A story about repetitive strain injury

Once upon a time there was a young man aged twenty-three years, he worked in a warehouse for a large supermarket chain. The position he had was called a warehouse operative and his role was to take pallets of goods and place them in the required cages so the goods went to the stores. Some of the goods weighed up to 15 kilograms each with up to fifty-five on a pallet, as you can imagine having to lift this amount of weight over and over, in the same movement caused stress on the young mans wrists and hands.

Over time the boy started feeling pain in his wrists, the pain did go when he rested for long enough periods but over time the pain grew stronger and lasted for longer. One day he was trying to lift heavy items of stock into cages but found that he could not as his wrists hurt very much and he was losing the ability to move his wrists freely as they became stiff.

The young man decided to visit the doctor as the symptoms did not subside, the doctor looked at the wrists and was told what had happened and the doctor was able to diagnose the boy as having carpal tunnel syndrome, a form of repetitive strain injury.

The doctor advised the young man that he would require time off work; physiotherapy to try and relieve the stress he had caused on his wrists and painkillers to take away some o the pain he was feeling.

Over time the young man did find his symptoms rescind but he was never able to resume his role at the warehouse and had to find alternative employment.

Ever since this happened the young man has found that his wrists are weak and he can easily find them fatigue and ache, because of his youth this has caused him further problems in his personal life with playing sports.

Although this condition is not life threatening and should not cause serious problems long term it can affect day to day life, it can still affect you in simple jobs like opening tins of food or using a screw driver. I know this does not sound that bad but it is almost a disability, imagine having to ask someone else to have to do these simple tasks for you.

Reality

Although this story may sound far-fetched it is close to the reality of some peoples lives. Because a lot of people do not understand, or have knowledge about repetitive strain injury they can cause themselves harm over time if they do not seek medical help should symptoms of repetitive strain injury arise.

My first nugget of gold to share with you information wise is to research and learn about repetitive strain injury. This condition is fast becoming an epidemic due to the long hours many people spend on computers typing away and the amount of people standing on assembly lines, or walking around warehouses like the young man in the story.