[Peter B]

Hi. I have just joined the community as I would like to find people with similar problems and treatments, mainly to help me get it all into perspective.

My problem is osteoarthritis in the neck, which results in the C5-6-7 facet joints causing nerve irritation. This causes pain which spreads from the lower neck, across the shoulders and into the arms. if I have really overdone it, there is severe pain up the left side of the neck, and especially on the lower skull bump.
There are also mood changes, brain fog, and stay-in-bed all day times.

I believe that this can all be attributed to my nearly 40 years of intense office work, and in particular the use of computers and the dreaded mouse.
When I retired a few years ago it was so bad that after only an hour or so I was too sore to work, and was able to do anything useful for only 2 days out of five. Not helpful when most of the work was PC focussed.

When I was submitting my welfare claims I would chat to the officers about my condition, and then ask them how they themselves were coping with their non-stop computer entries. Without fail, they all reported similar problems to mine, and so i would then warn them how they would end up if they didn't take action.

I had noticed in this forum some comments about similar work related problems, so thought it might help some if I did a post about it.

The main problems with extended PC use are neck craning and tension, the poor ergonomic set-up, the mouse which keeps the arm, hand and fingers under constant muscle tension, and the lack of posture changes. Sitting at a PC for long times and especially with a mouse is very likely to cause you all sorts of over-use problems, and you may well be unable to work, as the main treatment, initially, is complete rest. After that, arthritis will set in and that will be that.
I hope this message gets through to those who are susceptible.