On ergonomics and carpal tunnel syndrome: a dictated post.

This blog was started as a way for me to talk about my experiences with video editing. I've posted up a bunch of different tutorials over the years, workflow tests, and introductions to different pieces of software.

However, the one thing that I haven't done is talk about the physical toll of working (and playing) on a computer all day.

I've developed issues with my posture over the years that have aggravated some lower back problems. This isn't the end of the world, as doing a few simple exercises can strengthen muscles that can counterbalance this effect. I'm working on doing just that right now.

Unfortunately, one area where not taking care of yourself can be a real problem is your wrists. For those unfamiliar with the condition, carpal tunnel syndrome is a RSI, or repetitive stress injury. It's primarily due to grasping for long periods of time and/or performing repetitive motions with your fingers like typing. The symptoms start with swelling and soreness in your wrist and hands, then progress to tingling and finally numbness

I first started having symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome right around the time I entered college, and it was primarily due to playing video games and working on the computer for long hours. Probably my biggest regret in life is that I didn't take it seriously enough.

Most people who develop carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms recover entirely through a brief treatment of anti-inflammatory drugs and rest. However, if you continue the damaging behavior while you are recovering, the injuries can compound, and you can end up with a condition like mine where it never really goes away.

Thankfully, my symptoms have never gotten bad enough to require surgery, but they've held me back from doing a number of different jobs that could have made me a lot more money than I'm currently making. About a month ago, my symptoms started getting significantly worse. It turns out that holding up in iPad for hours at a time can be just as bad as performing a death grip on a mouse.

So, I find myself back in the same position again.

In the past, I've tried all of the noninvasive treatments for carpal tunnel syndrome. I've done the course of anti-inflammatory drugs, used a wrist brace, even tried acupuncture. The wrist brace didn't really help, the anti-inflammatory drugs helped alleviate the immediate symptoms, but not the overall condition. Acupuncture and massage helped about as much as the drugs.

However, the one bright spot is that the technology that in some ways has contributed to the condition in the first place is now helping me to reduce the repetitive motions that aggravate the condition.

I'm talking about speech-to-text software.

Back in the early-mid 2000's, I used a program called Dragon NaturallySpeaking from time to time. It was expensive, error prone, and slow to use. Dragon is still around, and is probably much improved in its current version, but thankfully I don't need to buy it anymore. Windows 10 includes speech-to-text-software by default. It works almost exactly the same as Dragon, and it's essentially free.

It's also what I'm using right now to write this blog post (as well as the previous post).

Unlike voice assistant transcription capabilities that are available in Android and iOS, Windows Speech Recognition doesn't require an Internet connection, is relatively quick, and doesn't timeout after a certain period of seconds and/or words. It's definitely not perfect, but by having a local dictionary to pull from, you can add and/or retrain words to match whatever subject matter or writing style you happen to use.You also have less of a worry that your voice will be uploaded to some distant cloud storage server and kept there for eternity.

It definitely takes some getting used to, but I find that I can write blog posts like this and all sorts of other documents fairly easily. It doesn't help with entering FFMPEG commands or writing AVISynth scripts, but it allows me to work on projects that otherwise would have been detrimental to my health.

Speaking of health, I'm currently looking into other treatments that could significantly improve my condition. If that works, I'll either update this post or make a new one. However, for anyone who's currently suffering with carpal tunnel syndrome. I want to let people know that there are ways to get back some of the functionality that you had in the past via speech-to-text software.