Ch3 06
Lark really needs to get some kind of contract that he hands out to his newly acquired Guardians – detailing all of the ins and outs of his job, their job and how they should stop getting in his way whenever he wants to accomplish anything remotely ‘fun’.
Speaking of accomplishing anything – Alli seems to be starting some kind of carpel tunnel (I think that’s how that’s spelled) in her wrist. We’re going to try and get her some ergonomics in order to reduce the symptoms. We’ve started with a wrist brace for now. If any of you have any suggestions on how to help mitigate carpel tunnel, please add it in the comments.
Suffice to say, we will have to drop to 1 update a week for the near future (Probably until April) in order to give Alli’s wrist a chance to get better. If she mends quicker than expected, we should be able to return to our regularly scheduled updates.
We thank you for your understanding.
Sometimes there isn’t much you can do since the hole in your wrist for your nerves is naturally too small.
Ya right now I’m using the brace when I use a computer and to sleep and then just resting the hand in between when I can.
I had something similar once when working a job happen. Take breaks and what helped for me was using Epsom salt and doing some exercises to help strengthen the wrist. I have no idea if they have offered therapy or not. The Epsom salt soak helped a lot.
Thanks, I’ll give the Epsom salts a try =)
I dunno if that will help, but personally, I suffer from carpal pains when I keep my hand slightly at an angle with my wrist for hours. The angle itself, compared to my neutrally aligned hand and wrist is really really small, but it suffices to tire that part of the arm. My solution: as much as possible, I keep my forearm and hand resting on the table, as straight and aligned as possible while keeping moving. having a piece of fabric, or smooth cardboard, under the edge of the hand helps the sliding.
After trying to describe what I’m feeling when I do the resting forearm, and examining my own arm in movement, I’d say that rather than use your forearm muscles to move your hand, you should try and use your upper arm muscles.
Thank you, every little tip or trick helps =)
Always try to keep your wrists as straight as possible when you work, this will reduce strain on the wrist over time. Use the brace for now to lower that pain you now feel, and even after it goes away, continue to wear the brace. This will help heal anything that has been done. Finally, try stretching your wrist at the end of the day, and do some small wrist exercises to warm up you wrists at the start of the day. These things will help reduce carpel tunnel problems, but not completely deter it.
Thank you Devin, this is all really good information, I’ll definitely keep the brace on and I’ll look up some stretches.
Yup, she is both in a state of denial and just belligerent enough about his belligerence to deflect. Way to be upfront and forthcoming there Has!
A wrist pad for your computer station would also help keep your wrist aligned and help prevent further aggravation.
Thanks Darwin, I have one on both my home computer and now my work one =)
Instant feelings of dislike, nonstop arguing…no doubt, these two are meant for each other.
Shhh, they don’t realize it yet 😉
Try acu pressure on the point where it hurts too. I know it works for tendinitis at least!
I’ll give that a try at the next big flare up, thanks =)
Yeah he needs a pamphlet – ‘So You’re My New Wing-man’
XD OMG yes! He totally needs that!
I had 3.5 month long inflamation in both of my hands. Its not fun, don’t go there.
Though carpal syndrom is a different thing (thats the one related to clicking too much, mouse clicking etc) Things that helped me were: cold draws the inflamation down, so watered cloth wrapping, medication from doc (but be carefull not to get to the being better, push hand more, get bad again cycle), massage from a professional masseuse on the hands, psychologist to deal with stress in my life and steroid onto the hand at the end :(.
Talking about straight wrists- do you find yourself drawing from the wrist, or the shoulder? Also, how tight do you hold your drawing implement?
Working loose will help- so drawing with the shoulder instead of the wrist, and holding the pencil or pen loose, as well.
Something else that might help (though it’ll look silly) is to use self-curing 2-part epoxy resin (like Green Stuff or ProCreate aka greystuff) to build up a larger grip area on your pen(cil), like those Pencil Grip ergonomic writing aids. You’re less likely to get Carpal Tunnel from holding something large and knobby instead of something thin and rod-like.
Thanks for the read! Sorry about the evil. Most of what I would have said, has been said. Accupressure is excellent if it is applied with some knowledge, so a quick internet overview of shiatsu pressure points will help prevent inadvertent misdirections of your energy. If you can, switch hands for the tasks that are routine to take the focus off the stressed bits. Left handing the mouse is a different perspective, but the windows still open and close.
I don’t know that I quite get carpal tunnel, but computer work (mouse & keyboard) will sometimes give me some degree of Repeated Stress Injury type pain.
The thing that works for me looks silly but costs zero dollars and to the best of my knowledge shouldn’t be harmful (I could be wrong, and take into account for your condition). I thought back to early elementary school and the teachers told us to shake out our hands when they got uncomfortable from holding the pencils. So when I get something RSI-like I shake my hands out 4-8 times per day (15-30 seconds most of the time, but sometimes just as I’m walking down the hall at work, as I said, it looks silly). So far, that’s worked for me and I don’t remember needing to do it for more than a week.
I do also sometimes do some degree of self massage on my forearms with the thumb, ball, or knuckles of the opposite hand, possibly that helps too, but I’m not sure how much.
First off: 5th panel
Good luck with the carpal.
Actually it’s first of all.
Ok – the best, MOST effective thing for Carpal Tunnel is rest. Its also the cure people like doing the very least. Especially if both jobs and hobbies rely on using your wrists. At minimum I’d suggest taking one day a week and COMPLETELY resting your wrists. (Sunday is an obvious choice) Might need to take two days a week off (Sun/Wed) if its not getting better fast enough.
Or… you can simply wait until it gets bad enough and then take a few months off to recover from the surgery.
Stuff like taking breaks every hour on the hour and doing stretches/ice is helpful too. Also take note of what tasks/motions make your wrists hurt the fastest – then alter them.
Live Alli’s wrist live!
Take some more time if you need to. The worst thing you could do is lose your bread winner.
One thing that struck me on reading through the suggestions…
One thing that I’ve seen in some WHS suggestions for computer use is taking a break after every 5-10 minutes of constant work. Not a very long one – just 10-20 seconds or so of straightening out your wrist and fingers and doing a few wrist exercises and then getting back into it. I suspect this is more ‘prevention’ rather than ‘cure’, but it might be worth considering.
Just as an artistic comment … panel 3, I don’t think the dotted lines + arrows are necessary, and actively detract from the work. The artwork of the eyes’ direction-of-viewing (or whatever the term would be) in that panel is excellent on its own, between the raised brows, the exaggerated whites, and the down/side-looking pupil and iris. Toss in the ‘uh’ in panel 2 which prepares the reader for a shift in thought, and the image works excellently sans ‘look lines’.
Just my $0.02 worth. 😛 🙂
“Why are there so many!?”
“Because, while I am a shining paragon of how manly a man can be, I’m still only one man. There’s only so much Lark to go around, and I’m highly in demand. And after solving the problems of each little village, they always want to throw a celebration in my honor. And what kind of hero would refuse his adoring fans?”
Wrist-rests when using a keyboard or a tablet, even if what you’re resting on it is a different part of your forearm. Whatever it takes to keep your wrist either straight or bent _slightly_ downward instead of upward. If you can get the keyboard or tablet at lap height, that’s even better. And use a wrist-rest with your mouse or track-pad as well.
late-game wrist tips: depends on what’s wrong. I would highly suggest physical therapy. They can work out what exercises will help. Seriously, a soup-can workout got a friend of mine from “nearly crippled” back up to “feisty” over a couple months.
The other thing, art-specific, changes of scale. If you’re working at a scale that’s tearing your wrist, scale up to painting with the whole arm. Granted, there’s some obvious issues with then getting the work onto the computer, but we’re living in a future where you could hook up a webcam and a projector and turn a wall into a tablet with the right software.