Wow Pen Joy Vertical Ergonomic Optical Mouse Silver by Ergoguys

I experienced pain in my index and middle fingers from clicking and using traditional and even contemporary horizontal 'ergonomic' mice. I attribute the pain I experienced to poor posture, overuse and most of it probably to 'hovering' my hand over the mouse as there was no way to comfortable rest my hand/fingers on it without touching or dragging on the mouse pad. Using the Vertical mouse has helped alleviate the majority of the pain I experienced over the course of several months, I no longer am troubled by pain after only a few moments of mouse use. I am only slightly aware of 'strain' or potential 'pain' when I attempt to force my hand to use the vertical mouse the way I used older mice, index finger on the left mouse button and middle finger on the right. For me the natural position with this mouse is index and middle finger on the left mouse button and ring and pinky on the right. Based on my large (glove sizing) hands the forward button on the lower side takes some getting used to but the back is much easier to use right away. With this mouse there are two 'positions' that work for me close on as if my weight was pushed on the mouse or looser as if I was hanging from it. I imagine closer would alleviate the problems of hand/finger strain relying less on extension to perform clicks but would require more time to adjust. I mainly use a looser grip as it is more 'natural' for me. I also used a thumb mouse/trackball around when I first got this mouse as the pain was so severe I couldn't even click with my right hand for very long. That was used in my left hand to do all the clicking while I used the vertical mouse to move the cursor. Any usb mouse/device could be used if the pain is so great one can't or doesn't use the buttons with the affected hand. For me this helped alleviate the pain/strain I felt and allowed me to more quickly adjust to the mouse and start using it exclusively. I'll just add I had little to no pain in my forearm before using this product so it didn't help me with any of that, my issue was in my hand primarily my index finger. If this seems to be an issue one faces I'd certainly recommend a vertical mouse or the use of a second pointing device to do your clicking if you can use the primary hand to move the mouse cursor on the screen. All one needs is for them to both be USB devices and WINXP, at least, detects and allows them to operate at the same time, one might even remove the tracking mechanism from one to avoid accidentally using it to move the cursor, or taping over the IR sensor to achieve the same effect with a laser device.

I originally chose this because I was having pain in my shoulder, arm and wrist, and while it was temporarily somewhat of a relief, the actual device itself seems doesn't seem to work properly. Yes, it operates as a mouse, but when I've removed my hand and am no longer using it, the pointer continues to move all around the screen, which is just annoying. However subsequent irritating behavior now is that it does not select or direct precisely, so I click on the item/link I want, but actually another is selected. I don't think that I need glasses - as I have switched back to my old mouse and everything works fine again - no roaming pointer all over the screen and I'm back to precise selection. Plus contruction of the joy-pen not so sturdy - it makes creaking noises as I use it and make selections with the buttons. This was basically a waste of money - sorry.

I was having serious shoulder problems related to my work-station ergonomic set-up. Unfortunately, my physical therapist (at the time) thought this Wow Pen Joy was the silver bullet to solve those issues. Problem was that a previous physical therapist had recommended the Logitech Trackman Mouse ( [...] ). Well, I was in pain and needed to do something, so I went ahead and swapped out one ergonomic mouse for another one. Guess what? The new Wow Pen Joy didn't help at all. In fact, it may have made the problem worse because it's "joy stick" sort of shape may have encouraged me to squeeze the mouse (which the Logitech Trackman just let my hand lay on top of it). Ultimately, I got a new physical therapist and a professional ergonomic evaluation and discovered that: (a) The slight difference in hand angle (about 5-10%) between the Trackman and the Wow Pen Joy wouldn't make any difference to my problems, and even if the angle was more, it was a minimal contributor to the problem. Plus the tendency the grab the Wow Pen Joy made it worse. (b) The real problem I was having was related to incorrect seat position, keyboard too low, hunching over, keyboard positioned wrong, and the fact that the keyboard had a number pad on the right of the keyboard requiring the mouse to be positioned way far to the right, which caused continual shoulder stress. So, I needed a wholesale reworking of my ergonomic situation, and not something a little clever mouse shape might help. So, for a true ergononic device, I give this mouse a low rating. It's also seems to be built with cheaper/lighter plastics, but that isn't really a problem. It does work fine as a mouse (ergonomic issues aside), and for someone who isn't at a keyboard 40 hours a week, using most of that time navigating around email and documents with a mouse, it might be okay. But, for me -- I seriously think it made my problem worse.

Does what it's supposed to do - which is elevate the underside of the wrist and reduce pressure on the median nerve and consequently avoid carpal tunnel damage My initial feeling is that while comfort is has been improved the Joy Pen may well produce it's on set of problems as a different set of large and small muscles of the hand and forearm take the strain. Despite that an excellent product for the price point and will do until I can trade up to to the even stranger Evoluent