I mean, it’s a legitimate question. Typhoid was once all the rage as were the bubonic plague and consumption. But now, what, they get the odd historical mention. And, what’s worse for them (them the diseases) is that they can often now be cured with penicillin or other antibiotics. The once mighty diseases that conquered much of the civilized world, now virtually wiped from the face of the earth.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining.

However, with the demise of these ailments, man had more time on his hands to examine the problems his body faced on a daily basis. We started to watch the mechanics of the body and come up with syndromes and maladies based on malfunctioning body parts. If one was lucky, one could suffer from a problem the poor never had, tennis elbow. The name implies a life of leisure and frolicking so hard that one injures oneself. Well who wouldn’t want to suffer that one.

But tennis elbow is also a type of specific injury know as a repetitive strain injury. Such an injury is the result of taxing body parts by repeated motions and activities. Such activities can also include typing, playing an instrument, and gripping an item such as a camera. I partake in all of these activities, and all of these activities can result in a repetitive strain injury known as carpal tunnel syndrome. Currently, I also partake in that.

Well, I don’t know that I do for sure, but I have a classic symptom: numbness in my thumb and sometimes forearm. When the numbness didn’t go away for two weeks, I thought it was time to visit a doctor. He checked me out and recommended I see a neurologist suggesting I may have carpal tunnel syndrome. Amazingly, as one of the most self diagnosed people I know, that wasn’t one of my conclusions (although I thought it could be a repetitive strain injury). I thought it much more likely to be cancer of some sort or perhaps leprosy. I haven’t yet seen the neurologist, so nothings ruled out yet.

I won’t see the neurologist until the thirtieth of this month. That’s okay. In the interim, I have had plenty of time to do some more research on the topic and see what the problem really is and what self-help remedies I can do for myself. Right now they consist of wearing a wrist splint at work while I’m at my computer and some stretching exercises. I think if I am still numb (and all likelihood is I will be) the doctor will prescribe some steroid treatment and perhaps some more stretching.

And this brings us back to the title of this entry. In the late ’80′s and early ’90′s, carpal tunnel syndrome was all the rage. Not because it was new, but because it was categorized as an issue because of all the typing people were doing. But then, as with any hot topic in the media, it was forgotten about. I had just assumed it had been resolved.

I was wrong. Turns out, it is a fairly common ailment for people to get. Look on line for treatments and the web provides. Which is of course how I am able to diagnose myself and prescribe my own treatments.

Well, I guess we’ll have to wait and see if I was right. I mean really, leprosy makes you numb too.