My quest for a pain free workstation - part 1
About three years ago, I started experiencing arm, wrist and back pain while working at my computer. It was not consistent and the combination of painful areas would change. Sometimes I had hand and wrist pain, usually in my right hand. Other times I would feel pain in my arm near the elbow. Occasionally, I had numbness or tingling in my third and fourth fingers on both sides.
I had taken a new job at HubSpot around the time I started experiencing pain. It was pretty obvious that the small laptop keyboard and extended hours were causing trouble. I went about a year with the pain getting gradually worse before I finally went to a doctor. I was diagnosed with ulnar nerve inflammation and inflammation of various hand muscles.
The doctor put me on an anti-inflammatory medication regiment, but it made almost no difference and taking six pills a day was annoying. The best way to reduce pain and inflammation would be to change the amount I work, or the way I work. Not wanting to work less (I love my job) I decided to try making changes to my work environment instead. So I began making incremental improvements to my workstation to reduce or mitigate pain. I’ve made several changes, gradually adding layers over time. I’m going to write about these improvements in a series of forthcoming blog posts, so stay tuned!
[...] in a series about pain-reducing improvements I’ve made to my workstation. For more detail, read part 1 and part [...]