Due to my brain cloud, I am having a lot of trouble typing. I think the good news is that the doctor has pretty much ruled out all the really horrible causes of "the cloud" as I like to call it, but the bad news is that in addition to a bunch of other things I apparently have, which are causing some of my other weird symptoms, I have really bad carpal tunnel. Like, hand entirely numb, can't put on my earrings, can barely type, can't feel my fingers, can't put the cap on the Diet Coke, can't hold a glass, hand hanging limply by my side, carpal tunnel. No surprise I guess since I spend about 17 hours a day on my laptop. However, you will probably notice that I will be on AIM much less than I was before. And, I will probably try to blog *after* I finish my homework so I don't exhaust my typing resources when I still have "real" work to do.
It has been getting progressively worse and I notice that lately I am having trouble even taking notes in class because, since I can't really feel my left hand at all, my typing doesn't make a lot of sense if I'm not staring at the keyboard...something I've never had to do before. I've actually started taking handwritten notes in most of my classes to try to combat this getting any worse, and the doctor promises that he'll try to get me some of those dorky splints next time I come in, but until then I basically alternate between pain and total numbness.
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that I apparently don't have diabetes, or MS, or any of the other terrible things that numb hands can be a symptom of...especially because I had numb feet last year due to a compressed nerve...so the combination of numb hands and numb feet had the doctor worried/perplexed. For now I'm sticking with his carpal tunnel hypothesis...but I have this nightmare that in like five years I'm going to be walking around with a pen stuck in my numb claw, a la Bob Dole.
I don't know how to make a laptop any more ergonomically correct, but if you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
