Home Remedies

• Bicycle shops carry padded gloves, some with gel-filled casings under leather.

• Inexpensive (under $10) leather weightlifter's gloves have a padded palm, open mesh back (for cooling), and fingers cut off at the first knuckle. The leather increases hand friction on the wheel so that one's fingers don't need to grip. The car can be controlled with palms loosely on the steering wheel, fingers extended, and the padding absorbs a lot of vibration. Wal-Mart and similar stores often carry these gloves.

• One of us found a steering wheel cover called the Massage Grip, made by Auto-Shade. It retails for around $20 and can be found in automotive stores. The Massage Grip makes the wheel quite a bit fatter, for starters, is made of leather, which makes it easier to grip, and has strategically placed knobbly plastic inset panels at three points in its circumference, on which to place your hands. Takes very little hand power on the steering wheel when you've got one of these. Massage Grips weren't specifically designed for us RSI folks but they work very well. They fit "all cars, trucks and boats with steering wheels 14 1/2" to 15 1/2" with the exception of Mercedes Benz.

• Buy sheepskin steering wheel cover, cost @10 and is *wonderful* for grip. No gloves needed.   - from Stephen Windsor

• Pillow on lap for resting arms while driving. This makes a *BIG* difference for the arms/shoulders.   - from Stephen Windsor

  Grocery Shopping

• Call your grocery store ahead of time to arrange for someone to assist you with your shopping. Tell them you have a disability, and need assistance to push your cart, load/unload your cart, bag your groceries, and put them into your car. This should be done in advance to find a mutually agreeable time for you and the store.   - from a member

• If you're accustomed to making a weekly trip to buy everything at one time, it's probably less stressful for your arms and hands if you divide your shopping into two trips a week. This way you aren't pushing vulnerable limbs to their limits by trying to get it all done at once.   - from Erik

• If you buy juice or milk in a plastic container with a screw-off top encircled by that slim band of hard plastic you have to peel off, peel the band off before you put the container in the fridge to cool. Once the plastic gets cold and stiff, it's really the dickens to yank off when your hands are fragile.   - from Erik

• Carry those plastic grocery bags hanging from the crook of your arm, rather than with your hand (ouch!).   - from Erik

• Never use a shopping basket...always use a cart.   - from Stephen Windsor

• Have them bag your groceries into many light bags instead of overloading one bag. Make multiple trips from your car to unload the groceries rather than doing too much in one trip.   - from a member

  Household Tools

• Cordless screwdriver (crafstman) for those who cannot use a screwdriver anymore *like me*.   - from Stephen Windsor

  Kitchen Tasks

• Opening Jars
• Peeling Veggies & Fruit

  You and Your Computer

• Pacing Yourself
  
• Foot Mouse For Macs
• Foot Switch for a PC Mouse
• Two Foot Switch Ideas
• Another clever modification - inexpensive and easily implemented - a visitor sent along:

  "Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1998
  Subject: Foot mouse idea
  Here is an idea for your home remedies page: a simple foot mouse I made for myself out of a standard 3-button mouse; I took the straps off a rubber thong-type shoe and stuck them onto the mouse with superglue, and then stuck a small piece of thick foam rubber onto the left mouse button so I could find it easily. The straps help keep the mouse on my foot so I can have better control over it, and I'm able to click the left button with my big toe. It's very convenient and easy to make. - Larisa"
  
  

  Pain Relief

• Pain Drugs
  
• Topical Pain-Killers
  
• Build Your Own TENS UnitTranscutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS), like ultrasound, reduces pain.
• Using a TENS Unit
• Homemade Ice Packs
  
• Homemade Heat Pack

  Caring For Children

• Carrying A Baby or Small Child

  Winter

• Winter Warning
  
• How to Ski Hands-Free because, even though you have an RSI, you can still get fresh air and exercise and have some fun.

  More Tips

• Making Reading Comfortable
  
• buy a reading stand! it helps me tremendously. the one i own is made of plastic and can support even very heavy books and has an elastic band to hold open paperbacks. i also use it to read technical papers. if you fold the reading stand shut, then it becomes a clipboard. i found that if i held even loose sheets of paper in my hands, that this would make my hands hurt, and if i put something down on a desk to read, then this would hurt eventually because of straining my neck to see the paper. the reading stand puts the reading material at the right angle. i bought my reading stand at a stationery store for about $15 (in 1994). hope this helps.   - from anita
• Writing and Drawing
• Great idea! -- Writing Aid Tip -- Due to my injuries, I had to change from studying Computer Science to Mathematics. However, the required amount of handwriting also gave me a lot of problems. Currently I'm using the left hand to study, and I find that using a shiny plastic cover of a cheap yellow exercise book (I rip out the paper) and a whiteboard pen makes my writing nearly legible. Also, if I use my right hand, then writing does not require as precise a movement as a small pen, and the pen is considerably softer than even a soft lead pen. Whilst the output is not permanent, I have to do a lot less writing since I can edit my formulas in place :) Even if you do not have RSI, this modern "slateboard" allows a very nice way of doing math too! For exams I keep a stack of those covers, and the department makes a photocopy of my script. -- best wishes, Gabriela
  
  
• A whole bunch of good ideas covering a wide spectrum: physical, mental, and adaptive
  
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  The LA RSI Support Group can be contacted at asklarsi@yahoo.com.