Re: mouse/wrist products to prevent/help CTS?

In Reply to: mouse/wrist products to prevent/help CTS? posted by Doug on January 21, 2004 at 16:06:35:

Just wanted to follow up:

At work we had a microsoft trackball. I tried it in the morning and found rolling the ball using my fingers got irritating. It was also slightly irritating to use the scroll wheel, which was position by the thumb. By irritating I don't mean bad design, but it bothered my condition.

I then went and bought a microsoft thumbball ("trackball optical") and a belkin waverest mousepad for it to sit on (it has a raised wrist rest). Moving the mouse only requires slight thumb movements and the scroll wheel is positioned like a regular mouse between the two buttons (of which you use your fingers for just like a regular mouse).

So far Im able to continue and, while using the trackball solutions are not as efficient for me as using a mouse, it sure beats nothing at all!

My only suggestion for the thumbball devices is to put the scrollwheel to the left of the leftmost button rather than in the middle:

{wheel}{lbutton}{rbutton}

That way, my index finger can more beused for the lbutton and wheel without adjusting my palm.