Maybe you work as a welder at construction sites and have recently noticed a strange but not painful tingling in your arms before lunch and then again toward the end of the day. Perhaps you work in a factory, and you started to experience tingling when you grip, rotate or lift tools or components. You might even notice tingling in your arms as an office worker who types all day.
On its own, tingling probably doesn’t seem like a big deal. You can probably just ignore it and go on with your day, at least at first. However, if you have persistent tingling that continues to occur shift after shift, the chances are good that the tingle you feel will eventually increase and turn into pain and eventually also weakness.
Tingling is an early warning that you may be on the path to a repetitive stress or repetitive motion injury.
Your body can’t do the same thing every day like a robot
Companies tend to treat workers like a piece of machinery that they plug into a role to perform a duty. However, unlike a machine, you don’t have the option of just getting a new component when something wears out due to overuse.
Your joints, muscles and connective tissue can also suffer low-grade damage as you do your job every day. Eventually, those small injuries can build up into something more serious. The sooner you get treatment for the symptoms of a repetitive motion injury, the better your chances are of preventing it from having a long-term impact on your job duties and performance.
Left untreated, tingling that indicates repetitive motion issues could become severe pain that will permanently limit what job functions you can perform.
Repetitive motion injuries can qualify for workers’ compensation
A repetitive motion injury is a work-acquired health condition. That means that the physical symptoms you experience are a direct result of the job you do. You can likely apply for workers’ compensation benefits and receive full coverage for medical care to treat the underlying issue as well as the replacement of some of your wages if you need to take time off to heal.
Filing a workers’ compensation claim can also help by inspiring your employer to accommodate you with different job responsibilities that don’t aggravate your injury. The sooner you file a claim, the greater your chances are of recovering from a repetitive motion injury and being able to stay on the job.