Near the beginning of my career, I started getting really bad pain in my wrist, arms and back, and numbness down my right arm. I went through all the requisite things like the OP, even going to a rheumatologist, and nothing worked, and I was worried that my career was going to be cut short from this problem.
But the question that really bothered me was why I could spend most of my life writing for hours at a time with a pen, and not have similar problems.
I figured out, at least for me, was that the problem was my mouse. The way the current mouse is designed is to have your hand flat with the tabletop. When you use a regular pen, your hands are almost perpendicular to the tabletop . Your hands normal position relative to your body is essentially at a 90 degree angle to your body.
When you use your mouse with your hands flat to the table, it cause you to twist your hand out in a completely unnatural way and your elbows tend to flare out from your body, for hours at a time, and it pinches and eventually hurts some of the nerves in your arm and write.
My solution was to hold my mouse in different manner, with my thumb almost near the top of the mouse, and about half of my hand on the right side of the mouse, so that my hands were at an angle to the table. It also allows me to keep my elbows flush against my body instead of flared out. It's a similar hand position to how the trackball mice are, but I get away with using my $10 wired mouse.
I also switched to the original Microsoft Natural Keyboard (and I still use the same one today despite several drink spills).
This was roughly 15 years ago, and I haven't had any problems since. I work at my desk for hours at a time, without any breaks, and I'm generally okay, except for the weight gain from my sedentary lifestyle.
But the question that really bothered me was why I could spend most of my life writing for hours at a time with a pen, and not have similar problems.
I figured out, at least for me, was that the problem was my mouse. The way the current mouse is designed is to have your hand flat with the tabletop. When you use a regular pen, your hands are almost perpendicular to the tabletop . Your hands normal position relative to your body is essentially at a 90 degree angle to your body.
When you use your mouse with your hands flat to the table, it cause you to twist your hand out in a completely unnatural way and your elbows tend to flare out from your body, for hours at a time, and it pinches and eventually hurts some of the nerves in your arm and write.
My solution was to hold my mouse in different manner, with my thumb almost near the top of the mouse, and about half of my hand on the right side of the mouse, so that my hands were at an angle to the table. It also allows me to keep my elbows flush against my body instead of flared out. It's a similar hand position to how the trackball mice are, but I get away with using my $10 wired mouse.
I also switched to the original Microsoft Natural Keyboard (and I still use the same one today despite several drink spills).
This was roughly 15 years ago, and I haven't had any problems since. I work at my desk for hours at a time, without any breaks, and I'm generally okay, except for the weight gain from my sedentary lifestyle.