> 1. Stop. Don't type/mouse through pain, or you could be causing permanent damage. Figure out what the problem is, maybe with the help or a doctor and/or workstation ergonomics expert.
Back twenty years ago I did just this. I was working 18 hour days. Sadly, pain was normal. The thing is, when it is your own company you can't take a couple of weeks off to sort it out.
Ultimately, I designed and fabricated my own ergonomic desks. My preference has been to use a thumb-actuated trackball. Soon after making these desks I was back to my 16 to 18 hour a day schedule and had no pain at all. Yes, it took a while for the soreness and inflammation to disappear. The point is, my wrists got better, even while working long hours.
It is crucially important to pay attention to ergonomics and learn to be relaxed. Mice, in my opinion, are terrible. It depends on the task, of course. In my case, my time is split between EDA CAD (electronics design), software development and mechanical 3D CAD. In other words, reaching for the mouse is unavoidable. In this context, the trackball has proven to be the right tool for the job. I have tried some of the fancy 3D knob technology and more. None of it really worked for me.
Here are a couple of old pictures showing the key element in the design; a dropped-down surface for the keyboard and trackball and a nice forearm support bar.
I have also used for some years a thumb-actuated trackball, which was a great improvement in comfort over a mouse.
However, more recently I have replaced it with a Wacom graphic tablet configured in mouse mode, which, at least for me, has been a huge improvement in precision, speed and comfort over any mouse, trackball, trackpoint or touchpad.
In my case it spans a range from typical office/email applications to mechanical 3D CAD, software engineering, electronics CAD, various specialized manufacturing tools/applications and graphic design software. It's varied enough that there's no way I could use a Wacom tablet (I have a few). The trackball seems to be the best common denominator for everything but running tools like Photoshop/GIMP/Corel. In that case the preference these days for us has shifted to drawing tablets with built-in displays (https://www.xp-pen.com/).
Back twenty years ago I did just this. I was working 18 hour days. Sadly, pain was normal. The thing is, when it is your own company you can't take a couple of weeks off to sort it out.
Ultimately, I designed and fabricated my own ergonomic desks. My preference has been to use a thumb-actuated trackball. Soon after making these desks I was back to my 16 to 18 hour a day schedule and had no pain at all. Yes, it took a while for the soreness and inflammation to disappear. The point is, my wrists got better, even while working long hours.
It is crucially important to pay attention to ergonomics and learn to be relaxed. Mice, in my opinion, are terrible. It depends on the task, of course. In my case, my time is split between EDA CAD (electronics design), software development and mechanical 3D CAD. In other words, reaching for the mouse is unavoidable. In this context, the trackball has proven to be the right tool for the job. I have tried some of the fancy 3D knob technology and more. None of it really worked for me.
Here are a couple of old pictures showing the key element in the design; a dropped-down surface for the keyboard and trackball and a nice forearm support bar.
https://i.imgur.com/S8gOPh7.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/PoKDNOk.jpg
Your hand should droop into the cavity. The shoulders, arm, forearm, wrist and hand should be as relaxed as possible. This worked for me.