My rheumy told me that if I had trouble with my hands he would send me to an Occupational therapist to teach me alternative ways to use and strengthen them. Talk to your doc about it.

I hope you get this under control quickly, good luck!

hugs jilly

Have trouble with typing to and I do have to re-check things to.
My hands are giving me trouble because they hurt and are swollen.
I am finding I am not as strong either.
Some days though are better than others.
Cold really bothers them and it is cold here right now.
I would talk to your doctor.
The Arthritis Society might be able to help you to.
I have exercises to do that help me immensely.
~hugs~

My doc recommended I get a stress ball which is made of soft rubber. He advised exercises of holding the ball in your hand and squeezing it several times to keep the hands mobile and to strengthen them.
I got one from amazon quite cheap.

Just a thought in a different direction. Years before I had RA I had an employee who had difficulty typing due to carpal tunnel in both wrists. I bought him voice soft ware for his computer so he could just speak instead of doing so much typing. There was still some mouse usage involved so I got him one with a big tracking ball he could move with the palm of his hands. There was still some mouse clicking and typing he had to do, but it was managable. He just thought it was the greatest thing thing since sliced bread. I'm sure the technology has improved a lot since then. That was over 10 years ago. I know my blind friend uses voice activated software currently so if you have trouble locating it you might try looking under the aids available for the visually impaired. Good luck!

I too am having terrible pain in my right hand and wrist, which just seems to get worse as time goes on. It's also starting in my left thumb : ( The cold makes it worse as well. I have purchased some therapuetic fingerless gloves from isotoner, also a stretchy hand/wrist therapuetic type glove from Wal-Mart.. I think the pressure helps some. I have voice recognition software at work. I reqested it in June after the RA hit! I am still trying to learn how it all works, but it helps decrease the typing. You do have to train it to your voice and program it with you specialized vocabulary, but it is pretty cool. It is called Dragon, Naturally Speaking. I think the company is Nuance. you can find it online. I hope it will keep me employed as log as possible too. Rose

If you read any of my posts or comments, you're bound to see my issues: transposing letters, missing letters, missing words, and the like.

My career was in computer software design, so I've been using a keyboard for 40 years, writing programs, documentation, quality assurance scripts, letters and memos. I think the best thing that ever happened was the advent of spell-checkers. If I have anything of import, and a little forethought, I run everything through some kind of spell-checker, then copy and paste as needed. Products like MS Word have grammer checkers, too.

As far as suggestions, I would offer these:
1. keep your fingers warm. Cold, stiff fingers don't work as well.
2. stretch. A very basic stretch is to carefully bend your fingers back toward your wrist. Do each finger separately, so you have an idea where you might have specific issues. Also, roll your wrists around, to keep things loose there, and stretch your muscles in your forearms, by bending all your fingers toward your wrists.
3. do isometric exercises, alternating with stretches. Put the ends of your fingers on the edge of a flat surface, like a table, and push down, holding for a 5 count, or what ever is comfortable.
4. do isotonic exercises. There are little squishy balls, often used as stress relievers, that you can squeeze. There are also hand-shaped rubber (synthetic) devices with holes for your fingers. Where a ball helps strengethen the flexor muscles, these help strengthen extenders, the opposing muscles.
5. massage. You can gently massage the intrinsic muscles between each of your finger joints, but also massage your forearms. The muscles that move your fingers as a whole are located in your forearms.

Maybe you can't do any or some of the stretching and exercises, but do what you can, and do it gently. Maybe you can work up to something more.

Hope this helps.
doug

I think this is a very common problem with RA. I used to be an awesome typist, and now I just make so many mistakes. My little fingers are the worst, I often can't hold down the caps key, and end up with lower case letters instead of caps. My right hand middle finger is heavy and clunky, and I tend to press ii more than once. I thought it might be my new computer at first, but I did the same thing on my husband's and daughter's computer. That is the trigger finger that locks.

I think BC2 covers all the good suggestions. I also play flute for an hour a day, which is fine motor control, which seems to help a bit. I don't know whether it is the actual joints that don't work, or the feedback to the brain. Spell check is the only answer. I only had it for word processing before, but my new computer underlines everything in red, which helps me edit even posts. You may also need to get better meds. If your fingers are actually flaring, it means the disease is progressing fast, and you want to stop that. While the disease will always continue to slowly progress, a good biologic will help slow down the rate.

I want to add to toby1129's suggestion, I used Dragon Naturally Speaking as well, I had version 9 and it was excellent. Version 10 is out and is supposed to be 99% accurate, you can even move the mouse with your voice, which is very sci-fi ;-) And if you are a Mac user, MacSpeech is on the market.

And don't forget, do take regular breaks to stretch.

Good luck,

Ferhaan