This is the first in the series of tools and technologies that I use to deal with the loss of functionality in my hands and arms. Check out this article for the lead up to this series.
Setting the stage
The issue I’m dealing with involves muscle atrophy in my hands and my arms. As a result, I’ve lost a lot of strength in my hands and arms including my fingers. Some of the unintended or unplanned impacts included the inability to successfully type at times (more on that later) and what feels like cramping in my hand when holding a mouse for too long. I was using a nice Logitech mouse for most of my work. I have also used the Surface Arc mouse from Microsoft. I liked Arc mouse because it traveled very well because you can flatten it. The Logitech mouse and split keyboard were a part of my standard home office setup.
As a condition worsened, I found myself struggling to use a mouse longer than half hour to an hour at a time. I would work with the mouse and then eventually I would start unintentionally clicking the buttons and was unable to actually move it. The level of frustration caused by working that way is pretty high.
Large trackpad try out
Because the problem appeared to be around the fact that I was holding the mouse, my first thought was to try a larger trackpad. This would allow me to use both hands and fingers effectively to manipulate the mouse on the computer. What I found was it just transferred the problem. My lack of finger control and the cramp in my hand still existed while using the trackpad.
Enter the roller bar mouse
A friend of ours works with hand specialists back in Minneapolis. She suggested we check out something called the RollerMouse. It’s an interesting tool. (One thing to note here is that all of these tools cost something. Trying to find the right tools to work is not inexpensive. Hopefully some of this information will help you save some money. ) I went online and did some research about how it’s supposed to help. A lot of the reviews talked about folks with arthritis or other similar conditions which impact their ability to work with a mouse for an extended period of time. Including the fact that they could have shoulder issues and so on. That being said, I decided to give it a try.
It is a completely different way to work with the mouse functionality on your computer. Many of the reviews talked about the two-week learning cycle that was required to be effective. I found that I was affective using the mouse within a couple of hours. I do think this was related to the fact that I struggle so much to work with a traditional mouse or trackpad. The roller bar effectively supports a three-screen solution including two 34-inch monitors. The side-to-side motion of the bar navigates seamlessly from one screen to the other.
Beyond that the buttons are awesome! Naturally there are the left and right click buttons in the center of the bar. The bar itself functions as a left click which is a very natural function when working with the mouse. There is the scroll wheel in the middle which works like a scroll wheel on a normal mouse. Now it gets interesting. At the center in the bottom is a double click button. I did not know if I’d actually use this, but I find myself using it especially when switching hands while using the mouse. The steepest part of my learning curve has been effectively using the buttons. I must keep in mind that the cursor placement is where the clicks will occur, not the last place I had clicked. Up next, they have the copy and paste buttons right above the left and right clicks. In a later blog I will talk about speech to text functionality but having shortcut buttons for copy and paste means I did not have to do the Ctrl+C or Ctrl+V patterns on the keyboard. Which is great! All the buttons are programmable. This means you can change them if you have a better pattern that works for you. So far, I’ve only changed one button, the scroll button click. I use it to turn on dictation in Word.
It changed the way I work
To say that this has changed the way that I work and allowed me to work longer is the understatement of the year. I am still working through other tools and devices to continue to help me be productive. But to date this is by far, the best investment I have made. If you’re experiencing issues manipulating a mouse in the traditional fashion or anything that requires you to potentially either switch hands to give yourself a break or just because it’s hard sometimes to use a mouse and move it, this is a great solution for you. The mouse is stationary and has a nice wrist pad for you to work on. The ability to switch hands allows me to get the break I need on either hand at any given time. With this mouse I am able to stay more productive than I ever thought I was going to be able to win the started. As you can see, I’m a real fan.
For those of you that aren’t dealing with issues and are wondering should you use it? If you want to experience a different method of working with a mouse and get rid of moving around mouse is on your desk or touching a trackpad this is a great solution. I personally think I would have fallen in love with this solution much earlier had I known about it. Now you know about it!
I love to hear from you if this was helpful and if you’ve decided to give this a try. For those of you suffering with carpal tunnel or arthritis come on give this a serious consideration. It is on the pricey side, but I will tell you in this case it may be worth it.
