Finger Tendinitis: Warm gloves, Kinesis keyboard (Score 1)

I have tendinitis in my fingers. I wear gloves when I type and I use a special keyboard with keys which are softer and less jolting to press. I also use an Autohotkey script to remap my mouse click to the keyboard.

When my fingers are warmer, they become more supple and hurt less. I read about a surgeon which tendinitis who always soaked his hands in warm water before a surgery and it enabled him to keep on performing his job. Perhaps, the gloves cushion the shock of the keystroke as well. For a keyboard, I use the fantastic Kinesis Advantage keyboard.

I also use the fantastic program Autohotkey to enable me to click by pressing my thumb on a keyboard key. My clicking finger was always the worst, esp with terrible games like Diablo which require you to madly click as fast as you can for hours. And mice have a hard, jolting click. My thumbs seem invulnerable to any problems. My current version of the Autohotkey script even allows me to "click" and hold and drag then release! It does not do key-repeat like keyboard keypresses normally do.

I started out with thin polypropylene gloves for a few years. I felt a bit weird wearing them at work. But if I didn't wear them, by the end of the day, I'd become rather irritable. It happened so gradually that I didn't even notice that it had happened unless I thought about it. But as I walked home (10 min), I would cheer up so much. But this problem went away with the gloves. I used to worry that I might have to completely stop typing if the pain got worse and that would kill my career. And then what job can you do without using your hands much!? But my current system has worked well for the last few years so I don't worry so much now.

Now, in addition to the polypropylene gloves, I also use outer possum-merino wool gloves. My whole body is fairly cold which is partly why I have to wear such warm gloves. I have tried several glove combinations but the problem is finding gloves that are super-warm yet are not so thick or rigid that they prevent me typing. The possum-merino are fantastic - super flexible and super warm. I tried silk and alpaca as well. I find that if my fingers are even toasty warm and slightly moist, that's even better (less minor joint pain). But at 22C-24C, with all my gloves on, my fingers are not toasty warm - just normal. I have a space heater under my desk I turn on if it's I tried usb-powered hand warmers which let the tips of your fingers stick out. They were useless because my fingers need to be warm and warming my palm doesn't warm my fingers much. (although if my whole body is too cold, my fingers will be colder)

I was originally diagnosed with carpel tunnel syndrome. Many doctors call any RSI in your hands "carpel tunnel" because it's the most well known RSI. I'm fairly certain that's not what I have so I just call it tendinitis in my fingers. The doctor originally prescribed special, expensive carpel gloves with a rigid wrist and let my fingers stick out to type. My thin polypropylene gloves work better.