I'm Blind!

[elfs]

I'm typing this barely able to see and relying on the spell checker later to get any spelling errors. My eyeballs are dialated to Hell and back and I'm wearing sunglasses because the light spilling into my eyes is just brutalizing. I've just been to the optometrist's office because I'm experiencing intermittent eye pain and have started to have trouble focusing on items close in.

My eyes are very healthy, like the rest of me. The muscles in my eyes don't get enough of a workout from sitting at a computer all day, so basically my instructions are to sit further away from the workstation and try to look outside the window once in a while, focusing on things at different distances, every twenty minutes or so. Oh, and get a better pair of sunglasess. If I'm having trouble focussing close in late at night, there's a prescription I can get in a couple of months if just changing the erognomics doesn't help.

As a writer, that's not hard. I touch type, frequently with my eyes closed, like I'm typing this. As a programmer, it's just impossible to not focus for long periods of time. I'm going to have to figure out something.

First tendonitis in my typing hands, now computer-related presbyopia. Great. Just freakin' great.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

I got it in reverse order. My nearsightedness/slight astigmatism is directly related to five years at Georgia Tech doing 8+ hours/day in front of a CRT with the naked eye.... THEN I got carpal tunnel.

Fortunately, I haven't had to change prescriptions much on the eyewear, and proper ergo gear and Naproxin keep the CT at bay.

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

A few years back, my wrists were starting to hurt when I worked on the computer for too long. I taught myself to type in Dvorak: no more owies, for the most part.

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

Elf, did you catch this article last year? Joel Spolsky talks about redesigning his offices, and the look-out-the-window thing was something they touched on.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

I did not see it before. Thanks for pointing it out to me. I switched to Dvorak a long time ago. It has helped stave off the damage, but it hasn't prevented it. That may be a function of how much typing I do.

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

Because I have to be different, I have tendonitis in my thumbs, index fingers, and middle fingers (and a weird RSI nerve thing on the outsides of my hands), and apparently a bit in the wrists. I have these nifty support gloves that provide more coverage than the fingerless ones, and they help a bit.
http://industrialsavings.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=wnpg&Product_Code=453&Category_Code=wrist_body_supports

Sorry about the gigantic URL. I didn't buy mine from these people but they're $3 cheaper than where I got mine (www.heatreliefdepot.com).

I also tried taping my fingers, with athletic tape, and let me tell you that *sucks*. Hugely. OTOH, it does allow the joints to rest and heal a bit, it's just a major bitch trying to type with almost no finger mobility.