Catherynne Valente. Photo courtesy Chi-Fi.

As someone who writes extensively on a keyboard and who has experienced the numbness, buzzing, and pain of early phases of carpal tunnel syndrome, I still can’t imagine how advanced stages feel. Islander and New York Times bestselling author Cat Valente is experiencing CTS; she shares her pain with readers and talks about the relative silence of her keyboard recently. On her blog, she writes:

Carpal tunnel is, if your work involves keyboards, more a question of when and how bad rather than if. Of course I’ve had aching wrists before at the end of marathon writing sessions, banging toward a deadline with my usual barrel-girl over Niagara Falls habits. And yes, my hands had been going numb during those last weeks of the book. I woke up in the night completely fuzzed out from the forearms down. But I didn’t think much about it, because I don’t think about much else when I’m pushing my body to finish a project. And then, some combination of finishing Radiance and immediately sitting down at my spinning wheel for hours on end to make Christmas presents pushed me over a line I didn’t know was there. I woke up, not numb, but in agony, with a burning ache in my wrists and forearms and hands. I was trying to cut up fennel for dinner and couldn’t keep a grip on the knife; I dropped it, my hands shaking.

And that’s how I became the Armless Maiden, the Girl Without Hands.

Read Catherynne’s full post here and join me in wishing her a full and speedy recovery. And before you feel symptoms of the early phase of this condition, learn as much as you can about how to prevent carpal tunnel syndrome – proper working position (office ergonomics), proper keyboard habits, frequent stretching, and many more factors.

Stay well and stay in touch.

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