The Repetitive Strain Injury Recovery Book

Rating:
Summary: This book allowed me to continue working
Review: After a 6 month leave of absence, I returned to my legal secretary position and picked up right where I left off. I ended up with so much pain in my arms and hands I was taking massive doses of Motrin every 4 hours. The techniques described in this book showed me how to set up my work station properly, how to makeover my work habits and allowed me to continue working - while healing! After only several months (and without surgery), I was pain free and, after 3 years, am still doing great!

Rating:
Summary: Doomsday scenarios don't help you recover
Review: I read this book because I had severe RSI and wanted to recover. The first thing I read in it was that I had a chronic case and would never recover. This was followed by an avalanche of anecdotes about people who are radically crippled for life. These were intermingled with depressing advice about how to "handle" your newfound, chronic handicap. For example, Quilter says that people with RSI can still work any job, as long as they work at their own pace. So far, so good. Then she says most employers won't let you work at your own pace and goes on to suggest that you must change careers unless you want to do even more permanent damage to yourself. Great, just the kind of upbeat advice I needed to hear.

I suggest that unless you want to scare the pants off of someone who does not take their RSI seriously, you should get the original Pascarelli and Quilter book for overall information and the Damany and Bellis book for a concrete and helpful recovery plan.

Rating:
Summary: Doomsday scenarios don't help you recover
Review: I read this book because I had severe RSI and wanted to recover. The first thing I read in it was that I had a chronic case and would never recover. This was followed by an avalanche of anecdotes about people who are radically crippled for life. These were intermingled with depressing advice about how to "handle" your newfound, chronic handicap. For example, Quilter says that people with RSI can still work any job, as long as they work at their own pace. So far, so good. Then she says most employers won't let you work at your own pace and goes on to suggest that you must change careers unless you want to do even more permanent damage to yourself. Great, just the kind of upbeat advice I needed to hear.

I suggest that unless you want to scare the pants off of someone who does not take their RSI seriously, you should get the original Pascarelli and Quilter book for overall information and the Damany and Bellis book for a concrete and helpful recovery plan.

Rating:
Summary: Emil Pascarelli's book remains the primary work on RSI.
Review: Ms. Quilter's book is good when it comes to advice on selecting a doctor and therapist, and also dealing with the guilt and depression associated with RSI. But I found it enormously lacking in not only the causes of RSI, but of what the specific injuries are and how you can recognize them. Emil Pascarelli's work, even though it is now five years old, remains the No. 1 source guide for anyone who has RSI.

Rating:
Summary: Deborah Quilter's RSIHelp.com
Review: This book is not intended to replace my first book, Repetitive Strain Injury: A Computer User's Guide. Rather, it contains new information I was not aware of when I wrote that book. Readers interested in up-to-date news about repetitive strain injury (RSI) may also visit Deborah Quilter's RSI Web Site, www.rsihelp.com. The site contains back issues of my Computer Currents columns, which include reviews of ergonomic products and other useful information.

Rating:
Summary: very dystopic with little concrete information
Review: This is an amazingly dystopic book, absolutely full of horror stories and unhappy endings. There's a chapter on how to have a sex life despite RSI, how to sue for loss of a career, the testimonial of a man who was paralysed from the waist down but found RSI more disabling etc - but nothing concrete about what RSI actually. OK, so now I know that if I have tendonitis I'm more likely to get carpal tunnel syndrome and the rest of them but this book doesn't give me information on what tendonitis (or the others) actually is or how to make much of a change. There are quick mentions of various treatments but there is no discussion of their relative merits. The author tells us about her own exercise program (30-40 minutes a morning with weights and 1 1/2 hours of ballet four times a week plus walking and stretching) but there are no specific exercises that can help you avoid recurrance or assist in healing.

Please also notice that Deborah Quilter is not a medical professional but a health writer who has had RSI herself.

There is a good, explicit (but short) section on how to change your typing which I haven't seen other places.