Job Discussion Forums

[markus]

I've been diagnosed as having carpal tunnel syndrome and am considering English conversation as a fun job to take up while I recover. I am able to write a little, maybe two paragraphs per day, but the less I do the faster I'll recover. I've read that NOVA only requires you to write two very short student evaluations per class and you don't even have to write up lesson plans so I think I could do that. Would I have other options in eikaiwa, hagwon, public schools, or universities. I'm open to teaching in various countries. S Korea sounds profitable while Japan, Thailand, and Cambodia sound like a lot of fun. Taiwon sounds interesting but my hands aren't reliable enough to drive a scooter. Would you all recommend I try teaching English? Does AEON require much writing? Thanks in advance!

[Girl Scout]

How long will it take you to recover?

You should be aware that some countries require physical exams, Taiwan, Japan. A pre-exsisting condition could make a few employers nervous.

One of the schools I worked at did not want to hire a guy because he walked with a limp and most facilities had no evelator.

[mdk]

Markus I never saw a more inappropriate place to ask this question. Nobody here is a hand specialist to the best of my knowledge.

I, on the other hand, am a quondam Workers Compensation Case Management Nurse with tres boo-coo experience working with carpal tunnel syndrome.

Here are a few points:

1. What does your doctor tell you should be done? (Are you being followed by a hand specialist?)

2. Can you use a laptop with speech recognition hardware instead of writing?

3. I presume you aren't doing anything like knitting or playing the quitar in your spare time?

4. Are you wearing your cock-up splints and doing your exercises religiously?

5. Can you dictate your reports?

6. If you aren't working somewhere that has disability benefits, why are you not doing so? Unless you are pregnant or diabetic CTS doesn't tend to go away easily.

Good luck and take care of yourself. I promise the director of that school won't.

[Stephen Jones]

Carpal tunnel syndrome often doesn't ever cure itself.

Voice recognition software is now good enough to mean it will not destroy your productivity however.

[mdk]

Dear Stephen,

I've seen good results when it's caught early and treated with aggressive PT and job modification. By aggressive PT, I mean a few weeks of training for self care.

Once it comes down to surgery, I'm not so optimistic. Personally I hate to see surgery attempted in the absence of frank thenar wasting. The trouble with surgeons is that "if you are a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail".

[dmb]

I have to admit to ignorance. I had never heard of it before. For those equally ignorant.
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/carpal_tunnel/detail_carpal_tunnel.htm#82213049

Hope it all works out well.

[Gurdeep Rivenvald III]

[Stephen Jones]

People with carpal tunnel syndrome can probably write and draw on the board OK, albeit not to Leonardo's standards.

[fancynan]

I had CTS in both hands. I had trouble holding the steering wheel of a car, couldn't hold a pen or pencil and had a tough time typing. I had the surgery on both hands, two weeks apart. That was about 8 years ago and I am fine now. Whenever I feel any tingles, I do stretching exercises and use the hand splints, but that is very rare. After the surgery, I had PT but I was back to work in about a week or two.

[mdk]

I cannot re-emphasize strongly enough that the free advice you are getting on this forum is worth *less* than what you have paid for it.

The only rational way to deal with this condition is to consult your doctor and follow his advice explicitly and faithfully. If he does not clear you to do an activity and you persist in doing it....

I speak as an RN with about 10 years of disability management experience. You are dealing with a condition that can cost you the effective use of your hands if you do not deal with it correctly. Why take such a chance to do a job for which there are hundreds of other people willing to do?

[denise]

[mdk]

[mdk]

[denise]

Let's assume that the OP has, in fact, consulted trained RNs or doctors for medical advice. What could they tell him, though, about the workload of an average EFL teacher? For an answer to such a question, advice from teachers currently in the field could be a bit more appropriate. Let's also assume that the OP knows that this is a teaching forum for teachers with questions about teaching, NOT a medical forum.

d

[mdk]

In point of fact I am a teacher, whether you like that or not. I can teach the past perfect tense, can you legally sign RN after your name?

A case of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome runs about a 1 percent prognosis of permanent disability. That risk level is for treatment in a modern western milieu with a competent hand surgeon, physiotherapy by a certified hand therapist and support from an ergonomist to perform job analyses and suggest work modifications. (As opposed to anecdotal advice from other teachers)

The OP however is proposing to go off to west hokeypuck somewhere in Asia, where he will almost certainly not have access to western treatment protocols. He also proposes to place himself under the thoughtful care of the director of some McSchool over there. Perhaps he will even have acupuncture. I figure that will bump his risk at least a couple of points. He is now looking down the throat of an estimated double or triple risk (at least) for the payoff of the sublime joys of teaching 1 year overseas in west hockeypuck. Doesn't sound too shrewd to me as either a teacher or an RN. Perhaps you disagree?

This isn't the sort of argument which is likely to prevail online with your average ESL teacher (in my experience), so I have urged the OP to run this past his medical provider in hopes that he will prevail upon him (the OP) to stay home until he is ready for a year overseas.