It was Thursday, November 5th, 1998, and the pain just got to the point where I couldn't take it anymore. Tylenol, Advil, Motrin -- it wasn't working. I figured there had to be something someone could do.

So, I called the clinic that I go to, made an appointment to see the RNCMP that I generally see…After talking about what had been occurring at my job she said, 'You know, this is related to your work. You key a lot.' (I don't have any hobbies that require my hands.) She said, 'You need to go through the work comp route and I'd say at this point, don't type for two weeks.'

So I stopped typing. Once I was told to stop typing, I started faxing and filing and copying all day long. I did this for about six weeks and during that time, the pain went from being just in my wrist, into my forearm, into my elbow, moved up into my shoulders and got to the point where it hurt to even just have my arms hanging at my side. And at that point I was taken off work for three weeks.

Workers Comp: Three weeks turned into five months, and her employer would not cover her lost work time or medical bills. Livelyhood asked Tiffany to describe the lawsuit that she filed.

When my doctor said this was work related I had to go through Work Comp. Initially it was accepted and for the three weeks I was off in December, my wage loss was paid and my medical bills were paid. But then in February they decided to retroactively deny the claim - they felt it was not occupational.

We had to hire a lawyer - basically sue my employer to cover my medical bills and my wage loss from January through June. And so we've had to deal with all that on top of trying to get better and heal, which my doctors also said added to my depression. It's been a struggle to try and do the right thing.

We went to trial in the end of July.

At the trial, Tiffany discovered that a private investigator had been hired to follow her for two weeks in June and July. In court the opposite side showed a videotape of Tiffany as evidence that she was not disabled, but the tape had the opposite effect.

It really supported our case because it showed that I couldn't use my right arm, I used my left arm to do everything. It showed us walking our dogs; the leash was always in my left hand. Coming out of a coffee shop with a cup in my left hand, in the middle of rush hour traffic, putting the cup on the top of the car, trying to fidget and open the door with my left hand, you know, grab the cup, get in the car, put the cup down, shut the car door. Put my seat belt, start the car with my left hand.

It was very hard not to laugh at the video because it didn't support their case. I had actually said throughout the whole time, as we were having trouble with Work Comp I actually wished they would have someone follow us 'cause then they'd see that I can't do anything.

Finally, this September, the case was resolved.

I got the judgement in the mail on Saturday, September, 11, 1999. I WON! They have to pay all medical, past, present and future. My wage loss, prescriptions, parking, mileage, you name it. We are so happy!

We asked Tiffany to describe the problems with her workstation that contributed to her condition, and how they were corrected..

We had thought we had an ergonomically sound cubicle set up because they had purchased an expensive chair and said it was ergonomic. I had an ergonomic split keyboard. But when an ergonomic evaluation was finally done, it showed that my chair, the back support on it was not correct. When I had back support, if I sat back all the way and had back support, I didn't have arm support, and vice versa. If I wanted to key a lot, I'd sit forward to have the arm support except then my back wasn't supported.

Also the keyboard tray was at a wrong height - bad angle - my monitor was too low. So, being in a bad position, over a period of time, you know, five days a week, keying 80 words a minute about six hours a day, it built up…They said they could tell just by looking at it that the chair wasn't right.

Also I had built up quite a few mouse pads on my keyboard tray and they said, "You should not have to build up. Things should be correct the way [they are] and you shouldn't need four mouse pads." But as the pain kept getting worse, I would just try and put another one on hoping that that would help. Also my keyboard tray was at a funny angle and I think it was too high. There was a small paper tray next to my computer but it was on the desktop itself, it wasn't raised up and at the same height as the monitor. So I was always looking down at the tray and then up at the monitor when I'd be working. So, they said it needed some major changes.

They've purchased a new chair that is indeed ergonomically correct, that has better back support and arm support. The arms are like flippers and they rotate around, and they're easy to move so that I can adjust them for whether I'm typing or if I'm just writing things at my desk. I do have a foot mouse now, and the voice recognition for the computer. They've ordered a new desk, as well, because at some point in time I will actually be able to type again. It'll never be the volume and the speed that I did. And for when that actually comes, I will have an electronically operated desk that can be adjusted. I believe it's just by holding a switch -- it'll move it up and down so that it will be at the correct height for whatever I need to do.

While she was at home, unable to work, Tiffany discovered ways that she could comfortably use the computer there.

My husband and I went out and we bought voice recognition for our computer at home. And so I learned how to use voice recognition and just dictate things into the computer. And I didn't have to type and so I was able to e-mail friends, dictate up letters.

We then purchased a foot mouse that he had found off the Internet and that allowed me to navigate around better. I started using the computer and reading things on the Internet, researching repetitive stress injuries. It's very, very common. People are using computers more and more now than they were before. The specific illnesses are very hard to diagnose because there's only a certain set of tests they can do. And they can only diagnose carpal tunnel with a positive EMG and other things. It gets to the point where after so many things come up negative, they can really just say you have repetitive stress injury, and they can't nail it down and really only doing nothing and taking anti-inflammatories can help it get better.

I'll pretty much have to deal with this for the rest of my life. I'll have to be careful about not overusing my arms. Otherwise I could, you know, get the ligaments and tendons inflamed in my arms to the point where I can't do anything again.

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