Pennsylvania workers like you invest time and effort into your job. You work to the best of your ability every day. Unfortunately, this can actually hurt you if your daily tasks are repetitive.
Repetitive strain injuries often create issues for workers like you. Before you know it, you might find your injury interfering with your job.
Causes of RSIs
Healthline looks at the impact of repetitive strain injuries. These injuries, also known as RSIs, affect workers who use the same repeated motions on the job every day. Common examples include scanning items at a register, typing or working in an assembly line.
Sufferers of RSIs often start with mild symptoms. Workers mistakenly believe the issue is easy to ignore. A common misconception is that RSIs will heal on their own without any interference, but that is not true.
In reality, the only treatment is resting the affected limb. Obviously, this is difficult or impossible if your job requires the constant use of the affected limb. Many workers thus push themselves to keep working through mild symptoms. Symptoms then grow moderate or severe.
The impact of RSIs on work
Once afflicted with severe symptoms, continuing work is difficult or impossible. Unfortunately, the amount of recovery time you need at this stage is much longer, too. Many doctors suggest weeks at the minimum, up to months. Some victims of severe RSIs even end up needing surgery to aid in recovery. This can result in a year of recovery time or more. Needless to say, this will have a huge impact on your ability to work to your usual standards, or work at all.