http://www.rsirescue.com/sorehand/explanation.htm
out of date but useful

What Is this Stuff?

The other pages in this portion, entitled "Sorehand, by Topics," are excerpts from posts to the Sorehand mailing list/discussion group. Sorehand is the best mailing list on RSI. Several excellent volunteer experts usually respond to posts with great insight and compassion. Visitors come out of the woodwork on a daily basis with horrific stories of RSI use and abuse and without fail, numerous respondents echo their plight with similar experiences, often having discerned the good options from the bad. This is the most valuable RSI info in the world... but it is anecdotal experience. It is usually tempered by sage opinionators and even some real doctors, but sometimes merely by spin-doctors... you make the call. I want scientific info as much as anyone, but my advice to new sufferers is don't wait for it; RSI is not conducive to laboratory type examination and its mystery will not yield to objective statistics in your lifetime. In my opinion, much of what you hear of as "study data" is based on presumtions that are less than rock-solid.

But unedited, Sorehand can look like the Web at its most frustrating. It is a freeform chain of endless text. That's where I come in. In the topics in this section I hope to cut-and-paste the most informative of the many posts on classic RSI issues. My editorial emphasis is on therapeutic solution of RSI: I'll leave the topics of workers' comp., law, politics, and pain management (as a palliative) to those who have time to do them justice.

interesting, similar to mine

"Hi Anne

I agree totally with you here .. this was basically my story too ...
right hand , the dominant and *mouse* (grr) hand was gone cold and dead.

I had fought with this since 92 ... GP said no more cortosone shots in the
wrist ...
Neorosurgeon said do CTS Release to right hand first then left, (left was
not as bad mind you) .. right healed up after open CT release ... still upper
arm/shoulder problems ... was TOS of course... I did the better nutrition thing .. more
water ... yoga myofascial release therapy had trigger points in every single muscle...
stretching ...
swimming .. whirlpool bath installed ... skating .. off to the gym for more
cardio and develop some muscle tone ... I was up to comfortably doing shrugs
with 45 lb dumbells and 90 min workout three times a week.
I was feeling great and more fit at 40 then ever!!!

Summer came and no time for the gym .. was feeling great anyway right ...
muscle tone decreased ... shoulder muscles no longer holding everything
up and in it's proper place ... fall arrives and guess who is having trouble
again ... circulation down .. inflamation ... pain .. tingling in fingers
and both hands ... things were looking grim!!:<

However, (pregnant pause .. drum roll ...) the gym had shown me
the secret!!!

PT, my MD, and vascular specialist agree ... decrease in muscle tone and
general fitness level means decrease in circulation for me. My PT tells me
my shoulder is supposed to float above the ribs on muscles ... deflate those
muscles and we have a problem!

No more forgetting about the gym ... it's either stay fit or stay in pain!

Recovering muscle tone now .. next try to build some endurance into those
muscles.

So I have a home gym setup now, new treadmill machine, blood circulating
through my arm again ... less right hand finger tingling everyday ... try to
stay clear of the computer and especially the *mouse* (that still hurts) ... and
am fast on the road to recovery and a better lifestyle ... even if it was not
by choice!

My arm is informing me I am done typing now!

hth"

http://www.nysoms.org/library/event-...inLanterDO.pdf

this is a really thorough pdf on lower back pain