Result: misery

[desperance]

As I foretold you, these my fingers are dissolved into needles, into pins and needles; my physio and I have had a session about it today. It's an odd demonstration, of how the human body is sewn together; she twitches something in my shoulder and it hurts all down my arm...

So. We are engaged, for a course of treatment; we make no guesses, how long it may last. I foresee much ouchie.

Still'n'all, it's nice to see her, as she is also an old friend and friend-of-friends; and there is an abiding pleasance in being the focus of someone's physical attention, despite the ouchie.

And being in town as I was, I thought I might as well stay there; so I went to the Lit & Phil and wrote six pages of Sekrit Projekt, as it was very much my turn. That was nothing but fun, no ouchie at all. I like having a Sekrit Projekt. (Tho' it's bloody hard to type; my fingers want to spell it right. I could never be a cat.)

Talking of typing, O LJ, give me your advices:

My blessed physio says that if I'm going to use the laptop in the library a lot, I should get a separate keyboard for it, and a stand to lift the screen closer to eye-height. Any suggestions, particularly for the keyboard? What's good out there, that's light to carry around?

Also, what does one do about taking a laptop on a plane these days? Are there extra regulations about whether it has to go in hand luggage or hold luggage, whether it's banned from either? I am all out of plane-fu...

Comments

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

I started using a separate keyboard for my laptop this summer, because my physiotherapist recommended it so strongly. It actually made matters worse, until I figured out that I need to sit in a chair with arms and have a soft wrist rest between the keyboard and the edge of the desk. (My forearms are supposed to be parallel to my thighs, or slanted very slightly down from elbow to knuckle. Bending the wrists up is bad. Tension in the shoulders is bad.) I got a desk chair with adjustable arms, but a regular chair with wooden arms that don't move might fit you well enough. And my wrist rest is a long, narrow, beanbag. It's convenient to squish in a backpack, and it feels like cloth so sweaty hands don't stick to it in summer. But a determined cat could probably destroy it in about 10 minutes.

You *don't* need any kind of elaborate stand to raise the screen to eye level. I am currently using a shoebox on my desk at home. (A big sturdy plastic shoebox, but still.) You just need a sturdy thing with a cross-section as big (or almost as big) as your laptop footprint, that can raise it 4-8". I experimented with magazines--Quality Progress is deadly dull, but it's nice and flat, with 3 or 4 to the inch. Once you know approximately what height you want, I'm sure the library will be able to provide a couple of convenient books for when you're there.

Mice are catastrophically painful for my hands. If I have to use a mouse, my ability to use a computer at all is extremely limited. Touchpads are very much easier for me. I think it's because I have a different kind of injury than moral_vacuum and others who complain so strongly about touchpads. But you have an injury to the thumb tendon, and pain with gripping...if using a mouse hurts your thumb, an external touchpad may be easier. It plugs into the USB port and sits next to the keyboard (where most people put the mouse), but you can do all the pointing and clicking with your index finger.