Carpal tunnel syndrome is a repetitive use injury that many California office workers suffer from. In many cases, it’s also preventable, curable or treatable without surgery. Sometimes, all that is required is rest and time spent away from work. Whatever the solution your doctor prescribes, you may be able to pay for it via a successfully navigated workers’ compensation claim.
In the meantime, for workers who have yet to contract a serious case of carpal tunnel syndrome that requires doctors’ care, a few do-it-yourself lifestyle and home remedies are available:
- Be sure to take plenty of breaks while typing and using your computer.
- Consider starting an exercise program, especially to lose weight, as obesity has a correlation to carpal tunnel.
- Stretch and rotate your fingers, wrists and palms regularly while working.
- Take some ibuprofen, aspirin or naproxen sodium. These can help alleviate your symptoms temporarily.
- Wear a wrist splint made for people with carpal tunnel. One that isn’t too tight but snug.
- Don’t sleep on your hands as this can aggravate the problem.
- See a doctor if the pain and difficulty persists.
It can be frightening to develop carpal tunnel. Workers in offices using computers don’t generally expect to suffer an injury that will prevent them from completing their non-physically intensive jobs. However, a chronic case of carpal tunnel could result in a worker needing to take a significant amount of time off of work. Fortunately, if this happens to you, it may be possible to receive workers’ compensation wage replacement benefits to help you pay for your living expenses while you’re unable to perform your job duties.
Source: mayoclinic.org, “Carpal tunnel syndrome,” accessed Sep. 21, 2017
