Experience using a vertical mouse or saving ourselves from tunnel syndrome

This Monday I will talk about a mouse that helps to avoid tunnel syndrome. Go!

Under the cut - medical education about the causes of tunnel syndrome, how to avoid it, and of course, a review of the vertical mouse.

About carpal tunnel syndrome

As we know, tunnel syndrome - it is also called CTS , Carpal Tunnel Syndrome , carpal tunnel syndrome (although those who translate in this way must be killed, this is worse than alkaline. Carpal is just a brush), carpal tunnel syndrome, wrist wrist, In the general name of RSI , Repetitive Strain Injury ( chronic hand disease ) is a lesion of nerve tissue (neuropathy) due to some unfavorable conditions. Strictly speaking, to call it tunnel syndrome is not entirely correct - tunnel syndrome can manifest itself not only in the hand, while the carpal tunnel syndrome is, by definition, only in the wrist :)
Adverse conditions can be very different - usually it is a monotonous work of the brush or a long stay in unnatural positions. Accordingly, the risk group includes those people whose work or pastime implies prolonged wrist tension and / or prolonged work with a brush - forever alone , cyclists and bikers, collectors, packers, musicians, artists, and of course, people working with the mouse and keyboard.

To be clearer, look at the picture above. We are interested in the median and ulnar nerves - a bundle of nerves whose branches innervate most of the hand (shown in purple in the figure):

They are next to a formation called the carpal tunnel:

This is the structure that holds the flexor tendons of the fingers relative to each other and the wrist - the tendon bag (in the figure - the blue part). It is located between several bones and ligaments - in the tunnel of the wrist joint.
What happens during prolonged bending of the joint, uncomfortable position of the hands and a lot of monotonous movements?
Prolonged tension of the hand muscles leads to deterioration of their blood supply, in violation of which destructive processes begin in the tendons and muscles. By themselves, they do not bring harm so far, the body knows what to do - the blood flow through the damaged area increases, which ensures normal nutrition and timely removal of decay products. At the termination of the harmful effects of unpleasant feelings will pass by itself.
But if we continue to work with the brush in the same way (there are not very many painful endings, and it is problematic to notice the onset of the disease), continuing to strain the muscles, and at the same time reducing the tunnel lumen by bending the brush, then we get swelling of the muscles and tendons - the liquid does not appear properly in a way.
The developing edema puts pressure on the median and ulnar nerves and adjacent vessels, causing hypoxia (oxygen deficiency) and swelling of tissues and nerves. The nerve in this state cannot fully perform its functions, because of this, there are such unpleasant effects (paresthesias) as: decreased sensitivity, soreness, tingling in the fingers, weakness of the palm. The muscles of the hand and fingers, which are controlled by the nerve, gradually “relax” - the signals from the brain do not reach them completely, and they begin to atrophy. All this against the backdrop of pain, aggravated at night, and not giving to sleep.

Fearfully? Only with the help of a special , vertical mouse you can cure your hand ... I joke, unfortunately. No, even the most expensive mouse will not help you - the disease arises from several factors that must be removed in a complex way. In 90%, the simplest gymnastics performed regularly 10 minutes a day will remove all symptoms. You didn't miss a word regularly , right? If the only thing you do with the symptoms - buy a mouse, it will not save you, unless they delay their gain.
')
The basic idea of ​​gymnastics is rest from harmful factors, but not from movement. Stand up, walk, wave your hands. Unclench-clench hands, shake hands. Many problems stem from monotonous movements - that’s what we should get rid of, regularly making movements that are different from normal ones. Here everything is perfectly described.
I will talk about getting rid of only one factor - the wrong position of the brush lying on the mouse.

Right or wrong?

Stand up, relax your arms, lower them down. What position have they taken? The palms are turned inward, "to myself." Now, place your hand on the table, without changing its position anywhere except the elbow. How does she lie? Elbow and edge of the brush on the table.
Now put it on your mouse. What happened? The brush turned to the elbow almost 90 degrees. This position of the hand fits perfectly with the prevailing paradigm of using a computer - the left mouse button, the right mouse button, the middle one, etc.

But it is not physiological - the muscles that provide rotation to the inside (pronators), arms and hands are constantly tense, and the instep supports (muscles that rotate outward), on the contrary, are stretched. What causes constant muscle tension, I already wrote - swelling, and then on increasing.

For example, a square pronator - the muscle that rotates the forearm inward is most stressed when the hand is not positioned correctly. And it is located at the carpal canal itself, respectively - its swelling will first of all put pressure on the nerves and blood vessels, which will cause unpleasant sensations.


In the case of a vertical mouse, the brush retains its “normal” position, in which there is no additional load on the instep supports and pronators.

True, there are problems with the monotonous movements of the fingers - when you press the keys and the torsion of the wheel. Only a fundamental change in the input principle will help you with this - a touchpad, a trackball ( dlinyj is called on to talk about their experiences with trackballs), hot keys, or a graphic tablet.

As usual, I wanted to write briefly and briefly about the syndrome, but it turned out that the details make up most of the text. He wrote, showed to a friend, he asked about something, I had to add. Showed to the doctor - he corrected a couple of inaccuracies, said many clever words, according to which he had to give an explanation ... Ok. About the mouse.

About the mouse.

Packaging:

Extremely strange packaging, to get from which the mouse is quite problematic. We will have to deal with sticky tape, adhesive tape, a clever system of fastening the mouse and wire, understand the mental agony of the Chinese developer of the box, torn between convenience and prettiness. In the fight against these problems, I completely forgot to show you the back of the box, here it is:

Finally, we got the mouse.

What catches your eye is a thin but long wire, even with a filter on the end:

Very soft, well bends, and does not interfere with the movements of the mouse. No more remarkable. Let's go back to the mouse:

The key on the end is the DPI switch (from 800 to 2400), which allows you to adjust the speed of the mouse movement to your needs.

On the right side are two buttons ("left" and "right", heh), and a standard wheel. It does not swing to the sides, however, this function is performed by two buttons on the reverse side:

They are located next to the groove for the thumb, and to be honest, I inadvertently touched them a couple of times. Apparently, it is not worthwhile to hang up functions on them with a hard-to-reverse action - deleting files, for example. I have them switching tabs in the browser.
The surface on which a large part of the palm rests is made of a rubber-like material, which is almost impossible to remove from dust particles and fabric fibers - they adhere remarkably to it even immediately after wiping. In fairness, I note that the rest of the pollution is washed off and erased from this surface is quite normal. The rest is ordinary plastic, which does not have any serious advantages or critical flaws.

At the bottom of the mouse is only the sensor:

Sliding legs are present in large numbers (6 pieces), and perform their function quite tolerably.

As the most attentive readers probably guessed, the “sole”, designed to take over the support of the hand, is detached. I'm very comfortable with her, but suddenly.

Results of use

The first week was very unusual. It is so unusual that several times I thought about switching back to the classic mouse. Although I was able to work fully in a couple of days, a few more days every time I took her in my hand I had to make an effort to remember which button was which. But after a week I used it quite calmly, and after two, the classic mice seemed strange and very uncomfortable, to the extent that they did not want to be taken in hand.
Here is the mouse in hand:

I especially liked, oddly enough, to play such a mouse in various toys-shooters - almost like a joystick.
Another feature that I noticed is that moving the mouse does not occur with the hand, but with the whole hand, because the wrist is less flexible with such a grip. I understand that it is more useful for the brush, but still, a bit unusual.
The DPI button was very useful - after getting used, the DPI can be increased, the brush will have to move less.
Good news - my hand does not hurt. But she had never been sick before.

Cost of

The mouse is ordered from BuySKU for $ 26.
Next to the catalog there is the same, but wireless , although its maximum DPI is lower - 1600. It costs a little more - $ 47. I doubted its convenience, so I bought a version with a wire, which I regret now - it would be somehow more convenient without wires.

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