rsi

in 2020, in may, i started noticing rsi symptoms. i was halfway through a difficult professional training called the OSCP, and felt i needed to push through. this was a mistake.

i continued to work hard, staying at my computer for 10-14 hours every day. i did see a doctor and looked into options for managing what i was experiencing for the duration of my (several month long) training. the doctor was confident this was a blip, that it was something I could manage, nothing to worry about. i followed his advice, doing stretches, wearing a brace, etc. eventually the pain got so bad i was forced to stop my training, and then take a step back from work.

there isn't a lot of agreed upon science for rsi. every medical professional has agreed with my official diagnosis of "golfer's elbow". i also have all the symptoms of "tennis elbow" (the same thing as golfer's elbow but on the other side of the elbow, basically). My doctor recommended a brace, my PT recommended never wearing a brace, saying it would make things worse.

this was pretty confusing. turns out, there is not a medical consensus on what, exactly, RSI is. there are some specifics where that's not true as far as I can tell, carpal tunnel syndrome for instance appears to be more understood than "golfer's elbow", but the water still seems to be pretty cloudy. this, i imagine, is what leads to there being no medical consensus about proper treatment. in turn, this seems to lead people to look at alternative medicine. some people swear by acupuncture, some by massage therapy, some by the alexander technique.

just to list out everything, here's a non comprehensive list of what i've done in pursuit of not having daily rsi pain:

• gone to the doctor, worn a brace, did the stretchings prescribed. my primary doctor was very sure we could do something about this with just: rest, ice, compression, elevation. he also referred me to a physical therapist when his original plan didn't halt my symptoms.
• gone to pt once-twice weekly (as dicated by my therapist), did the stretchings prescribed daily. i was engaged in the process and asked him questions every time i saw him, raised doubts about my progress, did everything i knew to do in a medical context. this process was very expensive, even with insurance. i don't think he did anything for me beyond give me hard requirements for stretching and being fit. several thousand dollars later i stopped going. i have not noticed a difference in how i feel.
• adopted a morning regimen including meditation, yoga, and weights. see below in the "what i'm doing now" section. this has helped some, though that could be mostly a mental thing; a fake idea of me having control. i'm not sure.
• keep warm; my home office is naturally warm because its full of ancient computers, but i am also sure to wear warm clothing to make sure cooler temperatures aren't hurting me.
• quit my professional development training, cut back on working, change how i work. a lot of what i do involves convincing other people to do something that they don't want to do. i used to do all my thinking while typing - i'd type up email responses or POC code for something and edit as I type. that is really hard on me now. i do some storyboarding on paper prior to typing anything.
• read alternative theories on rsi causes and treatments (notably dr sarno, so many people say that guy cured them, but man that just seems fake).

in my head i've broken down my current self-directed plan into two parts: equipment and process.

i am not totally sure. i'm continuing to add to and refine my daily routine. i am about to add in several more body weight exercises, especially upper arm and back focused ones. I've only just added in grip training, hoping to simulate rock climbing. i haven't had RSI when I was climbing, or doing trapeze, or pole dancing. anecdotally, a lot of people on hacker news / the rsi subreddit report that rock climbing helped them tremendously.

i think there's probably room to add talk therapy to my list of Tried Treatments. i'm not looking forward to it, it'll cost my a lot of money, time and emotional bandwidth. if it helps i'll write about it.