I admit I get frustrated sometimes when I cover something before I’ve seen anyone else do it, then later a big site picks it up – but gets it from some other site so they get the link.  But I know that’s not rational, it happens, you live with it.

My style has always been a bit of a soapbox.  I interject my views into things and don’t just report on the news.  I’m more editorial I suppose.  The things I pick to write about are things that catch my interest in some way.  And I’m constantly passing up stories just because I don’t have the time to write about everything that seems interesting.

As for a forum, I’ve thought about it but they’re a lot of work to maintain to keep the spammers out, the flame wars, down, etc. And there are already a number of great forums for the various products I talk about, like TiVo Community, Place Shifting Enthusiasts, etc. I don’t think a forum on my site would have enough ‘pull’ to draw a critical mass of users to make it valuable. I rarely even get comments on my posts, which can be discouraging at times but I know it goes with having a fairly small readership. A site like ZatzNotFunny gets a lot of regular commentors, but he also has a lot more readers – easily an order of magnitude and probably a couple.

Sorry that you’re dealing with a similar issue. You never know what is going to cause it. IT can be an impact that sets things in motion, or just cumulative effects of pressure from leaning on it, etc. Even driving long distances with your elbow resting on the window sill of the car I was told. Or some combination of events.

Your doctor probably knows best, but you might look into a trackball instead of a mouse. You can keep your arm in one position and not flex the elbow much, if at all. I use the touchpad on my laptop now, but when I used desktop machines I always used a Logitech Trackman Marble+. Once the tissue is inflamed you have to keep it all but immobile to stop the irritation and hope it heals. And that’s easier said than done.

In my case things had gotten so bad by the time it was properly diagnosed that surgery was the best option. I’m glad it worked so well, but if you can avoid surgery that’s always a good thing. But if it comes to it it does seem to work, and I’d expect that the sooner it is caught, and the less the damage that has been done, the more complete the recovery in the end.

-ScaryMike

-ScaryMike