Hi,

Yes, I have RSI though not exactly carpal tunnel.

I got RSD 3 years ago after a bad fall resulting in a Colles Fracture of my left arm, (the most common cause of upper-extremity RSD) with broken hand bones too, the ulnar side being the most affected. Then about a year ago I started getting the RSI symptoms. The computer mouse is the main culprit, not the keyboard, but my RSI is diffuse (tendinitis, tenosynovitis). The RSD stays focused on my (left) hand and wrist (hasn't spread yet), but the RSI runs up and down the length of my right arm.

It's complicated, though. Firstly I am quite arthritic, with a deformed little finger (I have both Heberden's and Bouchard's nodes on both hands) that drags on the mousepad or table - that's where it started. Fairly quickly it travelled down the ulnar side of my hand and now is an orchestra of pain that can be anywhere on my hand and/or wrist and shoots up the inside of my arm, now, to my neck. It's very painful.

Secondly, I also have spinal stenosis and cervical spondylosis of C4- C6; all these things are affected by posture and movement, and cause peripheral neuropathy. So...I have a whole medley of stuff going on.

The osteoarthritis was diagnosed about 15 years ago, the spinal things were diagnosed after RSD, but nobody was looking for anything before, and they are almost certainly the results of the osteoarthritis.

The one big difference between the RSI (right side) and the RSD (left side) is that the RSI is much better in the morning, after rest, or if I stay off the computer, but the RSD pain never stops and is a deeper, different kind of pain - a bit like a muezzin wailing 24 hours a day. The one big similarity is that both hands/arms are worse on the ulnar side.

So, not carpal, but that's my RSI story - what a mess, huh?! I'm wearing splints on both wrists, now, they do help - I'm trying to teach my left RSD hand to do the work instead of my RSI right one, when it's too bad. I'm right handed, so it's slow-going....

all the best