Something Random

jtr1962

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Jan 25, 2002
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Flushing, New York
Carpal tunnel syndrome? That's what I have anyway. It's worse in the right hand, and unfortunately it's bad enough in both hands that I'm occupationally limited to averaging ~10-15 hours per week of work.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
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USA
No. It is something else. There is no swelling, but it cannot stand much strain in the joints at certain angles. First it was one, now two and three fingers.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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Jan 17, 2002
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I am omnipresent
Today I was asked to install AOL 9.5 on an i7 notebook. I think I died a little bit just from hearing someone ask me to install AOL.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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Jan 17, 2002
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I am omnipresent
So do many things. :D What is the intended purpose?

AOL is a walled garden that can only be accessed to its members. There's some different stuff that's available to AOL people, and for a lot of things that we understand as web sites there's a particular AOL interface. Basically, AOL users who never use any other software do not understand anything about the rest of the internet; they don't understand web browsers or URLs or E-mail, because AOL has its own different way of dealing with that stuff, and that's exactly describes the person for whom I had to set up AOL.
 
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MaxBurn

Storage Is My Life
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Jan 20, 2004
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SC
Yeah, AOL is like a big application with slick UI and different modules you can load that do all sorts of different things and it handles all the back end web queries for you. I have forgotten most of it but I had a little training on it when I was working at bby back in my college days. Some of it was useful from a convenience perspective, just not IMO a $20 month upgrade on top of your ISP (high speed) price.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
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USA
AOL is a walled garden that can only be accessed to its members. There's some different stuff that's available to AOL people, and for a lot of things that we understand as web sites there's a particular AOL interface. Basically, AOL users who never use any other software do not understand anything about the rest of the internet; they don't understand web browsers or URLs or E-mail, because AOL has its own different way of dealing with that stuff, and that's exactly describes the person for whom I had to set up AOL.

Oh, I never knew that. America online is a such an apt name.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
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USA
Carpal tunnel syndrome? That's what I have anyway. It's worse in the right hand, and unfortunately it's bad enough in both hands that I'm occupationally limited to averaging ~10-15 hours per week of work.

Have you had surgery on the right hand yet?
 

MaxBurn

Storage Is My Life
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Jan 20, 2004
Messages
3,245
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SC
There is always used parts available at yards and salvage stations.
 

time

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Jan 18, 2002
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Brisbane, Oz
The compressor in the Air Con in the car died this week. AU$2000 bill to replace just the compressor!

What is it, a Honda?

Crappy time of year for it to turn up its toes (mid-summer here folks). One of my house A/Cs died a couple of days ago. The repairer said Feb 8 before they can get out to look at it. :(

It's under warranty, so I tried Panasonic directly. They took my details and promised to call back in a few hours. When they did, I was told 3 to 4 days wait ... before they get back to me to arrange a booking! When I asked how long before an actual service callout, they couldn't say. :boom:
 

jtr1962

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Jan 25, 2002
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Flushing, New York
Have you had surgery on the right hand yet?
No medical insurance here. I don't even have money to have the condition medically verified by a doctor, never mind having surgery. In fact, I haven't been to a doctor since 1980. Putting aside that my faith in the medical establishment is close to zero based on my parent's experience, I just can't afford it at today's rates. Paying for the dentist is hard enough, and he's cheap compared to an MD. My sister recently DID have surgery on one hand, and they billed the insurance company $11K. Needless to say, that's well beyond what I'll ever be able to afford. Also, I've heard that surgery isn't the answer. The condition eventually returns a lot of times. In some cases the damage has progressed too far for surgery to do anything. In my case, I've pretty much lost any sensation, so I suspect the nerves are going or gone. Surgery really won't help. The only real answer is to do what I'm doing, which is to avoid foods and activity known to make it worse. I recently made an effort to cut down on high-fructose corn syrup. No idea if this has aggravated the condition, but I read that it has a bunch of detrimental effects and no nutritive value, so eliminating it can only help. Unfortunately, about a week ago I fell walking. Landed on both knees AND used the right hand to break the fall. It's still not 100% healed. Ugh. I'm typing this with the fingers on my left hand. The left hand at least is still semi-functional, at least enough to do fine electronics work on a limited basis. If it gets as bad as the right, I'm up shit's creek.

As for why I ended up this way, chalk it partially up to genetics ( my mom and sister both have it also, mom had to quit work in her early 40s on account of it ), and having to take a bunch of very physical jobs after college on account of nothing else being available. In one job I was taking inventory, punching keys all day and sticking my hands in freezers to count frozen food. In another I was building or repairing taxi meters all day long. All the writing and typing I did in school probably didn't help, either. I suspect with all the testing kids are doing these days in ten or twenty years we'll have massive instances of CTS. Yeah, I sometimes type long posts, but it takes forever. Sometimes if I'm repeating info I cut and paste portions of previous posts. That helps a lot.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
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USA
The advantages of living in a place that freezes twice a year, gets to 30C five times a year, and averages a perfect 20C are priceless.

And boring. ;) I've lived long periods in hot climates, cold climates, 4-season climates, and moderate climates. In all cases I use the auto's heat/AC system.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
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USA
As for why I ended up this way, chalk it partially up to genetics ( my mom and sister both have it also, mom had to quit work in her early 40s on account of it ), and having to take a bunch of very physical jobs after college on account of nothing else being available. In one job I was taking inventory, punching keys all day and sticking my hands in freezers to count frozen food. In another I was building or repairing taxi meters all day long. All the writing and typing I did in school probably didn't help, either. I suspect with all the testing kids are doing these days in ten or twenty years we'll have massive instances of CTS. Yeah, I sometimes type long posts, but it takes forever. Sometimes if I'm repeating info I cut and paste portions of previous posts. That helps a lot.

That is awful. I thought you had an advanced engineering degree or was that someone else? Do you have management experience that can get you into a less physical activity? Have you tried various HIDs and considered speech to text software?

I know it was tough for me last year after the accident when I worked for a few months with basically one arm. Eventually I recovered primary functionality. I became a manager in 1987 and over time there was less physical activity. Now I work in an office and the more times goes by, the more meetings I attend and have less time at the keyboard. :roll: I don't spend much time writing reports, though there are a gazillion docs to review/approve. I have some temporary hand problems when using the mouse constantly such as working on the database or in Excel.
 

ddrueding

Fixture
Joined
Feb 4, 2002
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19,728
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Horsens, Denmark
And boring. ;) I've lived long periods in hot climates, cold climates, 4-season climates, and moderate climates. In all cases I use the auto's heat/AC system.

We drove up to visit the snow in Tahoe a couple weeks ago. That was enough snow for the decade. If we want heat, we go to Hawaii. For day to day living, it is nice to not have to check the forecast before getting dressed. Though we did get a couple inches of hail out of nowhere two nights ago...made the news, and was fun to drive on ;)
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
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USA
Of course that makes sense. I am uncomfortable with walking very far. A few weeks ago I parked three times in the same general shopping area. :blue:
 

jtr1962

Storage? I am Storage!
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That is awful. I thought you had an advanced engineering degree or was that someone else? Do you have management experience that can get you into a less physical activity?
Yes, I have a BSE from Princeton University, Class of 1985

Unfortunately, out of college I was unable to get that all important "first job" in my field which gets your foot in the door, and eventually leads to the types of promotions you're referring to. I sent out a ton of resumes, didn't even get an interview. :( I have no idea exactly why, either. Granted, I had no work experience besides summer work, but who does out of college? So I took whatever was available after trying for 2 years to get something in my field. By my late 20s it reached the point I couldn't work full-time any more in the types of jobs open to me, so I just decided to go into business for myself. That's what I do now. A little engineering design work ( which I bill at ~$60 an hour ), and a bit more actually making products I design ( I probably average $25-$30 per hour doing this type of assembly work ). Overall, not bad money per hour, I'm just severely limited in the hours I can put in, especially assembling boards. I'd actually like to get more CAD work and less assembly work, but I take whatever my clients give me which is mostly assembly work ( assembling boards I designed, usually several hundred at a time ).

But anyway, bottom line is there are zero prospects doing any type of paid work for someone else at this point where I wouldn't need to use my hands much. First off, I likely don't qualify for these types of jobs. Second, they largely don't exist where I live. Relocation is out of the question for emotional, financial, and logistical reasons ( I wouldn't be able or willing to live in a place where I need to drive, and that is probably 99% of the USA ). Third, last few years I've had some sort of chronic fatigue which has severely limited me, period. I just would lack the energy to put in 40 hours even if a suitable job were available. Truth is even in my 20s, I remember a regular work week pretty much taking all my energy. It might have to do with genetics again. My normal body temperature is in the 96.8°F area. That probably accounts for the difference in energy level between me and a normal person. On the plus side, it means those in my family age more slowly and live longer, so I suppose it's a good tradeoff. Some of the fatigue could also just be due to depression. That's happened on and off since college, mostly due to bad situations in my life beyond my control ( it's not chemical depression as I don't get depressed the rare times things are going well ). Lately, I've suspected diet might be involved. Read up on high-fructose corn syrup. It causes a lot of the problems I've experienced, and it's been more heavily used last 10-15 years, coinciding exactly with the time frame for the issues I've had. I've actually had a few good days last week with decent energy level, so maybe that's it. Time will tell.

Have you tried various HIDs and considered speech to text software?
Well, I don't need to do a whole lot of typing related to my business so speech-to-text isn't of much use here. I'm fine using my CAD programs ( at least up to about 15 hours a week then using the mouse hurts ), provided I don't do anything to aggravate my condition like heavy work around the house. Unfortunately, something always needs to be done.

I know it was tough for me last year after the accident when I worked for a few months with basically one arm. Eventually I recovered primary functionality. I became a manager in 1987 and over time there was less physical activity. Now I work in an office and the more times goes by, the more meetings I attend and have less time at the keyboard. :roll: I don't spend much time writing reports, though there are a gazillion docs to review/approve. I have some temporary hand problems when using the mouse constantly such as working on the database or in Excel.
It sounds like you know what I've been through then. Does you work place provide decent health coverage? If mine did, I might never have gotten to this point. The types of jobs I had usually didn't even provide sick days or vacations, never mind health insurance. Now sadly more and more jobs are becoming like that. I think a lot of today's college graduates will have it worse than I did.
 
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