This is kind of hard. My right shoulder is aching…probably from a little too much repetitive impacts with the weed whacker using the saw blade attachment over the last few days. Another fun and exciting result was that apparently I was resting the motor mount on my right kidney for the past few days…and the repeated impacts must have bruised it because I could barely sleep the past few nights. Stupid me.
Anyway…switching my mouse to my left hand for a bit…although it isn’t made for the left hand with the back and forward buttons on the left side. Now I’ll probably get a repetitive stress injury on my left hand which has no idea what it is doing with a mouse.
Argh…and every single time I get finished typing I reach with my right hand to the empty spot where my mouse was. This is like turning on the bathroom light when you have no power…you just keep doing it…
I should gin up PGA2K21… (I haven’t forgotten about our tournaments @Keets - I’m just at deadline crunch this week…sigh…)
A few years back I got a bit of wrist ache. I bought a big ol gel mouse wrist pad and it seemed to help, I suspect just because it changed the angle of the wrist for a bit. If your arm is higher and your hand is pointed downwards when on the mouse then it’s better than having a flat arm on the table and raising your hand upwards (if that makes any sense).
I prefer mousing left, even with my right-hand mouse. But I can do either, depending on the situation. I just use my left index finger on the right-hand normal-click mouse button, and move across to scroll and even right click with left index finger. I never swap the mouse to left mode in the OS, or anything.
Scrolling can be tiresome on my hands, so I’m a frequent user of the Page UP/Page DOWN keys on the keyboard.
I’ve an old Stihl FS 160 I picked up off eBay. It came with a single shoulder strap which was horrible to use and didn’t have the right balance and I used to get pain in my hip from the motor.
A bit of Googling and I found a great adjustable harness thing made by Oregon, which spread the load evenly across my shoulders and has a thick pad which allows you to rest the motor in the right place.
I’m a leftie, and use the mouse as such at home. But when I was office based I found it extremely irritating to switch everything around every day and then back for the next user. So I started right hand use and it really wasn’t a struggle. I don’t think I could play quake as effectively bit for navigating Excel and office stuff I found it no hindrance to be honest.
I have no problem switching mouse hands now.
It started with my HOMAS (Hands On Mouse And Stick) setup. I use mouse look for looking around the cockpit for many years now. Originally it was stick in the right hand, mouse in the left. And because of the demanding nature of air combat I got to be good with my left mouse had quite fast.
Newer owned TrackIR and tried facetrack only once iirc. With DCS and similar, where there were no simple way to map throttle to mouse wheel, I switched to throttle unit with small track ball on the side. Now track ball changed to small touchpad.
But back to mouse hands.
When I switch hands, I dont change mouse buttons. Left mouse button is still on the left and right mouse button on the right side. And because I used to switch mouse hands quite often all mouses I purchased in the past sports symmetrical design. Today, when I use small touchpad on the side of throttle unit, I dont need symmetrical mouse anymore, but still my next mouse will be symmetrical
My actual dell mouse. It is not super perfect ergonomically, but it is OK combo with good keyboard (KM714).
Best mouse I ever owned. Unfortunately they didnt produce it in wireless version
I use the mouse with my left hand during flight sims.
I am not nearly as good as with my right hand (as in I wouldn’t try to play a first person shooter that way), but decent.
Try it! Become ambidextrous. Some people even say it is good for your brain.
@BeachAV8R ballmouse! I used to have 2 Logitech Marble Trackman mouses, they are brilliant to use if you spend a lot of time behind the computer. Especially for reading and simple navigation in a browser. I had the trackman on my left and my normal mouse on the right.
I my had uses the big brother of this one, looks more like a normal mouse and is only suited for the right hand. Also a happy camper when it comes to ball mouses.
This summer I switched to a wireless G305 which is a excellent mouse too and ambidextrous, so I often use it with my left hand when the cat has taken over my lap and I can’t use the right hand for anything but petting
Will you be a bit more conscious about how you wield the weed whacker next time? Getting the straps just right is pretty important with a tool like that.
I think that might be a big part of it…I was sitting with a level arm…but also tend to swivel my chair slightly to the right, which makes my arm have to reach a bit for the mouse and lifts my elbow off of the chair arm…that only adds to the muscle strain. (Can’t believe I’m contemplating this very First World problem…LOL)… Today I’m endeavoring to sit square to the keyboard, raise the right elbow support on my chair a bit, and try to consciously take the pressure off my shoulder.
I’ve got the same setup, but got the idea from @531Ghost’s home cockpit. Being left-handed it’s handy when i need to push things but can’t take my hand off the stick, or need different precision in CAD or Revit.
It is a gas powered Stihl (not sure of the model number - love that thing…great brand too!)… It is an FS something. I hate the single strap but have always lived with it. I’m 6’ 2" and really the whole thing is not long enough for me.
I’ll have to look into that!
Hey…that might be good practice for the PC24…I think it has a trackball to manipulate avionics…maybe…I dunno…
Oh definitely. To be fair though…the work I’m doing out on the property right now is highly unusual…clearing brush and taking down those 1-2" saplings with the Stihl is something I’ll probably only have to do once. And when I dive into a project…I do it with enthusiasm so probably overdid it. It was quite easy to see what happened…wearing the shoulder sling the engine housing rests sort of naturally above my right hip. When I needed to put some pressure on the blade (sweeping to the left generally to allow the blade to pull the head of the whacker into the limb) the pivot point at the bottom of the harness in front of me would bring the housing off my right side and on it…over and over and over again. I have no doubt that was the source of my injury. I may have also bruised some of the intercostal muscles (muscles that exist between the ribs)…at least that is what I’ve self-diagnosed with Google and prodding with my fingers ()
If it doesn’t let up in another day or so I’ll consult the doc and make sure it isn’t something other than what I suspect. This getting old stuff…grrr…but it beats the alternative…!
Also a leftie but I find a left-side mouse to be awful.
I have done it for a while when I was younger, and I even tried the reversed mouse buttons too.
This. Swapping the buttons is more heretical than moving the mouse to the wrong side!
I still occasionally swap the mouse to the left when it is convenient. The biggest issue with the mouse on the left isn’t the mouse - it’s then having to use your right hand on the left side of the keyboard!
When you are stuck using only the left hand on keyboard, the occasional reach right for things like the number pad isn’t a big issue. Swap hands and then you are losing quick access to the core of the keyboard - which is all on the left.
@BeachAV8R I will also add a +1 to the suggestions for more ergonomic setup and equipment. My Razer Naga mouse has been fairly good in that regard but non-gaming mice without the extra buttons have far superior ergo choices.
If you get carpal tunnel starting, having the elbow supported on the same surface as the mouse can aid it by allowing you to make mouse movements by rotating at the elbow instead of movement from the wrist.
Or buy one of those sideways ergonomic mouse designs!
Ah, who doesn’t like the stinging pain in the chest that makes you wonder if you are just experiencing the heart attack which would mark your last day among the living…
Ain’t that the truth. I had some weird post-COVID issues that I can’t quite figure out… Given my line of work…most of us pilot types put our heads in the sand and hope for the best. Before I figured out the correlation between the weed whacker and the pain in my kidney…I was laying in bed at 4AM the other night in so much pain that I was contemplating driving myself to the Emergency Room. But that opens up the Can of Worms™ from everything to healthcare costs to them possibly finding something medically disqualifying…etc…etc… Thankfully, I think I correctly self-diagnosed…but it sucks always having to think like that. It isn’t ideal. It isn’t healthy. But it is what it is with the way our system works (or doesn’t).
I’m just grateful that I seem to be improving and I’ll be more cautious in the future.
)
