Carpal tunnel from Diablo III

Mike Grist Life Leave a Comment

Su (my wife) and I have discovered our PS4!

I bought the game system over a year ago, along with 2 games – The Last of Us, a zombie apocalypse survival story, and The Witcher, an epic fantasy roamer.

I didn’t play them much. I love exploring in The Last of Us – the ruined locations are so detailed and immersive, it’s like I’m back in my haikyo exploration days. But I’m not good at 1st person fighting skills, so I keep getting killed by zombies.

The Witcher is the same. 1st person is hard, and I haven’t got the motivation to get better at it. I used to be pretty good at Halo, but the skill doesn’t seem to carry over.

So anyway – the PS4 sat around doing nothing. When Su’s nephews came around, I busted out FIFA 2018 (it came with the PS4, I never touched it myself) and we played that some. Pretty fun. Then Su discovered this game Overcooked.

It’s a top-down view cooperative cooking game. We love it. You’re in a kitchen together, orders keep coming in for soup or burgers or some such, and between you you have to collect ingredients from boxes, variously chop and fry/boil them, plate and serve them. It’s timed, and extremely frustrating/rewarding to try to complete each ‘kitchen’ with 3 stars.

It also does my wrist in. My right wrist has been carpal-tunnely for years, probably from a lifetime of mouse-clicking in Civilization games. I’ve been playing Civ on-off since I was 11, a real addict, and it encourages hours-long clickfests.

So, I pretty much stopped Civ a few years ago. Or learned to click with my left hand. In more recent years, any weightlifting (my primary exercise) that involves grip strength like bicep curls or deadlifts sets it off very badly.

So we come to Diablo III. We both love it – getting gear and leveling up is addictive fun – but even my left wrist is getting knackered now. I play with just my left hand. But that needs a break too. I guess I have to write! Writing doesn’t cause problems, probably because I don’t touch-type, so my fingers aren’t working.

Anyway, the good-ish news is that I have a specialist’s appointment to look at my wrist in 2 weeks. I expect this will lead to surgery – which I’ve heard resolves the problem. In the meantime, I have ordered a same-day delivery carpal tunnel wrist brace, which apparently helps regulate things.

So, off I go to write now!

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