I have been putting a lot of hours in of late and getting a distinct crick in my neck. I wondered whether it was the sheer strain of a change in career or spending too long in front of a VDU.
Now as a GP you'd think I would know what the common causes of neck strain are. However it took me ages to work out why I was increasingly troubled by pains at the top of the back of my neck.
So earlier on today I am sat at my desk staring up at the screen. Yes that's right. Staring Up.
Now I bought my desk quite a few years ago. Well more acurately I had it made for me. I designed a nice corner filling shape. I had the screen set up on a stand to allow me to store more stuff under it. Quite a grand design but certainly highly functional at the time. Plenty of room for all the crap that usually litters a desk. Plenty of room for all the crap that always litters my desk. A little cubby hole for everything. Somewhere for paper clips and somewhere for paper etc, etc,etc The list goes on.
I felt like the Queen of Sheba (Or at least the King) ruler of all my domain. SO why has this wonderful piece of design and technology started to cause me pain?
Well for one thing I am now spending a lot longer on it. Which must be fairly siginficant. But more importantly I am older than I was when I bought it.
What difference does that make?
I hear the chap at the back demanding!
Well only that my eyesight is beginning to fade a little. Eyes start to deteriorate after the age of 42 to 43. This may seem no age to you if you are older, or it may seem ancient if you are a teenager. A couple of years ago I noticed I was leaning further and further back to see the markings on the syringes. Now it wasn't that my arms weren't long enough it was that my eyes weren't able to focus as closely as they used to do. I ended up getting reading glasses to make sure I could see how much I was injecting into the patients!
So I started off using the glasses just for my work. Then gradually I realised I could see a lot better with them on in lots of other situations. I wore them more and more and realised that when driving I was struggling to see the fine detail on the dashboard without them.
Now there is only so long you can get away with the 'nutty professor' look balancing them on your nose whilst pearing over the top into the distance. So eventually I plumped for varifocals. These, to the uninitiated are spectacles designed to allow you to focus both on near things and far things through the same lenses. What takes a little getting used to is that you see near in the bottom part of the lens and far in the top part. These are a posh version of bifocals which are those ones which used to have a sharp demarcation line on the lens between the two areas. With varifocals the two lens shapes are blended together in a very progressive manner so there is no visible line. No matter how strange it sounds you do quickly get used to it. But there is a hidden problem.
I had coped fine with my desk when my eyes were fine and I found it very comfortable and a delight to have everything at hand without having to get up. (Yeah I know, Lazy. I accept it.) When I began with the glasses I only wore them for work so it was still no problem. As my eyesight deteriorated and I needed the glasses for the VDU, this was no problem when I was wearing the original readers. However once I was used to my varifocals I kept these on pretty much all of the time.
So there I was looking like some lost prarie dog straining to catch site of the rest of the clan. Was it any surprise I had neck strain?
So what is the answer. Well first I will make sure I only use my readers for the computer and not my varifocals. Also I am going to have to get a new desk and bring the screen much lower down to relieve the strain on my neck.
I can hear at chap at the back again complaining 'What's this got to do with internet marketing then?
Well just this.
In all your enthusiasm for your new career. In all that boundless energy pent up with excitement over all that wonderful cash you're going to collect. Please don't neglect the simple tools.
Have a good desk, a good chair and rearrange the screen and PC so that it doesn't cause you pain. As a general guidline. The top of the screen should be no higher than the top of you head, (Preferably lower, and some desk manufacturers now bury the screen in the desk so you can actually look down on it like a book.) When you sit at your desk your feet should comfortably reach flat to the floor with your thighs roughly horizontal. When you have you hands resting lightly over your keyboard, your arms should again be roughly horizontal and your wrist should not need to flex backwards to come off the keyboard.
If all this sound complicated I promise you it isn't. However if you intend to spend significant amounts of time at your computer then some careful attention to the above points may help you stay fresher longer and prevent any RSI type problems.
TTFN
Paul
