Arthritis and using a mouse.

[MrSlant]

I just wondered if anyone on here has experience of a different sort of mouse? I have pretty severe arthritis and it affects most of the joints in my body but most troubling tonight is not being able to use the mouse on my computer. It's bad enough not being able to go out much but having pain going on MN, unthinkable! Do any of you lovely lot have any experience of different types of mouse and keyboard for use with arthritic hands/wrists? I will try and get back to this later but I am having trouble typing so I might just have to come back and bump this in the morning when everything has had a rest/ TIA.

Get an ergonomic one. You council might have a place for you to try, basically the bigger the better for the mouse.

You could also try a tracker ball or a joystick. The link below is to a uni but will give you some ideas.

you can get software to change the number pad to use as a mouse, so the + button becomes a double click.

You can, also use voice recognition software instead of a mouse, but it means you can't listen to the radio and it does get boring saying 'left,left,up,click'

www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/enable/index.xml?splitLevel=-1

Thank you so much, sorry not been on here because my stupid hands seem to have gone on strike for the weekend.

Do you have stupid arthritis too?

My wrists are now gazing longingly at the natural keyboard and the lovely padded rests, my stupid apple wifi keyboard that I was so proud of is damn uncomfortable to use!

I have a 3M ergonomic mouse (google it) and have used them for home & work for gosh 14yrs now.
I've had bad arthritis all that time and I'm an architect so a hugely heavy mouse user when drawing on the computer.
It's a great mouse but takes some getting used to as it uses your whole hand.
Make sure you get the right size for your hand.
You might be able to try some out at your local disability living shop.

I have a laptop, so no mouse, but during the winter months and too much mumsnetting, I have had a pain in my elbow and muscles seizing up above and below.

It actually started last autumn with too much pruning my bushes, when it was at its worst.

I have arthritis in my right hand fingers and both wrists, but lap top doesn't affect that.
A friend suggested a mouse would be better for my elbow which is constantly bent across my body with a laptop.

There's such a thing as a disability living shop fantastic, sounds like just what I need. We are right out in the sticks so not many services, I feel like I'm having to sort myself out on my own. Sadly the first thing I've decided to do is make my MN'ing a more comfortable experience!

I have arthritis in the length of my spine and pelvic joints and a recent bone scan has showed it is present in every other joint in my body (nice) I'm presuming this means I'm now shunted over into rheumatoid territory? It's a good 2 hours to decent hospitals from here so it's a tough job getting sorted.

I'm doing an IT degree wonkylegs so it is nice to know you can be a heavy mouse user even with crap joints.

Thanks for all your advice.