In the last few days I found out I have RSI (repetitive strain injury) in my thumbs, presumably from gaming.
Now it’s fair to say that gaming is a reasonably large part of my life, but I don’t completely no-life it. I almost exclusively play Reach and I just got to eclipse a few days ago. I don’t think I’ll ever get to inheritor and I’m 18 years old.
Pretty much, every time I start gaming for over 30 minutes, my thumbs get a dull ache in them. It doesn’t affect my play, but I feel like I should get off and avoid long-term thumb damage.
I’d taken the past 4 days or so off gaming and vowed to get back on for anniversary and the new reach playlists. I did, and my thumbs started getting that dull ache again.
I’m somewhat depressed because either way it means if I want to game in the future I’ll have to have a large break from gaming and if I want to game now, I may screw my thumbs up so that I can’t ever game again. I don’t know what to do, I just got anniversary and I’m really looking forward to discovering everything and playing more of the Reach playlists : (
inb4#firstworldproblems
In the end, it’s probably not that big a deal in the scheme of things, it just saddens me that if I’m not able to game again, I’ll be forced to watch people play Halo 4 and other awesome games while I just sit on the sidelines…
if worst comes to worst, are there any surgical procedures for that?
i can’t imagine how that would affect me, i game all the time, and do pottery,
hope it gets better
> if worst comes to worst, are there any surgical procedures for that?
> i can’t imagine how that would affect me, i game all the time, and do pottery,
> hope it gets better
I dunno, I’m going to see a doctor about it, just to see how serious it can get and what I need to do. It’s not serious at the moment, but it has the potential to be.
You might be pushing too hard,make a conscious effort to press as lightly as you can.Also give ice packs or heat before,between matches and after applied directly to the afflicted area,sometimes heat will work better,sometimes cold,it varies depending on the person and injury.While you did not specify,I imagine most of the pain is localized from the second knuckle back to the where it rotates off the palm and you may be able to basicly stretch it out a little bit before playing to aleviate or make less impending aches.See if any of that helps,game on.=)
I had this same problem a few months ago. Ice, lots of ice, rest, more ice, and stretching. There is a lot of great info out there on stretches and exercises you can do. I also found that using my smartphone was one of the worst things for making things worse. Be patient and you’ll be back to normal soon.
And yes, I am quite skinny so that may be one of the reasons why. Also, I have noticed my iPod touch aggravates it as well. I’ll have to use my index fingers for that then.
I will probably play Anniversary infrequently over the next few days and take frequent breaks. Then I’ll probably minimise gaming to nothing but machinima-creation until Christmas or so.
> Thanks for all the suggestions guys : )
>
> And yes, I am quite skinny so that may be one of the reasons why. Also, I have noticed my iPod touch aggravates it as well. I’ll have to use my index fingers for that then.
>
> I will probably play Anniversary infrequently over the next few days and take frequent breaks. Then I’ll probably minimise gaming to nothing but machinima-creation until Christmas or so.
>
> Again, thanks everyone.
On behalf of all of posted on this thread, you are very welcome :).
You don’t want to mess with your well being though. Hopefully you get all healed up! 