I have started to notice a trend last week that will probably only get worse during the rest of April, and possibly beyond. Many folks have transitioned to working from home and the transition in some cases was hasty. Office workers especially have gone from a great desk, set up with a correctly aligned screen, keyboard and mouse, chair and armrest, and in some cases, sit stand workstations, to a makeshift work corner in their house where their laptop was haphazardly enthroned. Some patients are coming in with unusual complaints of neck and shoulder tenderness, headaches as the day progresses, and wrist pain. When we dig deeper in the mechanism of onset, it clearly emerges that their home station is causing some physical strain.

Remember that you may be working in this situation for several weeks, possibly months, so you owe it to yourself to spend a little time setting things up correctly.

First: You do not need any fancy set up to get started. You can dust off your bookcases and find a use for a lot of books or boxes that can be used as props to bring screens to the right height.

Second: Laptops and tablets are as always the reason for most of the problem unless you use the tablet and laptop as a screen and retrofit a wireless keyboard that can be maintained at the right level, close to elbow height. Wireless and bluetooth keyboards can be found online with 2 day delivery and cost less than $20 in most cases.

Third: Your mouse also needs to be positioned correctly, if you forget about it you will be feeling shoulder pain very shortly.

Fourth: Continue to alternate sitting with standing whenever possible. For that you will need to set up a second work station to float to and from with your laptop and keyboard. Kitchen counters often are the closest height for that.

Attached are a couple of photos of the makeshift stations at the Demel house. I normally do most of my computer work at the office but with shortening the patient days and facing some increased administrative demands due to COVID19, I find myself putting in several hours at a time with my Surface tablet.