I decided not to wear my wrist supports anymore. It seemed like they were making my hands hurt more. My hands aren't pain-free, but they're kind of "medium" at this point. I'm pretty comfortable using the ReportIt, but I still have a lot of pain in my arms when I write. I think the ReportIt is the way to go, though. It just makes sense that having your arms supported would be better.
I'm still waiting for the Gen O IE. Upgrading cost about half as much as the machine I just bought in May, so I hope it's better somehow. Originally, they hoped to ship them in November, but they haven't even hardened the mold on the pods yet, so who knows when they'll be out.
There was a discussion on depoman about whether you can start a sentence with a conjuction, like "and" or "but" in order to break up ridiculously long sentences. Someone said that we're taught all of these grammar rules that apply to good writing, but we're not writing - we're taking down what someone has said, and you can't always force that to conform to what would be proper writing style. I would occasionally let a sentence start with "and" or "but," but more often than not I would even go so far as to delete a period I had already stroked and add a comma and the conjunction, leading to some truly long sentences.
So, with ease of readability for the consumer in mind, I took that advice into consideration. Now when the speaker seems to have ended their sentence and the next word is a conjuction, I let the period stand. I think it does help with readability, and it even allows me to break things into paragraphs more often. It's good to have discussions about things. It seems like I work in a vacuum a lot of the time, but I can't improve my style if I don't know what other people are doing.
Showing posts with label pain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pain. Show all posts
Thumb Problems
I feel like I don't have much to report (that would be a pun if I were a court reporter), but I'll probably surprise myself. I'm still soldiering on with the Report-It; it might have caused more problems than it's solved, but for some reason I seem to like using it still. I don't think it hurts any less to write with it, though.
I've developed a weird problem where my right thumb hurts a lot when I stroke the U, like it's having to bend back too far. I had a similar problem with the left thumb, but somehow that fixed itself. Previously if I felt like that with the right thumb I'd just try to straighten the pod out so it was parallel to my body, but that's not working at all anymore. About the time it started, Jason (the owner of The Neutrino Group, which makes the Infinity) suggested I lower the depth of my keys since I mentioned I was having pain in general.
It was an interesting experiment, and after a couple of days, I didn't really mind the depth, but I thought it might be contributing to the thumb problem, so I ratcheted the keys up to an even shorter stroke than I had before. I feel like I have to press down on them too hard to get them to register, which is why I had it set a little deeper than I wanted initially. I had to adjust a ton of key sensitivities, but I'm leaving it where it is for now.
I hope to get the newest version of the IE in November (I got in on the pre-order, so it's just a matter of when it's made and shipped), and I got it with one step lighter springs than the one I have now (it will be 6 grams instead of 8), so hopefully that will decrease the resistance, and maybe I can do an even shorter stroke.
I've developed a weird problem where my right thumb hurts a lot when I stroke the U, like it's having to bend back too far. I had a similar problem with the left thumb, but somehow that fixed itself. Previously if I felt like that with the right thumb I'd just try to straighten the pod out so it was parallel to my body, but that's not working at all anymore. About the time it started, Jason (the owner of The Neutrino Group, which makes the Infinity) suggested I lower the depth of my keys since I mentioned I was having pain in general.
It was an interesting experiment, and after a couple of days, I didn't really mind the depth, but I thought it might be contributing to the thumb problem, so I ratcheted the keys up to an even shorter stroke than I had before. I feel like I have to press down on them too hard to get them to register, which is why I had it set a little deeper than I wanted initially. I had to adjust a ton of key sensitivities, but I'm leaving it where it is for now.
I hope to get the newest version of the IE in November (I got in on the pre-order, so it's just a matter of when it's made and shipped), and I got it with one step lighter springs than the one I have now (it will be 6 grams instead of 8), so hopefully that will decrease the resistance, and maybe I can do an even shorter stroke.
Ergonomic Specialist: Part 3
The specialist also
suggested that maybe I find a couple of positions for the machine that
don't hurt to much, instead of just one, and switch between them, maybe
one in the morning and the other at night, so my body doesn't have a
chance to start hurting in the same position. It's an interesting idea,
but I haven't really tried it yet. She said I could even switch between
the IE and the LS. The LS was so painful to write on, though, I don't
even want to try it again.
Supposedly Stenovations is coming out with a QWERTY keyboard that's touch like the LS. That will be really cool. I am interested in one of those to make regular typing less painful. They're coming out with a new more ergonomic/more sensitive LS, too. I'd love to get one, but I think the IE's going to be a better bet for me until they can put the LS on split pods like the IE is.
I certainly didn't get the answers I was hoping for out of the ergonomic specialist visit (and "maybe you just can't be a captioner" is the one I liked the least), but I did get inspired to try a few things. It's always good to get someone else's perspective.
I was really hoping I could tell her, "my hand feels kinked, I have to do this a lot" or, "look, I have to bend my hand weird here" and she would tell me what to do to fix it. Or I was hoping she would say, "try your machine lower, try tilting it this way," etc. But she recognized that I had pretty much already tried everything, and basically she just went with "if you tried it already and it isn't comfortable, don't do it."
She did say she wished she had some better answers for me. She said it looked like my posture was good already, with everything lined up just right. It's frustrating to hear that you're doing everything right and it still hurts, because then there's no solution.
Supposedly Stenovations is coming out with a QWERTY keyboard that's touch like the LS. That will be really cool. I am interested in one of those to make regular typing less painful. They're coming out with a new more ergonomic/more sensitive LS, too. I'd love to get one, but I think the IE's going to be a better bet for me until they can put the LS on split pods like the IE is.
I certainly didn't get the answers I was hoping for out of the ergonomic specialist visit (and "maybe you just can't be a captioner" is the one I liked the least), but I did get inspired to try a few things. It's always good to get someone else's perspective.
I was really hoping I could tell her, "my hand feels kinked, I have to do this a lot" or, "look, I have to bend my hand weird here" and she would tell me what to do to fix it. Or I was hoping she would say, "try your machine lower, try tilting it this way," etc. But she recognized that I had pretty much already tried everything, and basically she just went with "if you tried it already and it isn't comfortable, don't do it."
She did say she wished she had some better answers for me. She said it looked like my posture was good already, with everything lined up just right. It's frustrating to hear that you're doing everything right and it still hurts, because then there's no solution.
Ergonomic Specialist: Part 2
The specialist also suggested I could use voice recognition software to do my job and/or general computing. I'm definitely not open to switching to be a voice writer. I like writing on the machine. My throat always gets sore when I try to talk for extended periods of time, too. I think voice writers can only write for short periods of time because of that. I don't want to learn a whole new thing. Maybe someday if I get really desperate, but I'm not even thinking about it right now.
I don't know how much functionality it has for general computing. I don't like the idea of having to talk to it, like for right now even typing this. Talking and typing are totally different things. And in terms of voice recognition instead of mousing, I doubt that works very well.
It actually wasn't something the specialist said that made me want to try the Report-It again. I was hoping that she wouldn't just give me one of those sheets with the diagrams for proper ergonomic desk setup, but she did. Interestingly, though, it had a suggestion for resting your arms on the arms of the chair, and it said the arms shouldn't touch your elbows or your wrists. The person in the drawing looked really comfortable, and that's what inspired me to try the Report-It again. I'm not sure if it's helping or not.
Now that I've been doing it for about 6 weeks, it seems like it would be impossible to write without it, although I don't really think it's helped in any way. It feels super restrictive when I use it. If I write for even a short period of time without it, I feel so free, but at the same time, like it would very quickly become too painful to write that way. Maybe that's just because of where I have the machine positioned, though.
I think the IE in general has given me pain in my right arm, not so much the Report-It. I definitely feel a deeper, sharper pain in my left arm with the Report-It. It's really bad, but luckily I don't write for extended periods of time; usually an hour and a half at the most. It's hard to hold on for that long, though. It's all a work in progress, and I feel like if I just keep trying I'll eventually find something that doesn't hurt so much.
I don't know how much functionality it has for general computing. I don't like the idea of having to talk to it, like for right now even typing this. Talking and typing are totally different things. And in terms of voice recognition instead of mousing, I doubt that works very well.
It actually wasn't something the specialist said that made me want to try the Report-It again. I was hoping that she wouldn't just give me one of those sheets with the diagrams for proper ergonomic desk setup, but she did. Interestingly, though, it had a suggestion for resting your arms on the arms of the chair, and it said the arms shouldn't touch your elbows or your wrists. The person in the drawing looked really comfortable, and that's what inspired me to try the Report-It again. I'm not sure if it's helping or not.
Now that I've been doing it for about 6 weeks, it seems like it would be impossible to write without it, although I don't really think it's helped in any way. It feels super restrictive when I use it. If I write for even a short period of time without it, I feel so free, but at the same time, like it would very quickly become too painful to write that way. Maybe that's just because of where I have the machine positioned, though.
I think the IE in general has given me pain in my right arm, not so much the Report-It. I definitely feel a deeper, sharper pain in my left arm with the Report-It. It's really bad, but luckily I don't write for extended periods of time; usually an hour and a half at the most. It's hard to hold on for that long, though. It's all a work in progress, and I feel like if I just keep trying I'll eventually find something that doesn't hurt so much.
Soma Problems
The specialist was really sympathetic towards me wanting to work with the chair I have, and she tried to lean more towards that than even adding cushions or things to it. She said I looked tilted back a little instead of straight or forward, and I told her that I did think the chair broke and was doing that, so she suggested I look into having it fixed, which I did. I called the company and their technician was very helpful, and made some suggestions, and I think I fixed it, although it's hard to tell. Unfortunately, the forward tilt made my back hurt a lot, so I wound up just going back to the backward tilt.
She also made me really think about getting a new seat and backrest for the chair. She found a Soma supplier called Keeney's, about 45 minutes away from here. They had a Soma chair, so I went and checked it out. I was also able to sit in a *lot* of other chairs. I figured out that the seat on this Soma chair is ridiculously hard compared to some of the other ones. The Soma chair at Keeney's had an adjustable lumbar, and I think that would be better than the fixed one that I have.
I stopped in at Relax the Back since it was in the same area. They had fewer chairs than the last time I was there, and nothing that really seemed better than what I think I'll be able to do with the Soma. I didn't like the chairs with taller backs much, so I think the height of my backrest is probably where I want it.
I've been working for the past month to try to get Soma to send me out a new backrest and seat. They said they would look into it, but they're moving super slowly on it. The only person you can communicate with is the CEO. He's understandably busy, but it's kind of annoying how unresponsive he is. He's going to be in the area about a month from now, and he said he'll try to work something out then.
My backrest has some kind of a defect where the adhesive is leeching through, so if nothing else I think they should replace that, since it's under warranty, and I might as well get a backrest I'll like better since I'm getting a new one, anyway. I might be able to look into getting some kind of a more comfortable pad to put on the seat if he won't replace it, but it's already taller than I want when it's lowered all the way, so an additional cushion would only make that worse.
I currently have a foam block wedged in the chair between the seat and the backrest; they don't meet, and there's a gap there. I've heard some people are more comfortable in chairs without a gap, and the physical therapist suggested putting a cylinder of foam along my spine to see if that helped with back pain, so it would make sense that the gap wouldn't work for me. My back pain might be getting slightly worse, but in general I think it's staying about the same.
She also made me really think about getting a new seat and backrest for the chair. She found a Soma supplier called Keeney's, about 45 minutes away from here. They had a Soma chair, so I went and checked it out. I was also able to sit in a *lot* of other chairs. I figured out that the seat on this Soma chair is ridiculously hard compared to some of the other ones. The Soma chair at Keeney's had an adjustable lumbar, and I think that would be better than the fixed one that I have.
I stopped in at Relax the Back since it was in the same area. They had fewer chairs than the last time I was there, and nothing that really seemed better than what I think I'll be able to do with the Soma. I didn't like the chairs with taller backs much, so I think the height of my backrest is probably where I want it.
I've been working for the past month to try to get Soma to send me out a new backrest and seat. They said they would look into it, but they're moving super slowly on it. The only person you can communicate with is the CEO. He's understandably busy, but it's kind of annoying how unresponsive he is. He's going to be in the area about a month from now, and he said he'll try to work something out then.
My backrest has some kind of a defect where the adhesive is leeching through, so if nothing else I think they should replace that, since it's under warranty, and I might as well get a backrest I'll like better since I'm getting a new one, anyway. I might be able to look into getting some kind of a more comfortable pad to put on the seat if he won't replace it, but it's already taller than I want when it's lowered all the way, so an additional cushion would only make that worse.
I currently have a foam block wedged in the chair between the seat and the backrest; they don't meet, and there's a gap there. I've heard some people are more comfortable in chairs without a gap, and the physical therapist suggested putting a cylinder of foam along my spine to see if that helped with back pain, so it would make sense that the gap wouldn't work for me. My back pain might be getting slightly worse, but in general I think it's staying about the same.
Ergonomic Specialist: Part 1
So I skipped a month, which is actually not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I have the typical reason - super slammed with work. I haven't made much progress on the pain front. The touchpad didn't help with my right hand pain/numbness at all, but I had an ergonomic specialist come check out my steup, and she suggested "mousing" (weird word, but it makes sense once you get used to it) with my left hand. I actually had both a wired and wireless mouse (and the touchpad) hooked up to my computer when she was here, and she said, "does that mouse work?", referring to the wired one.
So I put the wired one on the left, and kept using the wireless on the right. At first I thought I would need to switch the function of the buttons (right and left click), and I was really disappointed when I couldn't figure out how to set the functions for each mouse individually - if I changed one, it changed both - but now I'm pretty used to just using the buttons the way they are with my left hand. I use the left mouse at least half the time, and it really has helped with my right hand. Mostly it's nice not to have to push through the pain when I use the right mouse; if it's painful, I just switch.
Unfortunately, I have an exciting new problem with my right hand. I saw that a few people write with their machine pods vertical instead of horizontal. I had tried it out when I first got the IE and it didn't seem good at all, but since the ergo specialist was here I've been using the Report-It, so I thought maybe it would be different now. I gave it a good try for about an hour and a half. It was surprisingly not that hard to write that way, but it just wasn't going to be comfortable.
After that I had to put everything back in "normal" position (since the specialist was here I've been trying it with the pods separated all the way), and ever since then there's been something wrong with the right pod, at least for my hand. I can't reach the U without pain, and my right wrist hurts. I've had that problem with the A and the U before, where it kinks up my thumb for some reason, and then eventually after moving it around a bunch for other reasons, I get it in a spot that doesn't hurt my thumb.
My left hand is that way now - I have minimal pain with the A. But the right hand is awful. Previously I've been able to fix it by just trying to line the pod up "straight", like parallel to me, but it's not working this time. I've tried raising/lowering, titling up/down and left/right, physically moving the machine left/right, and nothing seems to fix it. I'm really at a loss. I guess I could try to "reset" everything and start from scratch, but since the left side isn't any worse than usual I'm hesitant to mess with it.
I also got a suggestion from the owner of the IE company, Jason Pardikes. He said maybe I should make my stroke deeper, to about 4-5mm. It was already at 3mm, which I felt like was pretty deep, but I gave it a shot. It's pretty crazy; like writing in quicksand. I'm sort of getting used to it, but I think I changed it while I was already having problems with the right hand, and I'm not sure if it's making it worse or not. I haven't resorted to putting it back to 3mm to see if that fixes it yet, but I probably should.
I ordered one of the new "Gen O" IEs, so we'll see how that goes, hopefully in November, although that's just an early estimate. Supposedly you don't have to use the software to calibrate it after you make physical changes on the machine anymore, so that will remove one barrier to experimenting with different depths.
So I put the wired one on the left, and kept using the wireless on the right. At first I thought I would need to switch the function of the buttons (right and left click), and I was really disappointed when I couldn't figure out how to set the functions for each mouse individually - if I changed one, it changed both - but now I'm pretty used to just using the buttons the way they are with my left hand. I use the left mouse at least half the time, and it really has helped with my right hand. Mostly it's nice not to have to push through the pain when I use the right mouse; if it's painful, I just switch.
Unfortunately, I have an exciting new problem with my right hand. I saw that a few people write with their machine pods vertical instead of horizontal. I had tried it out when I first got the IE and it didn't seem good at all, but since the ergo specialist was here I've been using the Report-It, so I thought maybe it would be different now. I gave it a good try for about an hour and a half. It was surprisingly not that hard to write that way, but it just wasn't going to be comfortable.
After that I had to put everything back in "normal" position (since the specialist was here I've been trying it with the pods separated all the way), and ever since then there's been something wrong with the right pod, at least for my hand. I can't reach the U without pain, and my right wrist hurts. I've had that problem with the A and the U before, where it kinks up my thumb for some reason, and then eventually after moving it around a bunch for other reasons, I get it in a spot that doesn't hurt my thumb.
My left hand is that way now - I have minimal pain with the A. But the right hand is awful. Previously I've been able to fix it by just trying to line the pod up "straight", like parallel to me, but it's not working this time. I've tried raising/lowering, titling up/down and left/right, physically moving the machine left/right, and nothing seems to fix it. I'm really at a loss. I guess I could try to "reset" everything and start from scratch, but since the left side isn't any worse than usual I'm hesitant to mess with it.
I also got a suggestion from the owner of the IE company, Jason Pardikes. He said maybe I should make my stroke deeper, to about 4-5mm. It was already at 3mm, which I felt like was pretty deep, but I gave it a shot. It's pretty crazy; like writing in quicksand. I'm sort of getting used to it, but I think I changed it while I was already having problems with the right hand, and I'm not sure if it's making it worse or not. I haven't resorted to putting it back to 3mm to see if that fixes it yet, but I probably should.
I ordered one of the new "Gen O" IEs, so we'll see how that goes, hopefully in November, although that's just an early estimate. Supposedly you don't have to use the software to calibrate it after you make physical changes on the machine anymore, so that will remove one barrier to experimenting with different depths.
Infinity Ergo Adjustment
I've had my Infinity Ergo for about a month now. It wasn't quite as magical as I was expecting. I had a *lot* of pain in both of my arms before I got it to a good height/position in general. Trying to move the pods apart right away seemed like a good idea, but it wasn't. I wound up needing to have them closer together, and move them gradually. I found out that you can't make a bunch of big changes all at once. You have to start more where you're used to, and change things slowly over time.
I have the pods about 4" apart now. I picked up a couple of wrist braces to see if they would help. I can't write with the left one at all; it makes the pain in my left arm much worse. I don't know if wearing the right one helps or not, but I can write with it, so that's what I've been doing. It makes it feel like it's hard to "reach" keys with my pinky, though, so I have the right pod of the IE titled so the right side is up higher than the left.
I didn't have to do as much adjusting of the "sensors" as I thought I would. I had some intial problems with the software and calibrating things, and as a result of that, I think I wound up setting it to be more sensitive than I should have. I dialed back a few of the keys, but I'm probably still getting dragged keys that I could avoid if I just turned all the keys up higher. Some of them do need to be low though, I think, so I'm leaving it as-is for now.
It was pretty easy to adjust to pressing keys again, but it still feels like it's taking a lot of effort. I can make the stroke shallower than it is now, but I have it set for the least amount of tension, and I felt like when I made it more shallow, it required more tension. So there is a small bit of depth to the stroke.
I wasn't really able to hit -DZ at all on the LS for some reason, and it's much easier on the IE. Some other keys are easier, too, like -PBLG. I'm getting a lot of weird problems with it still, though. And I don't ever feel like I can just write freely; I still have to very closely monitor what I'm doing at all times.
I did mange to do a lot of really weird things with the pod that made my hands hurt a lot. I think they're back to normal now, but it's still uncomfortable to write in general. I think I had better endurance on the LS. It's tough to tell, because I'm doing more captioning now, where I write for 10 minutes, stop, write for 2, stop, as opposed to being stuck in a class for two hours straight.
The asterisk seems really far away and hard to hit. I emailed the owner and asked him if there's anything I or he could do to bring it a little closer, because the T/D and S/Z are super close together, but he never answered me. I had that problem before I bought the IE, too. I sent two or three emails that never got answered before I wound up just calling to order it. I'll try again after the weekend.
It seems like I have to have a really wide stance with the IE, or else my legs get in the way of the machine and I can't bring it close enough. The software isn't quite as useful as the LS'. With the LS, you can import a file you've written into the software, and it will show you exactly how hard you pressed the key, if at all, which is really helpful with adjusting the sensors. With the IE, all you can do is press the key and see the gauge in realtime, but you can't look at something you've already written that didn't come out right and see exactly what went wrong.
My back pain still seems to be getting worse, although it doesn't bother me much when I sleep. I've been experimenting with different pieces of foam and towels strapped to the back of my chair, but they don't seem to be helping.
My right hand really doesn't like using the mouse. I don't think it's steno-related, but it goes numb and stays painful for hours afterward. I'm going to try a touchpad this weekend.
I have the pods about 4" apart now. I picked up a couple of wrist braces to see if they would help. I can't write with the left one at all; it makes the pain in my left arm much worse. I don't know if wearing the right one helps or not, but I can write with it, so that's what I've been doing. It makes it feel like it's hard to "reach" keys with my pinky, though, so I have the right pod of the IE titled so the right side is up higher than the left.
I didn't have to do as much adjusting of the "sensors" as I thought I would. I had some intial problems with the software and calibrating things, and as a result of that, I think I wound up setting it to be more sensitive than I should have. I dialed back a few of the keys, but I'm probably still getting dragged keys that I could avoid if I just turned all the keys up higher. Some of them do need to be low though, I think, so I'm leaving it as-is for now.
It was pretty easy to adjust to pressing keys again, but it still feels like it's taking a lot of effort. I can make the stroke shallower than it is now, but I have it set for the least amount of tension, and I felt like when I made it more shallow, it required more tension. So there is a small bit of depth to the stroke.
I wasn't really able to hit -DZ at all on the LS for some reason, and it's much easier on the IE. Some other keys are easier, too, like -PBLG. I'm getting a lot of weird problems with it still, though. And I don't ever feel like I can just write freely; I still have to very closely monitor what I'm doing at all times.
I did mange to do a lot of really weird things with the pod that made my hands hurt a lot. I think they're back to normal now, but it's still uncomfortable to write in general. I think I had better endurance on the LS. It's tough to tell, because I'm doing more captioning now, where I write for 10 minutes, stop, write for 2, stop, as opposed to being stuck in a class for two hours straight.
The asterisk seems really far away and hard to hit. I emailed the owner and asked him if there's anything I or he could do to bring it a little closer, because the T/D and S/Z are super close together, but he never answered me. I had that problem before I bought the IE, too. I sent two or three emails that never got answered before I wound up just calling to order it. I'll try again after the weekend.
It seems like I have to have a really wide stance with the IE, or else my legs get in the way of the machine and I can't bring it close enough. The software isn't quite as useful as the LS'. With the LS, you can import a file you've written into the software, and it will show you exactly how hard you pressed the key, if at all, which is really helpful with adjusting the sensors. With the IE, all you can do is press the key and see the gauge in realtime, but you can't look at something you've already written that didn't come out right and see exactly what went wrong.
My back pain still seems to be getting worse, although it doesn't bother me much when I sleep. I've been experimenting with different pieces of foam and towels strapped to the back of my chair, but they don't seem to be helping.
My right hand really doesn't like using the mouse. I don't think it's steno-related, but it goes numb and stays painful for hours afterward. I'm going to try a touchpad this weekend.
Infinity Ergo Time
I'm trying to commit to updating the blog at least once a month. It's only been a month and four days since my last update, so I'd say that's pretty good.
I decided it was time to buy the Infinity Ergo. I think it'll help with the pain in my hands if nothing else. I started by finding someone in my area who was willing to let me try hers out. I got to go to her house and write on it for as long as I wanted to, which was about 45 minutes. It was really nice being able to position the pods any way I wanted to. You can tilt them right to left, forward and back, and move them farther away from each other. I was surprised that it actually wasn't comfortable to move them apart, but I think being able to tilt them will help a lot.
So I ordered one, and the owner of the company, Jason, said that it would take about three weeks to get here. That was almost a month ago to the day. I emailed him on Monday to see what was up, and he said it was going to ship this week. He thought it would be shipping today. I didn't hear anything about that happening, so I'm guessing it didn't. I'll have to check back again next Monday.
The numbness in my right hand is really painful and annoying. I think it's probably more related to the mouse than anything else. It hurts to type on a keyboard, though, so I'm writing this on my steno machine. I've come a long way in my writing since the last time I tried to do this. It used to be frustrating to try to write anything, but it's pretty fluid now.
I decided to hold off on the nerve numbing thing for now. Nobody from that office ever called me to let me know it was approved by insurance, anyway. I want to see if the pain will go away once I get the IE.
I'm still experiencing pretty terrible back pain. I took the mattress topper off my bed. The pain started right when I put it on. It's really soft and nice, but I couldn't ignore the correlation. I've had it off for over three weeks now, and my back pain hasn't really improved. I tried tilting the seat pan of my chair forward a little, and then I also unlocked it so I could rock back in it, and then when I went to go back to normal from a tilted-back position, it got stuck.
So now the seat pan is stuck tilted back even farther than I had it originally. It's been kind of a mess. I think the pain has leveled off again, though; it doesn't seem to be getting any worse at this point. Maybe it'll turn around and start getting better.
It's pretty uncomfortable trying to sleep. I can't stand for any period of time without it hurting. But at least it's not too bad when I'm sitting, for now.
I decided it was time to buy the Infinity Ergo. I think it'll help with the pain in my hands if nothing else. I started by finding someone in my area who was willing to let me try hers out. I got to go to her house and write on it for as long as I wanted to, which was about 45 minutes. It was really nice being able to position the pods any way I wanted to. You can tilt them right to left, forward and back, and move them farther away from each other. I was surprised that it actually wasn't comfortable to move them apart, but I think being able to tilt them will help a lot.
So I ordered one, and the owner of the company, Jason, said that it would take about three weeks to get here. That was almost a month ago to the day. I emailed him on Monday to see what was up, and he said it was going to ship this week. He thought it would be shipping today. I didn't hear anything about that happening, so I'm guessing it didn't. I'll have to check back again next Monday.
The numbness in my right hand is really painful and annoying. I think it's probably more related to the mouse than anything else. It hurts to type on a keyboard, though, so I'm writing this on my steno machine. I've come a long way in my writing since the last time I tried to do this. It used to be frustrating to try to write anything, but it's pretty fluid now.
I decided to hold off on the nerve numbing thing for now. Nobody from that office ever called me to let me know it was approved by insurance, anyway. I want to see if the pain will go away once I get the IE.
I'm still experiencing pretty terrible back pain. I took the mattress topper off my bed. The pain started right when I put it on. It's really soft and nice, but I couldn't ignore the correlation. I've had it off for over three weeks now, and my back pain hasn't really improved. I tried tilting the seat pan of my chair forward a little, and then I also unlocked it so I could rock back in it, and then when I went to go back to normal from a tilted-back position, it got stuck.
So now the seat pan is stuck tilted back even farther than I had it originally. It's been kind of a mess. I think the pain has leveled off again, though; it doesn't seem to be getting any worse at this point. Maybe it'll turn around and start getting better.
It's pretty uncomfortable trying to sleep. I can't stand for any period of time without it hurting. But at least it's not too bad when I'm sitting, for now.
Dead Ends
I only waited one month to update instead of three this time, so that's an improvement! I wish I could say I'm seeing improvement in my pain level. I started having problems with my right arm in Feburary, and that isn't getting any better, either. It's not so bad generally, but my right hand/wrist has really been acting up lately. I think it's because of where I put the steno machine to make it more comfortable for my left arm. It seems like my left arm works better if I bring the machine in close to my body and angle the top left corner away from me. Unfortunately, when I do that, I can immediately feel pain in my right hand/wrist, which seems to be more comfortable if I have the machine farther away and angled with the top right corner away from me, which brings the top left corner closer to me.
I think an Infinity Ergo might be the solution to that particular problem. I've been thinking I should probably get one for a long time, but I didn't want to spend the money and take the time out to learn how to write on one. A lot of tweaking of key sensitivity would need to happen, just like when I got the LS, and that's a scary prospect. It's also tough to find one. I checked with the owner of the company, and they don't have any sales representatives in my area. He said he would check with customers in the area. That was a couple days ago, and I haven't heard anything back yet. I figure I'll give it about a week and then start posting on groups/forums and try to see if there's anyone around that would let me try theirs.
Even if I do decide to buy one, I think it takes 2-4 months before you actually get it.
I went to the pain clinic, and the doctor there suggested taking Lyrica and a ton of other mediciations. He said I could talk to my PCP about those. I don't want to try any more medication. It would just be masking the symptoms, and I don't like the idea of potential side effects. The pain isn't so bad that I physically *can't* write at this point, so I'd rather just deal with it than take medication. He also suggested a process of coming back for six sessions where he would numb different nerves in my arm to see if that stopped the pain, and try to hone in on which nerve is affected.
I think that's a good idea. It will require me not taking any jobs for the rest of the day, though; he said my arm might not work properly for up to 12 hours after being numbed. And of course there's the scary prospect that the arm would be permanently paralyzed, but hopefully that won't happen. I had that appointment over a week ago, and he said they would get it approved by my insurance and then call me to set up an appointment. I haven't heard anything back yet. I should probably call and follow up, but it's kind of not something I really want to do, so that's why I haven't yet.
I'm still trying to just get in different positions and see if something will fix it. I started rolling up a towel and putting it behind my back vertically when I sit. The physical therapist suggested doing something like that. It might help a little with the back pain; I'm not really sure. It does feel like it adds some support when I write, at least.
I tried leaning back into the chair and writing with the machine on my lap yesterday, and that was a disaster. My back was comfortable, but both of my hands/wrists hurt a lot. Right now I'm trying out tilting the machine towards me (I just tried tilting it away, too, and as usual, that makes it hurt worse) and having it a little farther away than usual. And I'm focusing on sitting up really straight, and keeping my neck straight/head high/chin tilted down. I have a tendency to scrunch down and forward when I write. I think it's just comfortable. But it might not be the best thing to do.
My neck hurt a lot for a few days. I'm not sure what was up with that. It was probably related to some posture thing I was trying to do, who knows what. It seems to more or less be back to normal now, though. I noticed for some reason when I try to relax my shoulders/arms, I feel a lot of strain in my neck. I'm not sure how to avoid it, but I'm definitely looking out for it now.
This really should be so simple! You sit and you "type" on a machine. It shouldn't be stressful on the body at all! I still want to get an ergonomic specialist in to watch me write and tell me what I'm doing wrong, but that's not as easy to make happen as I thought it was going to be. The doctor at the pain clinic didn't know of anyone who could help, so I emailed the physical therapist, but she didn't know, either. She said she would check with their work injury specialist and let me know, but that was a week ago and I haven't heard anything, so I guess that's not going to happen.
I got a little elastic wrist compression brace to try out. I tried it on both wrists when I wrote, but it either made it worse or didn't seem to help. I tried it during data entry/regular computer work on the right hand with the same result. I also just tried putting some padding in it and using it just as a padded wrist rest, without any compression, and I didn't like that, either.
I think an Infinity Ergo might be the solution to that particular problem. I've been thinking I should probably get one for a long time, but I didn't want to spend the money and take the time out to learn how to write on one. A lot of tweaking of key sensitivity would need to happen, just like when I got the LS, and that's a scary prospect. It's also tough to find one. I checked with the owner of the company, and they don't have any sales representatives in my area. He said he would check with customers in the area. That was a couple days ago, and I haven't heard anything back yet. I figure I'll give it about a week and then start posting on groups/forums and try to see if there's anyone around that would let me try theirs.
Even if I do decide to buy one, I think it takes 2-4 months before you actually get it.
I went to the pain clinic, and the doctor there suggested taking Lyrica and a ton of other mediciations. He said I could talk to my PCP about those. I don't want to try any more medication. It would just be masking the symptoms, and I don't like the idea of potential side effects. The pain isn't so bad that I physically *can't* write at this point, so I'd rather just deal with it than take medication. He also suggested a process of coming back for six sessions where he would numb different nerves in my arm to see if that stopped the pain, and try to hone in on which nerve is affected.
I think that's a good idea. It will require me not taking any jobs for the rest of the day, though; he said my arm might not work properly for up to 12 hours after being numbed. And of course there's the scary prospect that the arm would be permanently paralyzed, but hopefully that won't happen. I had that appointment over a week ago, and he said they would get it approved by my insurance and then call me to set up an appointment. I haven't heard anything back yet. I should probably call and follow up, but it's kind of not something I really want to do, so that's why I haven't yet.
I'm still trying to just get in different positions and see if something will fix it. I started rolling up a towel and putting it behind my back vertically when I sit. The physical therapist suggested doing something like that. It might help a little with the back pain; I'm not really sure. It does feel like it adds some support when I write, at least.
I tried leaning back into the chair and writing with the machine on my lap yesterday, and that was a disaster. My back was comfortable, but both of my hands/wrists hurt a lot. Right now I'm trying out tilting the machine towards me (I just tried tilting it away, too, and as usual, that makes it hurt worse) and having it a little farther away than usual. And I'm focusing on sitting up really straight, and keeping my neck straight/head high/chin tilted down. I have a tendency to scrunch down and forward when I write. I think it's just comfortable. But it might not be the best thing to do.
My neck hurt a lot for a few days. I'm not sure what was up with that. It was probably related to some posture thing I was trying to do, who knows what. It seems to more or less be back to normal now, though. I noticed for some reason when I try to relax my shoulders/arms, I feel a lot of strain in my neck. I'm not sure how to avoid it, but I'm definitely looking out for it now.
This really should be so simple! You sit and you "type" on a machine. It shouldn't be stressful on the body at all! I still want to get an ergonomic specialist in to watch me write and tell me what I'm doing wrong, but that's not as easy to make happen as I thought it was going to be. The doctor at the pain clinic didn't know of anyone who could help, so I emailed the physical therapist, but she didn't know, either. She said she would check with their work injury specialist and let me know, but that was a week ago and I haven't heard anything, so I guess that's not going to happen.
I got a little elastic wrist compression brace to try out. I tried it on both wrists when I wrote, but it either made it worse or didn't seem to help. I tried it during data entry/regular computer work on the right hand with the same result. I also just tried putting some padding in it and using it just as a padded wrist rest, without any compression, and I didn't like that, either.
MRI: Check
It's been approximately forever since I updated, but I've been pretty busy so far this semester. When I went back to the rehabilitation specialist on December 17th, he thought the problem with my arm could be a squished nerve from sleeping with my arm over my boyfriend sometimes. He decided to do an MRI of my brachial plexus, where the thoracic outlet problem could be, and also an MRI neurogram of my arm to see if there's anything going on there.
That was a lot of work to get done. My insurance approved it pretty much right away, but the specialist's office was pretty disorganized, and I didn't get the MRI until February 11th. It's taken from then all the way right up until today for the doctor to finally look at the report and call me. The MRIs didn't find anything, so the doctor doesn't have any other suggestions. He thinks I should go back to the vascular surgeon and have her tell me if she thinks it would be worthwhile to have surgery or not.
Since none of the TOS treatments helped, I don't think treating the TOS by having surgery is a good idea. Surgery is super risky, and I don't think it would do any good. The doctor said he would refer me to a pain clinic, so maybe they can do something to help. I kind of have my doubts about that, though. It seems like a pain clinic would just be treating the symptom (the pain) instead of what's causing it.
I've been trying to work on my posture and get in a position that's better for my back, and relax my arms/shoulders. It makes it harder to write, and I'm not really sure it's helping anything, but I have to try something. I still feel like I'm typing on someone else's keyboard whenever I try to write, and it really slows me down. It's so frustrating.
I stuck it out through all four weeks of the chiropractor, but that didn't help at all. It seemed to make my back way worse than it's ever been, though. I have pretty much constant pain whenever I try to stand or walk now, so that's annoying. I tried not using the mattress topper and it didn't seem to help, so I have no idea what's causing the pain.
That was a lot of work to get done. My insurance approved it pretty much right away, but the specialist's office was pretty disorganized, and I didn't get the MRI until February 11th. It's taken from then all the way right up until today for the doctor to finally look at the report and call me. The MRIs didn't find anything, so the doctor doesn't have any other suggestions. He thinks I should go back to the vascular surgeon and have her tell me if she thinks it would be worthwhile to have surgery or not.
Since none of the TOS treatments helped, I don't think treating the TOS by having surgery is a good idea. Surgery is super risky, and I don't think it would do any good. The doctor said he would refer me to a pain clinic, so maybe they can do something to help. I kind of have my doubts about that, though. It seems like a pain clinic would just be treating the symptom (the pain) instead of what's causing it.
I've been trying to work on my posture and get in a position that's better for my back, and relax my arms/shoulders. It makes it harder to write, and I'm not really sure it's helping anything, but I have to try something. I still feel like I'm typing on someone else's keyboard whenever I try to write, and it really slows me down. It's so frustrating.
I stuck it out through all four weeks of the chiropractor, but that didn't help at all. It seemed to make my back way worse than it's ever been, though. I have pretty much constant pain whenever I try to stand or walk now, so that's annoying. I tried not using the mattress topper and it didn't seem to help, so I have no idea what's causing the pain.
Undiagnosable
I had the Botox injections in my neck and chest about a month ago. They didn't help at all. I thought they even made it worse for about a week, but it might've just been the way I was sitting. I called the doctor, and he said give it a few more days, so I did and called again. He was supposed to call back, but he didn't. I didn't follow up because it didn't seem like he had any other suggestions. The Botox was super expensive, and I wasn't planning to do that again.
Instead, I started going to a chiropractor. He said that he could definitely help me, and my spine was out of alignment and pushing on nerves that were affecting my arm. He said my neck didn't have enough backwards curve, so my head is too far forward, and that's throwing the curve in the small of my back out of alignment, too. He wanted me to do two visits a week for four weeks, then one visit a week for two weeks, and then see where we go from there.
I've had five adjustments now, and it hasn't made a bit of difference. The chiro says he's not seeing any problems in the area that would usually affect that part of my arm. He's confident I'm going to see results if I keep going. I'm not so sure, but I might as well go through the entire course of treatment. This chiropractor won't be in network for my insurance next year, and my last appointment falls in January, so I probably won't go to that one if I'm not feeling any better.
I stopped doing the exercises from physical therapy. I did them for three months without any improvement, so I think that's a good enough try. I'm doing a few now that the chiro suggested. I'm also using a Denneroll pillow/pad/thing under my neck to try to restore the proper curvature.
I'm about at my wits' end with this thing. It's driving me crazy. It's not just that it hurts when I write; I can't write properly. My hand doesn't do what I tell it to, and it affects my product. I monitor my accuracy, and it's still above 99%, but it's so maddening having something like this keep me from doing my best work. The pain makes me dread having to start every class, and it feels like it's ruining my whole life and it's never going to go away.
The worst part is I don't know what the problem is or how to fix it. I bought a heating pad and tried that, but it doesn't help, either. There's a nerve or something on the inside of my upper arm and when I touch it, pain shoots all the way down my arm. That's got to be the problem. I don't understand why no one can figure out how to fix it.
I wound up calling the rehabilitation specialist a couple weeks after he never returned my call. He said maybe it's a muscle problem, or maybe an MRI would help. He wants me to come in so he can do another exam and see if he missed anything, since we've pretty much ruled out thoracic outlet causing the problem. He has such limited appointments that I can't get in to see him until a week from now, and even that one I might have to reschedule. He's not in network on my new insurance, either, so I'll probably have to find someone else to look at the MRI after I get it done.
I'm starting to have a new pain in the small of my back. I'm not sure what's causing it. I thought it might be because I tried out writing with my steno machine in a lower position for a few days, but it didn't make my arm feel any better, so I stopped doing that a while ago, and my back pain hasn't gotten any better. I got a memory foam mattress topper, so that could be it. I'll be sad if I have to lose the topper, though; my mattress is way too firm without it.
Instead, I started going to a chiropractor. He said that he could definitely help me, and my spine was out of alignment and pushing on nerves that were affecting my arm. He said my neck didn't have enough backwards curve, so my head is too far forward, and that's throwing the curve in the small of my back out of alignment, too. He wanted me to do two visits a week for four weeks, then one visit a week for two weeks, and then see where we go from there.
I've had five adjustments now, and it hasn't made a bit of difference. The chiro says he's not seeing any problems in the area that would usually affect that part of my arm. He's confident I'm going to see results if I keep going. I'm not so sure, but I might as well go through the entire course of treatment. This chiropractor won't be in network for my insurance next year, and my last appointment falls in January, so I probably won't go to that one if I'm not feeling any better.
I stopped doing the exercises from physical therapy. I did them for three months without any improvement, so I think that's a good enough try. I'm doing a few now that the chiro suggested. I'm also using a Denneroll pillow/pad/thing under my neck to try to restore the proper curvature.
I'm about at my wits' end with this thing. It's driving me crazy. It's not just that it hurts when I write; I can't write properly. My hand doesn't do what I tell it to, and it affects my product. I monitor my accuracy, and it's still above 99%, but it's so maddening having something like this keep me from doing my best work. The pain makes me dread having to start every class, and it feels like it's ruining my whole life and it's never going to go away.
The worst part is I don't know what the problem is or how to fix it. I bought a heating pad and tried that, but it doesn't help, either. There's a nerve or something on the inside of my upper arm and when I touch it, pain shoots all the way down my arm. That's got to be the problem. I don't understand why no one can figure out how to fix it.
I wound up calling the rehabilitation specialist a couple weeks after he never returned my call. He said maybe it's a muscle problem, or maybe an MRI would help. He wants me to come in so he can do another exam and see if he missed anything, since we've pretty much ruled out thoracic outlet causing the problem. He has such limited appointments that I can't get in to see him until a week from now, and even that one I might have to reschedule. He's not in network on my new insurance, either, so I'll probably have to find someone else to look at the MRI after I get it done.
I'm starting to have a new pain in the small of my back. I'm not sure what's causing it. I thought it might be because I tried out writing with my steno machine in a lower position for a few days, but it didn't make my arm feel any better, so I stopped doing that a while ago, and my back pain hasn't gotten any better. I got a memory foam mattress topper, so that could be it. I'll be sad if I have to lose the topper, though; my mattress is way too firm without it.
WA CSR
I decided to sit for the Washington State Court Reporter Exam. I practiced takes at 200 wpm, one a day for two weeks. I had a really hard time finding any material at 200 wpm. I had some at 225, so I slowed it down to what should've been about 200. I did okay on the first few takes, but my accuracy got worse the more I did. When I ran out of those I started slowing down some at higher speeds, and I did even worse on those.
I wasn't really sure what my chances of passing were by the time the test rolled around. The information they sent said to go to the Technology Center, which was different from the building I go to for the NCRA exam. The TC was locked, but luckily the usual building wasn't very far, and that's where the exam was being held.
The staff was very friendly, and got me set up in a nice corner in the room. I had the option of writing the test on my laptop and then printing it on their printer, which was awesome. You have to bring your own printer for the NCRA exam, which I think is just silly. Luckily for the CBC/CCP you don't need a printer, anyway.
There was practice material playing, which was a little confusing because about 10 minutes before the test was supposed to start, the material said something along the lines of, "the practice is now over and we will begin the test." I didn't really want to practice much before the test. I figured with my arm problem it would just wear me out unnecessarily. I don't practice at all before I CART, and I do fine out of the gate, so I figured I don't need to practice for 20 minutes before an exam, either.
The proctor wasn't in the room at that time, though, so I thought surely that wasn't the test, and I took a chance and didn't write it. Luckily it wasn't the test. The gave me an envelope when I came in, to put my test in when I was done, and I looked inside it and there were instructions and grading rules. I was particularly interested in those since I hadn't been able to find them online before the test. I figured they were about the same as NCRA's anyway, though.
I was surprised to find out that you can turn in both transcripts if you want to, and they'll grade them both. The proctor read some instructions, and asked if there were any questions, and people actually asked questions, so I felt comfortable asking mine to verify about sending in both transcripts. The volume wasn't too loud, which was nice. It's always too loud at the NCRA exam, and it throws me off a little.
Part of the instructions for transcribing told you where each exam would stop/start being graded, since only 5 minutes out of a 7-minute take are graded. I didn't want to look at that before the exam, though, because I figured I would get nervous thinking "this is when the grading starts" or be anxiously waiting for when the grading would end.
When the proctor started the exam for real, there were two minutes of practic,e and then the exam. I did pretty well on it; not perfect, but I kept it together most of the time. I was expecting another two minutes of practice before the second take, so I was resituating and getting comfortable, and all of a sudden the second take started! I wasn't ready at all and I never regained my composure. It was a mess.
After the takes were over, we had 90 minutes to transcribe. It took me about an hour to transcribe the first take, and I felt like I had a maximum of about 11 errors. You're allowed something like 50, so I was feeling pretty good about it. One of the very first sentences said something about a man working somewhere for "# years," so that wasn't helpful at all. I had no idea what number I was trying to write. But it didn't really matter with that amount of errors.
Before the test, I thought I might turn in both transcripts. But since it took an hour to do the first one and I had mucked up the second one so badly, I didn't even look at it. I turned in my one transcript and left, and then I had the anxiety of worrying about "what if I didn't send in the right section" or "what if I didn't copy everything out of Eclipse properly," etc. Always something you can wish you had double checked.
The instructions said the results would be in after two weeks, but I thought that was a little too optimistic and tried not to think about them coming in at all. They really did come in about two and a half weeks later, though, so that's not bad at all. I was correct in thinking I had passed, so I'm now officially a WA CSR.
It's not really very exciting. It was definitely worth it to get some kind of certification, but it's not related to CART or captioning at all. It's a relief to know I can pass something at least.
I've got some new 180 takes I've been practicing this week for the NCRA exam next weekend, and I've been having mixed results. After seeing how many mistakes I made on the court reporter exam (that I was able to fix in the transcript), I felt like there was pretty much no chance of being able to pass the CCP this time. The CR exam was at 200 wpm, though, and the CCP is only 180, so maybe that will help. I think my nerves might get the better of me as usual, so I'm trying not to hold out much hope. I just have to keep trying, and sooner or later there will be an exam that's easy for me to write, and I'll pass it.
It's just so much pressure knowing I've only got one shot, and it has to be right the first time. I think knowing I got to fix it later and all I was trying to do was really get down notes for myself to be able to go off of helped a lot when I took the CR exam. I don't write well under pressure at all. Luckily when I CART I'm able to not think about the fact that someone's reading it and just do the best I can. I regularly get up to 260 wpm and I'm my accuracy is above 99%, so that works fine.
I wasn't really sure what my chances of passing were by the time the test rolled around. The information they sent said to go to the Technology Center, which was different from the building I go to for the NCRA exam. The TC was locked, but luckily the usual building wasn't very far, and that's where the exam was being held.
The staff was very friendly, and got me set up in a nice corner in the room. I had the option of writing the test on my laptop and then printing it on their printer, which was awesome. You have to bring your own printer for the NCRA exam, which I think is just silly. Luckily for the CBC/CCP you don't need a printer, anyway.
There was practice material playing, which was a little confusing because about 10 minutes before the test was supposed to start, the material said something along the lines of, "the practice is now over and we will begin the test." I didn't really want to practice much before the test. I figured with my arm problem it would just wear me out unnecessarily. I don't practice at all before I CART, and I do fine out of the gate, so I figured I don't need to practice for 20 minutes before an exam, either.
The proctor wasn't in the room at that time, though, so I thought surely that wasn't the test, and I took a chance and didn't write it. Luckily it wasn't the test. The gave me an envelope when I came in, to put my test in when I was done, and I looked inside it and there were instructions and grading rules. I was particularly interested in those since I hadn't been able to find them online before the test. I figured they were about the same as NCRA's anyway, though.
I was surprised to find out that you can turn in both transcripts if you want to, and they'll grade them both. The proctor read some instructions, and asked if there were any questions, and people actually asked questions, so I felt comfortable asking mine to verify about sending in both transcripts. The volume wasn't too loud, which was nice. It's always too loud at the NCRA exam, and it throws me off a little.
Part of the instructions for transcribing told you where each exam would stop/start being graded, since only 5 minutes out of a 7-minute take are graded. I didn't want to look at that before the exam, though, because I figured I would get nervous thinking "this is when the grading starts" or be anxiously waiting for when the grading would end.
When the proctor started the exam for real, there were two minutes of practic,e and then the exam. I did pretty well on it; not perfect, but I kept it together most of the time. I was expecting another two minutes of practice before the second take, so I was resituating and getting comfortable, and all of a sudden the second take started! I wasn't ready at all and I never regained my composure. It was a mess.
After the takes were over, we had 90 minutes to transcribe. It took me about an hour to transcribe the first take, and I felt like I had a maximum of about 11 errors. You're allowed something like 50, so I was feeling pretty good about it. One of the very first sentences said something about a man working somewhere for "# years," so that wasn't helpful at all. I had no idea what number I was trying to write. But it didn't really matter with that amount of errors.
Before the test, I thought I might turn in both transcripts. But since it took an hour to do the first one and I had mucked up the second one so badly, I didn't even look at it. I turned in my one transcript and left, and then I had the anxiety of worrying about "what if I didn't send in the right section" or "what if I didn't copy everything out of Eclipse properly," etc. Always something you can wish you had double checked.
The instructions said the results would be in after two weeks, but I thought that was a little too optimistic and tried not to think about them coming in at all. They really did come in about two and a half weeks later, though, so that's not bad at all. I was correct in thinking I had passed, so I'm now officially a WA CSR.
It's not really very exciting. It was definitely worth it to get some kind of certification, but it's not related to CART or captioning at all. It's a relief to know I can pass something at least.
I've got some new 180 takes I've been practicing this week for the NCRA exam next weekend, and I've been having mixed results. After seeing how many mistakes I made on the court reporter exam (that I was able to fix in the transcript), I felt like there was pretty much no chance of being able to pass the CCP this time. The CR exam was at 200 wpm, though, and the CCP is only 180, so maybe that will help. I think my nerves might get the better of me as usual, so I'm trying not to hold out much hope. I just have to keep trying, and sooner or later there will be an exam that's easy for me to write, and I'll pass it.
It's just so much pressure knowing I've only got one shot, and it has to be right the first time. I think knowing I got to fix it later and all I was trying to do was really get down notes for myself to be able to go off of helped a lot when I took the CR exam. I don't write well under pressure at all. Luckily when I CART I'm able to not think about the fact that someone's reading it and just do the best I can. I regularly get up to 260 wpm and I'm my accuracy is above 99%, so that works fine.
Lack of Pain Resolution
I found out the wrist brace wasn't actually helping my hand when it started going numb despite the brace, so I stopped wearing it, but I haven't been having problems with major numbness in either hand for a while.
I didn't actually wind up seeing a vascular surgeon. It turned out the appointment was with her PA, who spent about two minutes with me and then told me she'd ask the surgeon what we should do. What a total waste of time and money. The vascular surgeon referred me to a rehabilitation specialist. He thinks a muscle in my neck might be too tight and is restricting blood flow in my arm. He did the EMG test on my neck and there was a little activity, so he decided to do a numbing injection. When he did the EMG again to see where exactly to do the injection, there wasn't any activity anymore.
I don't think the muscle in my neck is really the problem, especially since the numbing injection did absolutely nothing for my arm pain. He prescribed lidocaine patches or cream. The patches were way too expensive, so I tried the cream a couple times a day for a week, and then four times a day for another week.
It seemed like my arm might be getting a little better, but it wasn't exactly a controlled study because I also stopped practicing sentences with hard words. For some reason, that's when my arm always hurt the most, so I figured maybe I was doing something during that time to make it worse and I might as well stop and see what happened. As a further experiment, I stopped using the cream, since it was kind of a hassle to put on four times a day and it made my neck itch (probably from my hair sticking to my neck all the time). My arm didn't get any worse at all, so either the cream did help and the positive effects haven't been reversed by not using it for the past two weeks, or it didn't help.
I told the doctor that the shot didn't do anything, but he still wants me to try having a Botox injection to see if that helps, so my appointment for that is on 11/1. I tend to sleep with both of my arms under my head/pillow, so I've been focusing for a few weeks on trying to sleep over my shoulder less, and off of my arms more.
Sometimes when I'm writing I can get into a pretty good spot where my arm almost doesn't seem to be a problem. But I think that's always been the case, so it's not really improvement. It doesn't hurt much during the course of daily activities, but it never has. Showering is still the worst. My arm feels pretty bad after I do that, and if I try to write right out of the shower, it's a disaster. It's like I don't have any strength in my arm at all. Doctors always do strength tests, and they don't find any weakness on the left side, but it really feels weak/like I can't hold it up/use it at all when I try to write.
My hand doesn't go as numb when I do serratus punches and another weighted exercise, so I think that's a good sign. But I haven't been doing a lot of writing lately, really. I do maybe an hour a day of hard stuff, and that's pretty much it. I don't do any realtime on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Most of the time, I still feel like it's a pretty big hindrance to my ability to work.
I didn't actually wind up seeing a vascular surgeon. It turned out the appointment was with her PA, who spent about two minutes with me and then told me she'd ask the surgeon what we should do. What a total waste of time and money. The vascular surgeon referred me to a rehabilitation specialist. He thinks a muscle in my neck might be too tight and is restricting blood flow in my arm. He did the EMG test on my neck and there was a little activity, so he decided to do a numbing injection. When he did the EMG again to see where exactly to do the injection, there wasn't any activity anymore.
I don't think the muscle in my neck is really the problem, especially since the numbing injection did absolutely nothing for my arm pain. He prescribed lidocaine patches or cream. The patches were way too expensive, so I tried the cream a couple times a day for a week, and then four times a day for another week.
It seemed like my arm might be getting a little better, but it wasn't exactly a controlled study because I also stopped practicing sentences with hard words. For some reason, that's when my arm always hurt the most, so I figured maybe I was doing something during that time to make it worse and I might as well stop and see what happened. As a further experiment, I stopped using the cream, since it was kind of a hassle to put on four times a day and it made my neck itch (probably from my hair sticking to my neck all the time). My arm didn't get any worse at all, so either the cream did help and the positive effects haven't been reversed by not using it for the past two weeks, or it didn't help.
I told the doctor that the shot didn't do anything, but he still wants me to try having a Botox injection to see if that helps, so my appointment for that is on 11/1. I tend to sleep with both of my arms under my head/pillow, so I've been focusing for a few weeks on trying to sleep over my shoulder less, and off of my arms more.
Sometimes when I'm writing I can get into a pretty good spot where my arm almost doesn't seem to be a problem. But I think that's always been the case, so it's not really improvement. It doesn't hurt much during the course of daily activities, but it never has. Showering is still the worst. My arm feels pretty bad after I do that, and if I try to write right out of the shower, it's a disaster. It's like I don't have any strength in my arm at all. Doctors always do strength tests, and they don't find any weakness on the left side, but it really feels weak/like I can't hold it up/use it at all when I try to write.
My hand doesn't go as numb when I do serratus punches and another weighted exercise, so I think that's a good sign. But I haven't been doing a lot of writing lately, really. I do maybe an hour a day of hard stuff, and that's pretty much it. I don't do any realtime on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Most of the time, I still feel like it's a pretty big hindrance to my ability to work.
Pain Update
I finished out all four weeks of my PT, and there wasn't any improvement. The physical therapist suggested I try a vascular surgeon next, but they required an ultrasound first, so I made an appointment with my PCP to see what she suggested. She was totally useless and just said I should do whatever the physical therapist said.
So, I had an ultrasound, and the technician said there seemed to be a little bit of restricted blood flow when I held my left arm straight up, but it wasn't really a big deal. My PCP thinks I should go see the vascular surgeon anyway, so I've got an appointment to do that on Monday. I don't feel like that's really the problem, though.
I have this weird spot on the front of my chest that hurts a lot sometimes. It started hurting after the not-my-usual physical therapist did some stuff with my arm. It's really bothersome, and it just started hurting on the right side in the same spot yesterday. Maybe it has something to do with the new way I sit when I write.
It's all really frustrating. I just started my first semester of classes, and I have a lot. Luckily a lot of them haven't actually needed CART for the first few days. I still get paid, but the student hasn't been there, or they've had technical difficulties, or whatever. One of my classes is super slow. My average for a 2-hour class is only 140 wpm. I love that class. I can even lean back and rest my arms on the arm rests when I write that one, and it doesn't hurt my arm at all.
I haven't been so lucky in any of the other classes, though, and it hurts a lot to write them. I know my writing would be better if I weren't favoring my left arm/hand, too. I'm not getting paid as much as I could be, and I feel like I don't want to start branching out until I get my arm fixed, but it feels like it's never going to happen at this point. It should be fixable. It should be something the doctors can figure out. It's a real thing, so why can't they determine the cause?
I wore my wrist brace for three weeks, at the suggestion of the neurologist. It didn't help my arm at all, so I stopped wearing it for about a week. Then my hand went numb for a whole day, so I decided to try the wrist brace again, and it's been feeling much better. I guess buying the brace wasn't such a waste after all.
So, I had an ultrasound, and the technician said there seemed to be a little bit of restricted blood flow when I held my left arm straight up, but it wasn't really a big deal. My PCP thinks I should go see the vascular surgeon anyway, so I've got an appointment to do that on Monday. I don't feel like that's really the problem, though.
I have this weird spot on the front of my chest that hurts a lot sometimes. It started hurting after the not-my-usual physical therapist did some stuff with my arm. It's really bothersome, and it just started hurting on the right side in the same spot yesterday. Maybe it has something to do with the new way I sit when I write.
It's all really frustrating. I just started my first semester of classes, and I have a lot. Luckily a lot of them haven't actually needed CART for the first few days. I still get paid, but the student hasn't been there, or they've had technical difficulties, or whatever. One of my classes is super slow. My average for a 2-hour class is only 140 wpm. I love that class. I can even lean back and rest my arms on the arm rests when I write that one, and it doesn't hurt my arm at all.
I haven't been so lucky in any of the other classes, though, and it hurts a lot to write them. I know my writing would be better if I weren't favoring my left arm/hand, too. I'm not getting paid as much as I could be, and I feel like I don't want to start branching out until I get my arm fixed, but it feels like it's never going to happen at this point. It should be fixable. It should be something the doctors can figure out. It's a real thing, so why can't they determine the cause?
I wore my wrist brace for three weeks, at the suggestion of the neurologist. It didn't help my arm at all, so I stopped wearing it for about a week. Then my hand went numb for a whole day, so I decided to try the wrist brace again, and it's been feeling much better. I guess buying the brace wasn't such a waste after all.
PT: So Far So Not So Good
I decided not to try the Topamax. I don't really want to mess with any more meds, especially if it's not likely they're going to help, anyway. The physical therapist recommended some posture changes (don't arch my back so much; put my shoulders back more; tilt my head down) and some exercises to do to relax my neck and chest muscles, and strengthen my upper back muscles. She did some muscle work on my neck for a couple sessions, but she said I "wasn't responding like a normal case," since that wound up not helping at all. Last time I went I saw a different practitioner, and she said I have thoracic output problems, which is making my arm go numb.
She did some stuff that made my shoulder hurt, and suggested I do nerve flossing twice a day. That was a couple days ago, and my shoulder still hurts. So, so far, all I've managed to do is add an additional problem. Go physical therapy. But I'll keep going and see how it pans out.
It's kind of tough to adjust to my new writing posture. I have good days and bad days. I have lots of weird misstrokes. I was looking at my averages for my last 5 rounds of 8 shows, though, starting back on 4/24, and it goes 98.28, 98.31, 98.40, 98.6, 98.61. So that's got to signify some kind of improvement. I've been trying to slow down and really go for accuracy, and I felt like it might be leading to more paraphrasing, or leaving out an unimportant sentence here or there, but I'm actually writing 400+ more words per show than I used to, which just seems crazy.
When I stroked out RAOE/YOE/DAI/JE/NAIR/ROE the other day, I was pretty surprised to find that it translated perfectly. Guess I've written it that way before. It's nice when things like that happen. I used to not be able to remember to write "aide" at all. It would always come out aid, without thinking. But I'm actually writing "aide" now, so that's cool.
One thing that's not so cool is I've developed a problem with coming back for -G for -ing. At least once or twice a practice session, I hit -D instead of -G. I guess it's just easier, but it really messes with the transcript. I add that word to my "words to practice" list every time I catch it, though, so hopefully that will reinforce the -G.
I also tend to write "OFT T" (of the the) a lot. I've started defining phrases that way whenever I misstroke them like that, so I decided to be proactive, and I'm going through my dictionary, finding any "the" phrases, and defining them appropriately so there won't be a double "the" if I stroke it after the phrase.
She did some stuff that made my shoulder hurt, and suggested I do nerve flossing twice a day. That was a couple days ago, and my shoulder still hurts. So, so far, all I've managed to do is add an additional problem. Go physical therapy. But I'll keep going and see how it pans out.
It's kind of tough to adjust to my new writing posture. I have good days and bad days. I have lots of weird misstrokes. I was looking at my averages for my last 5 rounds of 8 shows, though, starting back on 4/24, and it goes 98.28, 98.31, 98.40, 98.6, 98.61. So that's got to signify some kind of improvement. I've been trying to slow down and really go for accuracy, and I felt like it might be leading to more paraphrasing, or leaving out an unimportant sentence here or there, but I'm actually writing 400+ more words per show than I used to, which just seems crazy.
When I stroked out RAOE/YOE/DAI/JE/NAIR/ROE the other day, I was pretty surprised to find that it translated perfectly. Guess I've written it that way before. It's nice when things like that happen. I used to not be able to remember to write "aide" at all. It would always come out aid, without thinking. But I'm actually writing "aide" now, so that's cool.
One thing that's not so cool is I've developed a problem with coming back for -G for -ing. At least once or twice a practice session, I hit -D instead of -G. I guess it's just easier, but it really messes with the transcript. I add that word to my "words to practice" list every time I catch it, though, so hopefully that will reinforce the -G.
I also tend to write "OFT T" (of the the) a lot. I've started defining phrases that way whenever I misstroke them like that, so I decided to be proactive, and I'm going through my dictionary, finding any "the" phrases, and defining them appropriately so there won't be a double "the" if I stroke it after the phrase.
7.28.13
I struck out at the EMG test, which I guess was a good thing. The neurologist doesn't think it's carpal tunnel or a pinched nerve. He said he'd "think about it" and I should wear the wrist brace at night for three weeks and then come back and see if he came up with any new ideas. I don't think I'm going to pay to make that happen. I scheduled a PT appointment for this week, so we'll see how that goes. The neurologist also wrote me a prescription to try Topamax, but I haven't gotten it filled yet.
I've been having a good streak where I remember things that have given me trouble in the past, like TS and DZ, and remember to write them out in two strokes during realtime practice. I'm doing the same thing with words that are conflicts the "normal" way I would think to write them; nothing as simple as plague/playing, but that's the idea. I just have a general feeling that I shouldn't write it the easy way. I don't remember why right then, but it pays off. Before I would just kind of be stubborn about it and write it the easy way anyway, and then have to scramble to try to fix it.
I've had a small epiphany (can that be a thing?) about numbers, too, and I'm writing them one at a time more instead of garbling them. 12 is *really* difficult for me to write with my hand the way it is, and I realized I can just write it in two strokes, with much less chance of misstroking it.
I got Pyongyang right twice during practice today (without getting it wrong, to boot). I write it out a long way: PAOE/YONG/YANG. It's hard to start. It's almost like I want to bolt whenever I have to write it. But it's not so bad once I actually do it. I also fingerspelled a lot of names in practice today; some I knew right away weren't in there and fingerspelled the whole thing, like Lindy Boggs. Others I tried to do first (Pedro Vargas) and wound up fingerspelling them after they didn't come out right. I always do a thing where I think "I have -da defined, so I can just write Brunda, that'll come out fine."
My writing is really stilted with my hand being messed up, though. I wind up with a lot of dashes in the transcript that aren't preceeded by any mistakes. I just get lost and things start to feel wrong and I might hit one wrong letter and erase it, and then dash. At least I can pull it together and do it without dropping anything. Sometimes I don't catch the mistakes, though, and I wind up just hitting an S before writing SRAR, or hitting an N after writing something with N in it. I've got an average of 98.56% accuracy for my last five practice shows, though, so I'm keeping it together pretty well.
Words that end in -nal weren't coming out right, even though I don't think I've changed anything from theory (I just do NAL), so I re-wrote all 472 of those. I also wanted to start doing -tary with an asterisk to avoid any conflicts with tear, so I fixed 145 of those entries.
I've been having a good streak where I remember things that have given me trouble in the past, like TS and DZ, and remember to write them out in two strokes during realtime practice. I'm doing the same thing with words that are conflicts the "normal" way I would think to write them; nothing as simple as plague/playing, but that's the idea. I just have a general feeling that I shouldn't write it the easy way. I don't remember why right then, but it pays off. Before I would just kind of be stubborn about it and write it the easy way anyway, and then have to scramble to try to fix it.
I've had a small epiphany (can that be a thing?) about numbers, too, and I'm writing them one at a time more instead of garbling them. 12 is *really* difficult for me to write with my hand the way it is, and I realized I can just write it in two strokes, with much less chance of misstroking it.
I got Pyongyang right twice during practice today (without getting it wrong, to boot). I write it out a long way: PAOE/YONG/YANG. It's hard to start. It's almost like I want to bolt whenever I have to write it. But it's not so bad once I actually do it. I also fingerspelled a lot of names in practice today; some I knew right away weren't in there and fingerspelled the whole thing, like Lindy Boggs. Others I tried to do first (Pedro Vargas) and wound up fingerspelling them after they didn't come out right. I always do a thing where I think "I have -da defined, so I can just write Brunda, that'll come out fine."
My writing is really stilted with my hand being messed up, though. I wind up with a lot of dashes in the transcript that aren't preceeded by any mistakes. I just get lost and things start to feel wrong and I might hit one wrong letter and erase it, and then dash. At least I can pull it together and do it without dropping anything. Sometimes I don't catch the mistakes, though, and I wind up just hitting an S before writing SRAR, or hitting an N after writing something with N in it. I've got an average of 98.56% accuracy for my last five practice shows, though, so I'm keeping it together pretty well.
Words that end in -nal weren't coming out right, even though I don't think I've changed anything from theory (I just do NAL), so I re-wrote all 472 of those. I also wanted to start doing -tary with an asterisk to avoid any conflicts with tear, so I fixed 145 of those entries.
7.21.13
I did wind up calling the doctor about my arm, because it was really starting to be a problem. I got the runaround for a few days, and then they suggested I stop taking gabapentin and try Elavil. The first day I tried it was a disaster; the pain was so bad I went back to gabapentin right away. But after a week of that I was right back where I started before I took anything at all, and I decided to give the Elavil another shot.
Today was my fourth day taking it. Saturdays are usually my day off steno practice, so that could have something to do with it, but it finally felt a *little* bit better today during practice. I go in for the EMG test on Thursday, and find out the results the Monday after that, so I've got another week of painful practice at the least.
My accuracy was consistently above 98.5 for about five shows, but then the pain started getting worse. Friday it was at 97.5, and today was good but I had a drop that invalidated the results. I don't count shows with drops in my averages. There always seems to come a point during anything I'm writing where I get overwhelmed, and I feel like I can't do it, and I want to give up. I usually wind up dropping a sentence, or half a sentence, during that time, but I'm working to push through it and just keep going instead.
I'm still struggling to catch onto the benefit of fingerspelling instead of just blindly stroking things out. It elimates having to think about the words, it's faster, and it's more accurate, but it's hard to train myself to do. I did get "Laudenberg" out perfectly just stroking it out the other day, so that was cool. But it's the exception, not the rule. I also wrote "helicopters" has "helihopters" and TM tanslated that as "hell hospitallers," which I found amusing.
The longer I go without going through my theory book, the more muddled my theory becomes. I find myself just blindly stroking things and hoping they come out right instead of remembering what I'm actually supposed to be stroking. I realized three of the briefs on my practice list were so hard to write because I was writing them incorrectly.
Today was my fourth day taking it. Saturdays are usually my day off steno practice, so that could have something to do with it, but it finally felt a *little* bit better today during practice. I go in for the EMG test on Thursday, and find out the results the Monday after that, so I've got another week of painful practice at the least.
My accuracy was consistently above 98.5 for about five shows, but then the pain started getting worse. Friday it was at 97.5, and today was good but I had a drop that invalidated the results. I don't count shows with drops in my averages. There always seems to come a point during anything I'm writing where I get overwhelmed, and I feel like I can't do it, and I want to give up. I usually wind up dropping a sentence, or half a sentence, during that time, but I'm working to push through it and just keep going instead.
I'm still struggling to catch onto the benefit of fingerspelling instead of just blindly stroking things out. It elimates having to think about the words, it's faster, and it's more accurate, but it's hard to train myself to do. I did get "Laudenberg" out perfectly just stroking it out the other day, so that was cool. But it's the exception, not the rule. I also wrote "helicopters" has "helihopters" and TM tanslated that as "hell hospitallers," which I found amusing.
The longer I go without going through my theory book, the more muddled my theory becomes. I find myself just blindly stroking things and hoping they come out right instead of remembering what I'm actually supposed to be stroking. I realized three of the briefs on my practice list were so hard to write because I was writing them incorrectly.
I had NALGS for national, which should've just been NARBL (NASHL). Nation is NAGS or NAIGS, but that doesn't really translate to national. I was trying to smush RB (PRAOERBGS) into "appreciation," I guess because it has a similar sound to precious, gracious, etc. which I write as RBS. It's not necessary, though, and it's a lot easier to just write PRAOEGS than worry about what fingers are supposed to be where on that bank. And I was also doing deposit as SDPOZ because of words like disappoint, destroy, etc. which start with SD. It's not necessary at all, though. DPOZ works just fine. It's a good thing I review takes and make note of things that are hard to write; sometimes they're only hard because I've been trying to write them incorrectly.
I decided I should write all consonant + ize endings with an asterisk, which the AI couldn't figure out at all, so I went through and re-wrote all 720 entries that end in -ize, consonant + or not. I also decided there was no reason not to end words in -IT, so I updated 488 of those entries; and I made sure all 161 -ca entries work properly with C*A.
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