesture, the farther the pointer moves.)

Next, it should be possible to rest her wrist on some sort of pad.  The
computer cart I am using right now has ~5/8 inch high upholstered
strip along the front edge of the keyboard shelf.  What I don't yet
have here at work is a mouse pad.  I recommend one.  Makes the mouse
grab the pavement much better.

Yes, a trackball uses finger movements rather than wrist movements,
but since the mouse got fast tracking I don't move my wrist any more.
If she contimues to have problems, look closely at the `ergonomics' of
the situation and see what else might be physically adjusted.

Kent Borg
kent@lloyd.uucp
or
...!husc6!lloyd!kent