The Downfall of a Pregnant Speed Coder

16 years ago, I started my career as a computer programmer and was loving the fact that I was doing the same thing in school but instead of having to suffer through exams, I got paid instead! Even back then, I would morph into a monster when I got into my "coding zone". A note would be stuck to the back of my chair with the sentence, "I am coding". People learned to stay away and I was left to speed type my hundreds and thousands lines of code in peace. I would start my days early and finish late as I was so consumed by my work. Occasionally, my fingers would lock up and it would take 10 seconds or so before I could move them again. That was when I first heard about Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. I learned that most computer programmers suffer from it. I was only 22, it was not possible... As I grew older, my career progressed and I coded less and less. There were times when my speed coding services were needed but it got progressively lesser and lesser. I forgot all about Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

3 months ago, my right hand started to get tingly sensations and would fall asleep at night. When the same thing began to happen night after night, I googled my old friend again. I learnt that 20% of pregnant women suffer from it just because the body accumulates too much water and blocks the little Carpal Tunnel nerve. There is basically nothing a pregnant woman can do about it as pain relievers such as steroids cannot be taken while being pregnant. It usually disappears within a few months to a year after giving birth. As my pregnancy progressed month after month, I began to notice that the tingly feeling crept into the day, and slight pain started creeping into the night. In other words, it began to get worse. I could still sleep and so I pushed the matter out of my head. Until this past Wednesday. The pain crept into the day and on that night itself, I woke up to an extreme sharp and throbbing pain that went from my hand all the way down to my elbow. I tried putting my hand under cold running water hoping to numb the pain to no avail. I wanted to scream and cry but all I could do was get back into bed and whimper as I knew there was nothing anyone could do about it. I rested my right arm across my chest and the pain subsided a little, after a while, I managed to fall back to sleep.

Fortunately, the next morning was my scheduled visit to dr cool. I told him about my night. As expected (although I was still hopeful!), he confirmed that there is nothing anyone can do about it. The only other option was surgery, to which I declined, of course. And then he delivered my death sentence... he explained that it is aggravated by too many wrist movements and what he can do is write me a prescription for a wrist cast to keep my wrist still. How can I not move my wrist when typing or moving my mouse? What is a Computer Scientist who can't use a computer? He then gave me a medical certificate to cut down on my work. And so from the 1st till the 22nd of December 2011, I am allowed to only work at 50%. I was still hopeful when I came into work yesterday as I now know that wrist movements aggravates it. All I have to do is reduce my wrist movements and I will be ok, seems logical to me. Oh, how naive I was... when the evening came, the pain came as well... no amount of shaking or keeping my hand still could stop the pain. Eventually, I got up from the couch and went in search of something that could keep my wrist and hand still...

This is what I found... old and broken stockings and rolled up old socks. With evil saint's help, we managed to get it around my wrist and keep it still enough. We are engineers after all and this is really putting our studies to good use! I could finally sleep last night... as you can tell, the need for sleep conquered all the vanity that I have... the time has come for me to hang up my speed coding gloves...

Update (Thursday 01 December 2011 10:31):
Bought a proper wrist brace from the pharmacy last Friday evening. I can wear it all the time now It was not cheap though...