I came her to comment on the quote from Ousterhout that, "It's not clear to me that you can ever "recover" from RSI; all you can do is stabilize at your current level of disability." I hope he got a chance to fully recover.

I too had debilitating RSI, leading to needing wrist braces and typing with a pencil lodged in my left hand and a few achy fingers on my right.

The book "It's Not Carpal Tunnel Syndrome!: RSI Theory and Therapy for Computer Professionals" [1] really opened my eyes on how to treat it.

I didn't start weight training, but did spend at least 20 minutes a day on trigger point therapy between my shoulder blades and elbow crease. That helped the most.

Then a vertical mouse, split keyboard, ergonomically placed chair, and correct table height helped prevent the recurrence.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Its-Carpal-Tunnel-Syndrome-Profession...

In this thread there will be many people with many different degrees of RSI who have solved it using a variety of different solutions. That is because the symptoms can be caused by a variety of different things. The defacto standard high level overview is https://www.amazon.com/Its-Carpal-Tunnel-Syndrome-Profession...

Slight tingling in the fingers could mean RSI too. Most people get RSI and not carpel tunnel.

http://www.amazon.com/Its-Carpal-Tunnel-Syndrome-Professiona...

Having suffered with RSI for years (before the advent of current-gen speech recognition, so it really sucked), I heartily echo this advice:

which, let me tell you, you should do at the first sign of pain

Do that. REALLY REALLY do that.

Also, this book is superb:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Its-Carpal-Tunnel-Syndrome-Professio...

I think the point being made here is very good and deserves being stressed again: It's usually a combo of workplace, stretching and psychological fixes that works the best.

Also, this book is very good and covers a wide variety of bases to help you understand your problem:

http://www.amazon.com/Its-Carpal-Tunnel-Syndrome-Professiona...

Chances are you are one of the lucky ones, though it doesn't mean that your luck will not end at some point (your body can compensate for a long time, but when it can't anymore, symptoms can appear rather quickly).

This book has been useful to me:

http://www.amazon.com/Carpal-Syndrome-Therapy-Computer-Profe...

And in it they mention that some people do all the wrong things and never seem to get RSI. Better not to count on luck, though. I now wish I had taken preventive measures much earlier. I have my first physical therapy appointment next week...

As a longtime RSI sufferer, I agree with the need for strengthening. However, working out is a long-term preventative measure, not for when you are inflamed and in pain!

If your muscles and tendons are struggling, the last thing they need is more to do. I would strongly recommend doing whatever you can to give your hands a break for a while, and then start strengthening. And for giving your hands a break, you should absolutely feel justified in getting whatever ergonomic gadgets you think will help.

If you are suffering from numbness, that means your nerves (ulnar nerve, etc) are irritated. There are indications that this is not just a hand problem, but is due to postural problems in the upper back and neck from sitting statically in front of the computer for long hours. Google "thorassic outlet syndrome".

I highly recommend you check out the following books:

"It's not Carpal Tunnel Syndrome", http://www.amazon.com/Carpal-Syndrome-Therapy-Computer-Profe...

"Trigger point therapy workbook", http://www.amazon.com/Trigger-Point-Therapy-Workbook-Self-Tr...

I give these books a lot of credit for my almost complete recovery.

4. Not all RSI is carpal tunnel.

It's funny, but the RSI book a friend recommended to me is titled "It's Not Carpal Tunnel Syndrome!":

http://www.amazon.com/Carpal-Syndrome-Therapy-Computer-Profe...

Contrary to the title, the book doesn't rule out the possibility of carpal tunnel, but it correctly points out that carpal tunnel only applies to a small set of RSI-related symptoms. I found the book helpful.