Texting teen diagnosed with carpal tunnel

LONG GROVE, Ill. (STMW) — “So u really text that much?”

“yes i used to send about a hundred text a day but it has slowed down since i got the braces”

“But r u cutting back?”

“yes the braces make it painful to text as well as it just hurts in general same goes for typing on the computer.”

That’s how a text interview went with Annie Levitz, 16, an Adlai Stevenson High School junior who has been diagnosed with carpel tunnel syndrome because of her texting.

If you have witnessed a teenager text, their speed and dexterity is impressive on the tiny cell phone keyboards. News has spread around school about her condition.

“When I walk into science class they say, ‘Carpal Tunnel Girl’,” she said at her home near the Mundelein and Long Grove border. She was sitting on a sofa chair with ugly braces on each wrist.

Dr. Sofia Aksentijevich is a rheumatologist, a doctor who specializes in arthritis and related diseases, who diagnosed Levitz with carpal tunnel syndrome. “It’s unusual among younger patients, but not unique,” she said.

The Vernon Hills doctor says she does see it with some 20-somethings. Pregnant women also are susceptible because of swelling.

The pain comes from nerve compression in the “carpal tunnel” that holds nerves, tendons and arteries in the wrist. “They all share that small space,” she said.

Symptoms start gradually and include not being able to grasp things or losing your grip, frequent burning, tingling or itching numbness in the palm of the hand and the fingers — especially the thumb and the index and middle fingers.

“It affects every day life,” said Aksentijevich.

And Levitz can attest to that.

“I’ve broken many dishes. Yesterday in Target, I dropped my Starbucks. It just slipped out of my hand,” she said. She is trying to correct her habit. “It’s true, we send more texts than we need to.”

Just ask her mom, who has a cell phone bill showing more than 2,000 texts for a month’s time and that is after she cut down.

“Unlimited (texting) is a Catch-22. Three to four hundred a day, it’s ridiculous,” said her mother, Carrie Levitz, especially when it consists of “Hey,” and “Hey,” “What’s up?” “What’s up?”

“When we found out what it was (carpal tunnel syndrome), I was just angry,” she said.

“I thought the pain would stop her, but it slowed her down,” she said. The rest of the family also thinks the texting has gone a little too far.

“They kind of think it’s ridiculous,” Annie said of her two brothers, Jordan, 20, and Zachary, 23.

She said she got her first cellular telephone in middle school, but it was in high school that the texting took off as she tried to keep in touch with people from all the different things she is involved in, like intramural sports, TBA (Theater Before Actors, a play writing club) and theater.

On this day she only had 37 texts, “and that’s a good day,” said her mother. “It depends on the day,” says her daughter.

Mom thinks that kids who prefer texting these days are losing out on developing telephone etiquette. They can’t just call someone and talk. That will hurt them at work or finding a job. They have a fear of the phone,” she said.

“I still prefer texting,” said Annie, “but I’ve learned that some communication is not worth it,” she said. One of her solutions is to get an iPhone, which you can still text on, but it’s a touch screen, requiring less work.

But Carrie and her husband, Alan, were unfazed.

“We’re not buying it,” said her mother. “The doctor says she just needs to text less.”

Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.