Photoshop Shopped Me!!!

I am a freelance graphic designer and about two months ago I was commissioned to put together two calendars for a client. This involved sizing, formatting and touching-up 68+ images for each one, down to 0.5 of a millimetre and moving them into very precise positions on the design templates. I worked for a solid two weeks on the two projects, making very precise movements with my cordless mouse.

As I also do a lot of Ashtanga yoga, when my right arm and wrist first started to ache, I put the pain down to over-enthusiastic vinyasa sequences and gave the yoga a break. When the pain intensified I realised that it was the mouse that was the problem.

I tried raising a lowering my chair, sitting further away from my desk, but to no avail. by the time I signed off the project (day 15) I had my wrist in an elastic support inside an air cast. I found it agony to turn right when driving and carrying anything using that hand was out of the question, even a cup of coffee. (Although my right hand is my mouse hand, I am otherwise am left-handed so my non-computer life went largely unhindered). It took three weeks of complete rest and anti-inflammatories, and using my mouse in my left hand (not easy, surprisingly, before the pain went away. I now use a wrist support for all finicky mouse work.