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Rethinking bench work with a neck problem
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PartialDischarge:
Don’t go through surgery, you’ll be worse, and worse forever in an unfixable way. Do whatever exercises you need to get better, seems like muscle strengthening would help you. So take up swimming or bench presses.

Seems like this is the right story for you

https://youtu.be/qX9FSZJu448
jfiresto:
You might look at used surgical (OP) microscopes which have special heads that tilt from horizontal to vertical to accommodate whatever the surgeon is working on. Combine that with an appropriate 0.3X to 0.5X auxiliary objective, to raise the microscope, and you will not have to look down.

The heads from Wild/Leica also work on their non-surgical M-series microscopes, with the caveat that they may introduce some vignetting if you put a photo tube or very wide field (10X/26.5) oculars in the optical stack. I have thought about getting one for my M7A.
hans:
Thanks for the new comments this has been getting.

I have visited the prof doctor today. Good news: I don't need surgery, yet. Plan is to wait 1 year and see how it develops. It may be coincidental that I have the neck as is and also happen to have migraines or other neck pain. In fact, this sounds plausible to me as I have had weekly migraines for almost 20 years now. He described it as 'impossible' to find any correlation let alone causation between symptom and cause. The prof said that my scans & degree of BI are not too severe to rush into a fixation surgery. Indeed only during neck flexion the medulla is slightly impressed due to C1 being positioned too high, which is perhaps the only issue I really have. The spine and other vertebra looked fine. Nonetheless, the bad news is fixation is a very invalidating surgery (as @MasterTech suggests). He explained that fixing C1 requires a full fusion, in which the neck has very little movement left (likely need adjusted car or can't drive, etc.). It should still be considered if more severe symptoms develop, such a consistent tingling in hands or a gait that mimics a drunk person, but for now let's hope that will never be the case.
The video from MasterTech is very inspiring. Yes I'm pretty confident that the route of conservative treatment is still largely unexplored. My doctor could not give an explanation w.r.t. correlation with stress, being more overweight, etc.  : only that both factors lowers the threshold of external stimuli...

Unfortunately he was only able to give little direct advice w.r.t. lifestyle or work. Raising the work level or using a microscope seems like a valid option to avoid symptoms like tingling. No mention of the degree of care I should take in this. Tingling is mostly harmless. Basically, he told me that I am the judge on what is acceptable.

So still a safe bet to adjust as much as I can anyway. A few weeks ago I raised my computer monitor setup as high as it would go (so I slightly look up wards). I also daily take Resveratrol 100mg for the last 2 weeks now. Unfortunately, neck/headache episodes still come and go, but I will continue to take Resveratrol for a little while (I have another bottle of 30 capsules). Like I said, my neck may indeed actually not have vertebra subluxations but 'only' a too highly positioned C1.

With regards to recommendations of microscopes:

I think that on a microscope; eyepiece adjustment is very nice to have... I'm not to keen on the ones where the eyepieces are titled and too far back on the bench to reach, so you still tilt your head 20 degrees down to look into them.
Then again, tilting only 20 degrees is probably a massive 40-70 degrees saved, depending on how much you like the board you're soldering. :-/O :)

Unfortunately, I'm not too impressed by the prices from Leica (the surgical versions, at least). Tagarno microscopes were also really expensive.. I'm afraid they will be out of reach even at work - academic budgets are unfortunately finite. A Mantis may be viable. I will discuss that option next week at work and my company doctor.

For hobby I contemplate a adjustable standard + HDMI camera + external monitor. I have taken a look at the option provided by Electo Fan at Dutch shops:
E.g. AmScope SM-4TP + KP-2307V-05XHY-1138 or HY-1138 camera. The Amprobe base still has the titled binoculars, but with the camera I would have both options. Nice thing is I can add the camera as an addon if I find that long sessions on the binoculars is uneasy.

Alternatives could be this camera+stand or with additional screen. But I don't really like the last option (why have a proprietary screen when I have 2 FullHD IPS monitors collecting dust here... The Amazon camera+stand unfortunately is not available, but it's probably the KP-2307V camera (or similar).

The first Eleshop kit + 2K camera options seems like a semi-affordable option. Not sure whether the 4NTP or 4TP model have significant differences though. Working distance of 100mm or 200mm with 0.5 Barlow lens sounds very good  (Mantis Compact/Elite is about 160mm at 2x zoom). Unfortunately, the specifications for the camera head are IMO a bit vague (let's say lost in translation).

Things I still question about the Amprobe, maybe some people have experience with it:

What is the view range (e.g. width)? This is in case I also would like to use it for other activities such as assembly or finishing 3D prints (sanding etc).
How easy is it to switch the Barlow lens? Switching quickly between 0.5x or 0.3x sounds like it may be worth it..

Height adjustments on my desk or work area also sounds like a good idea. I may actually start to draw up a plan together, now that I have some more info on microscopes :)
thm_w:

--- Quote from: hans on January 28, 2021, 10:30:26 pm ---Unfortunately he was only able to give little direct advice w.r.t. lifestyle or work. Raising the work level or using a microscope seems like a valid option to avoid symptoms like tingling. No mention of the degree of care I should take in this. Tingling is mostly harmless. Basically, he told me that I am the judge on what is acceptable.

--- End quote ---

This is not surprising, from what I've seen its black and white. If it doesn't need surgery they won't have anything to say beyond that. Which is OK, just know that you should follow up with a physiotherapist/kinesiologist/etc to get relevant advice there.

Headaches could be from anything, but yeah having your neck craned forward definitely would not help. Some other things that could be worth looking at: general bloodwork (Fe, B12, Mg, D, etc.), dental issues, sleep issues (if you wake up with dry mouth or have trouble waking up).
Electro Fan:

--- Quote from: hans on January 28, 2021, 10:30:26 pm ---What is the view range (e.g. width)? This is in case I also would like to use it for other activities such as assembly or finishing 3D prints (sanding etc).
How easy is it to switch the Barlow lens? Switching quickly between 0.5x or 0.3x sounds like it may be worth it..

--- End quote ---

Good news on no surgery!

I think you are asking about width in terms of Field of View (FOV).  The measurements are in the attached table at the bottom of the link I provided.  Changing Barlow lenses is easy, like changing a light bulb - maybe less than a minute (~15-30 seconds x 2 to unscrew one off and screw the other on).

Edit:  I upgraded the time from about 30 sec total to about 1 min - no sense in rushing, but more more importantly, fwiw, almost all my Barlow changes were done when I first set up the scope.  Once I got a sense for the tradeoffs I picked the Barlow that worked best for me overall (in terms of working space, Field Of View, and the various magnifications with respect to clarity, sharpness, detail) and then standardized on that Barlow lens (which in my case happened to be the 0.5).

It’s nice knowing what each of the Barlows do but if somehow I could have experienced the differences for free I could have saved some $ on the trying/experimenting.  Having said that it’s somewhat nice to know that if I find some new use case I have the other Barlows on hand.  In general, on the Amscope 4 series I’d suggest the 0.5 as a starter for soldering related work but maybe read my description/comments regarding the 0.3 and 0.7 if you think one of those might be better for your use. 

Something to keep in mind is that you can increase the working distance to an extent that you have plenty of working space and also relatively more Field Of View (both of which can be useful) but at some point you will be optically so far from the subject that you might start to prefer a closer in perspective that would enable your eyes and brain to resolve and yield more detail.  And as mentioned, the lesser magnification (smaller Barlow number) drives the oculars (and your eyes, head, and neck) higher from the bench.  So it’s a bit of a puzzle and until you experience it with your particular setup it’s hard to know with certainty what’s best for your needs and preferences. The chart I published should help show some trends among the tradeoffs.

It’s like picking among cars with various specs, options, and qualitative descriptions; you can read the reviews but after doing your research a test drive or a 1 day take home demo would help make decisions.  YMMV but I think you are on the right road :)
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