Programming with Tendonitis

[THe Floating Brain]

Hello all,

this is kind of A programming health question. I have fairly recently (as of April 19th) come down with a case of Tendonitis. I was wondering:

A: How often does this occur with programmers?
B: Is it really curable, if you've had a case with it how long did take to cure, and what did you do?
C: How much does this affect someone with a life of programming?

So far precautions I have taken are: obtaining an ergonomic keyboard, making my work-space more ergonomic, seeing a chiropractor regularly, obtaining wrist braces, rest, and making use of ice.
I'm rather concerned about it because I hear of many cases of people's programming careers being cut short because of repetitive use injuries, and I am not even out of high school. I am worried that I have already
cut my the future programming career short.

Thank you for reading, any advice and or responses are greatly appreciated.

[bbguimaraes]

As a regular programmer and not-so-regular pianist, I think it's a miracle I've never had any finger/wrist/arm problem.

From what I heard from musicians, it takes a few weeks to recover, if you follow a few guidelines, such as stopping the activity that caused it and gradually returning to it, stretching, exercising and taking short brakes from time to time during long activities.

I don't think it could compromise anyone's carrer. But I'm not a doctor.

[Aspirer]

I had (have) tendonitis, and it isn't that much of a problem. Its only acts up every once and a while, and the only reason I got it was I press/squeeze too hard on xbox controllers and pc keyboards. So long as you are touching the keys lightly, and not squeezing the life out of your ps3 or xbox controller, you probably won't get it. My DR said I would recover after a few weeks, its been a year, but I haven't stopped doing what was causing it, so thats why. I really can't, I wash dishes, and the act of lifting a heavy pan out of water can put a lot of strain on your muscles/tendons. My brother had tendonitis from playing xbox all the time when he was a teenager too, he seems to have gotten over it.

Lastly, like I believed, squeezing something with no "give" will NOT make you stronger, it will only injure you.

[THe Floating Brain]

Thanks bbguimaraes and Aspirer

Your responses are very helpful and encouraging :-D