A couple weeks ago, my right thumb started hurting. The first time it happened, there was a shooting pain on the top of my thumb from where it connects to my hand to the base of my fingernail. It felt sort of like an small electric shock.
I didn’t think too much about it. When you get to be my age, weird things happening to your body becomes almost an everyday occurrence.
A few days later, it happened again, but instead of just one shooting pain, there were several in a row. I probed all over my hand and fingers, checking to see if there were any sore spots that weren’t noticeable unless pressed. There weren’t. Nothing but these silly pains.
In the last few days, the pains have become much more frequent and now, if I press, I can notice a soreness on the top of my thumb between where it connects to the hand and the knuckle. I began keeping track of when the pains happen. Mostly when I am on the computer or at work while using my scan gun.
Yesterday, I mentioned to my boss that my thumb is being weird and told him about the pains and slight soreness. He said, “I can tell you right now what it is because my wife has the same thing and she just went to the doctor for it.”
Intrigued, I asked what the doctor told her.
He said, “Text Messaging Syndrome”
I rolled my eyes. Oh, for pete’s sake, I thought. I scoffed at him. “Yeah, right. Don’t tell me they’ve invented another new disease.”
He told me that he was serious. His wife’s doctor had told her that her thumb pain is a repetitive motion strain from her text messaging all the time. He held his hands and wriggled his thumbs like he was holding a phone and text messaging.
I told my boss that even if that was real – which I highly doubt — it wouldn’t apply to me because I don’t even have a cell phone and I wouldn’t text message, even if I did! Since I don’t text message that wouldn’t be what is wrong with my thumb.
He told me that yes, I do text message, I just don’t call it that. I figured he was going off the deep end, but I’d humor him. “Ok, how do I text message?” I asked him.
He pointed to the radio frequency scan gun that I use in my job and told me to pick it up and pretend I was using it. Most people use scan guns to read barcodes, simply point and shoot, so to speak. But in my job, the scan gun, as well as reading barcodes, is a mini computer. I punch information into it using a mini keyboard and numbers pad.
I obediently picked up my scan gun and held it in both hands. Then I started to pretend that I was punching in information. That’s when it hit me. I always punch the keys with my right thumb-exactly as I have seen people text messaging!
Could it be true? I wondered. So, when I got home today, I immediately got on the internet and typed in “text messaging syndrome”.
Sure enough, there it was! Unbelievable.
From www.ergonomictimes.com , I learned that it is, indeed, a repetitive strain injury resulting from repeatedly overusing one part of the body, in this case, the thumb.
The site says that Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) from text messaging is becoming so common that Virgin Mobil has developed a site about it. www.practicesafetext.com. (Love that name!) There you can see visuals of hand exercises. Check it out. The “text facts” are fun. “If attacked by a crocodile, push your thumbs into its eyes and it will let go. Then text your mates and tell them what just happened.”
Repetitive Strain Injury, or Repetitive Stress Injury, has been around for a long time, not just since texting came into vogue. Tennis elbow is an RSI of the elbow (and you don’t even have to play tennis to get it!). Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is an RSI of the wrist. So, now we have Text Messaging Syndrome to watch out for.
So, tomorrow, I’m going to start trying to use my fingers to punch in the information on my scan gun or I’ll be like all those people who have had to have operations for carpal tunnel syndrome. They’ll have to operate on my thumb…. and it’ll be called “digital surgery”!
