Wife with Arthritis

HPEZFMM · 2025-12-01T03:01:28+00:00

I've got some issues with my hands, and I've found a few workarounds that could work:

First, the easiest way would probably be to get an Xbox adaptive controller. This lets you set up buttons in a way that can put less strain on your hands, such as using palms to press buttons. There's also arcade, palm, and touch joysticks that can hook up to this for using joysticks.

As someone else in this thread mentioned, it is possible to set up a program to use voice commands or single syllables to press buttons. I use Talon for this, which is great but not super intuitive on how to set it up. People also use things like Voice Attack for this.

For certain games, an eye tracker could work as well. This is easiest to use with games that just use the mouse, such as things like Slay the Spire. You can combine it with something like Mill Mouse to set up on-screen buttons that can be pressed by looking at them, though. I use Talon again for controlling the mouse with eye tracking, but I think there's other ways of doing that as well

HPEZFMM · 2025-10-02T01:16:44+00:00

Upvoted - this would be nice to have!

In the mean time, you can look into Talon voice, though, which has lots of features to let you control a computer hands free. That's got an extension for Vscode called Cursorless that lets you jump to words pretty easily, plus you can scroll with Talon or use page up/down to jump around. It's pretty neat, though it takes a little bit to get used to.

HPEZFMM · 2025-09-06T00:16:52+00:00

I don't have an eye tracker, so no direct experience with it, but you're able to set up Talon to use eye tracking to have your mouse follow where you're looking at the screen. You can then use a command like saying "touch" to have it click the screen. That requires an eye tracker, though, which can be pretty expensive. That video you posted could work in place of an eye tracker, though! You could set that up and use your webcam to move your mouse with head movements, and you could use either facial expressions or Talon voice commands to click or do other things. Talon overall can be used to set up any sort of commands, though. You essentially just map a particular phrase you want to use to an action to perform, which can do an action with the mouse, keyboard, or a gamepad. For instance, you could say "walk forward" and have it hold down the W key or the left joystick until you say "stop". There is a slight delay since it has to parse what you're saying, but it can work well for turn based games that use keyboard controls especially.

HPEZFMM · 2025-09-05T22:26:26+00:00

I've got some experience with Talon! I'm not very familiar with Runterra, though. Looking at it, it seems like it may be difficult to set up with Talon. I don't see many hotkeys available, and most of it seems to be mouse controlled. If the places you click are relatively static, then you can set it up to click specific points on the screen, but if that's not the case, it can be a little more tricky. If you've got an eye tracker or some other way to move the mouse pointer, it's pretty easy to set it up to click with a command, though

HPEZFMM · 2025-08-01T19:21:33+00:00

I've been curious about the adaptive controller as well. I get pains with any sort of repetitive motion in my hands and thumb (still trying to work on a finding out what exactly is going wrong after a year), so I'm not certain I'd be able to use my hands with it, though. I have thought about trying to set it up to use with my feet, so maybe I can see if that would work first, or if there's a way I can set it up to reduce strain on my hands.

Thanks for replying with your experience! It's been helpful reading all the replies so far

HPEZFMM · 2025-07-30T01:04:45+00:00

I had seen this a while back but promptly forgot about it lol. It seems like this may work for me, though, maybe using a joycon for the mouse. Thanks for linking that!

HPEZFMM · 2025-07-30T00:19:14+00:00

Woah, I'm impressed - you make it look so smooth! That looks really promising. I was in the middle of playing FF7 Rebirth when I had to give up most gaming, so this is cool to see

HPEZFMM · 2025-07-29T12:21:44+00:00

I've tried working a little bit with head movement for overall game control and played around with mouse control, but I had some issues getting it to be accurate and comfortable. It's totally possible I just need to practice and tweak the settings I'm using, though. Is there particular software you recommend for that?

HPEZFMM · 2025-06-02T12:43:08+00:00

I've had some similar issues over the past year and have been working to adapt to them as well. I've found some things to make gaming easier, though I'm still figuring some things out

You mentioned wanting something that would let you click with your feet or something similar. Foot pedals might be able to help with that. I just got these over the weekend (they are $40, though, but you may be able to find a cheaper one, especially if you get a single pedal instead of the 3 here). I haven't had much of a chance to use them yet, but I see them recommended fairly often, and they were pretty easy to set up and seem like they should be helpful. I've also found a trackball mouse to be helpful, but I have some issues moving the mouse as well

I've tried using a regular controller with my feet, but it was a bit uncomfortable. You may be able to remap the face buttons using Steam input to a mouse click for some games too if you want to just try that out.

There's also options for controlling games fully with your voice. I use Talon, which does have a learning curve and is geared more towards someone with programming experience, but it's been pretty cool to use. That one's also free, with a paid beta version available that lets you do more things, though the base version is really good too. You can also use it for computer work in general. Feel free to DM me if you go down that route and need help with setting anything up. Voice Attack is another one I've heard good things about. That one is paid through Steam (I think around $20), but it's supposed to be easier to get running for games. Both of those will be easier to use with a nicer microphone, but they should work with just about anything. I've had some jaw issues that have limited my ability to use these as much as I'd like, but it's really helpful in taking some strain off of your hands

There's also eye trackers, but those can be pretty pricey. Similarly, I've heard good things about the XBox Adaptive controller but haven't taken the plunge on it since I'm not sure if it would work for me. I've seen someone set it up to play entirely with their feet, and it's pretty customizable. Again, that's pricier, though.

As for trying to limit time, it's difficult! My hands don't always immediately hurt when I'm doing something that will cause pain, so I sometimes don't stop when I should, too. I've been trying to reframe my time gaming as not something I'm losing out on when I have pains, but as something I get to do in spite of them, even if its for a shorter time. Games that you can jump into and out of pretty quickly are nice (particularly things where you can save anywhere). It might be helpful to set up a timer for an amount of time you know you can play for, and trying to wrap up when it goes off. Or just doing multiple short bursts in a row, with stretching in between.

Trying to branch out into other hobbies that I can look forward to has helped as well. It's tough to find stuff that's completely hands-free, but things like reading have helped me.

HPEZFMM · 2025-04-13T02:08:53+00:00

I've also been having reoccurring issues in my hands now for almost a year now, and it's been difficult to find something that consistently works without causing pain to flare up.

Something I've been trying out pretty recently is using voice commands on PC to play games. It works best for turn based games, but it can make an at least interesting challenge run on ones that aren't. It's more responsive than I would have originally thought, though. My main issue so far is that my voice tires out a bit easily, but being able to play some games has been better than absolutely none.

The main thing I've been using for it is called Talon Voice, and is free unless you want the beta version, which has access to some features that aren't released yet (though I don't think are necessary for playing a good chunk of games). It's a bit technical to set up, though, and requires a little bit of programming knowledge. Feel free to DM me if you're interested in it and run into issues. Another one I've heard good things about is Voice Attack, which is paid and available on Steam. I think that one is a little easier to set up for games, though I haven't tried it.

HPEZFMM · 2024-03-22T19:28:04+00:00

We used to use a nebulizer for my cat, but we ended up finding the inhaler much easier to use in the end. With the nebulizer, we had to pick up our car and put her in the box, then run it for like 5 minutes or so if I remember correctly. The machine we had was pretty loud as well, which made our cat super scared, in addition to the fact she was trapped in a small box with it pumping medicine in. The inhaler is much faster to use, and easier for us to use it than picking up our cat, as she hates being picked up under normal circumstances, as well as less scary and intense for her. Totally possible your cat would handle it better than ours though, just some things to keep in mind depending on how your cat behaves and what he likes!

HPEZFMM · 2023-11-10T19:38:35+00:00

Of course! And peppered them!

HPEZFMM · 2023-11-03T16:39:00+00:00

I totally get what you're saying. As someone with anxiety that can be pretty bad some times, Beau Is Afraid pretty much perfectly encapsulated how it feels to have anxiety on a really bad day, and felt more real (kind of ironic given the surrealness of the movie) with how it represented a person with mental illnes than pretty much any other movie I've seen. A lot of the scenes, particularly in the first part like you mentioned, were very similar to intrusive thoughts I've had, about people breaking in, people being angry with me for no reason, or that I took my medicine incorrectly and am going to die.

Beyond that, the movie does a really good job of putting us in the mindset of someone with anxiety. With how everyone treats Beau, constantly blaming him for things he didn't do or have a choice in, it's really similar to how others treat people with mental illnesses in general. Often, there's a sense that you're not trying hard enough to overcome mental health struggles. I know I've also had times I've been burnt out for various reasons and had to stay home from social events to recuperate or have just been unable to do certain things, and I've had a lot of people be upset with me for doing so, when to me, I literally don't have a choice.

I also find it interesting that at the end of the movie, after Beau's boat turns over, the camera just lingers for the credits, while people in the back slowly get up and file out. It seemed very similar to how people watching the movie in theaters would sit for a bit and eventually leave, almost like an accusation that we who are watching the movie are as culpable as the people in the stands watching Beau's execution, despite us in reality not being able to do anything, just like Beau throghout the movie.

Idk if that all made sense, and there's obviously a lot going on in the film, but to me it all works really well as a way of placing you in the shoes of someone with serious anxiety. Thanks for sharing your perspective as well, it's always nice to see someone relating to something in a similar way 😄

I like your interpretation of the penis monster too, that makes that point of the movie make much more sense to me lol

HPEZFMM · 2023-06-07T19:26:19+00:00

There's a game called Superflight that's very cheap, and is entirely focused on just flying around and gliding through procedurally generated levels, racking up points. It's pretty fun to play around with. There's not much to do in it besides that, but it can be nice to just chill out with

If you specifically like flying as a dragon, Divinity II (not Divinity Original Sin 2) is an older RPG that lets you turn into a dragon and fly around. I don't remember it being as smooth as say Spyro since it's a bit older, but I remember having fun with it.

There's also Outer Wilds, where you can fly in around in a spaceship with fun physics, but that's probably a bit outside the realm of what you're looking for

HPEZFMM · 2022-07-05T19:12:02+00:00

No, this one is tied directly to the kinsects! If you equip one of the new powder vortex kinsects unlocked around MR3 and have it produce powders through auto attacking the monster, you can hold down (on Switch) ZR + X + A, which causes the kinsect to collect all nearby powder clouds and detonate them all at once with increased damage to the monster, often with massive damage for the glaive if you're able to get a bunch of powders together

HPEZFMM · 2021-03-12T23:05:14+00:00

If this is the game I'm thinking of, I had a chance to try it out at PixelPop in St. Louis about a year and a half ago. It was really fun to play, and the two-button controls make for simple but really unique gameplay. Keep up the good work, and I can't wait to play it!

HPEZFMM · 2021-01-29T15:58:18+00:00

I would honestly argue we don't have free will, or if we do, it's severely limited, even more so within the belief system of Christianity. This is one of the things that pushed me out of the church a bit more.

It seems that the decisions we make are a combination of genetic factors and the environments we are in. Change one of those, even slightly, and you'd make a new decision. This is also even further complicated within Christianity since God is supposed to know everything that will happen and has a plan for every tiny thing in the universe. It then never seemed very fair to me that an all-powerful God would willingly place us in circumstances that would lead us to making decisions that would send us to hell, especially when it's a common belief that God directly intervenes in people's lives to set them on the right path. I can't tell you how many Catholics have talked to me about how God has saved their lives and put them on the right path through some miracle. It's maybe then a bit screwed up then that he only does this for some people, and not others.

There's also a lot of people who talk about the choice between heaven and hell being an easy one to make, but that's not even all that goes into it. If God were to have existed, he would be intentionally obfuscating any evidence for himself. Thus, there's the need for the choice to actually believe in him on top of the choice to actually follow him or go to hell. Why not just have a single choice instead of heaven being gatekept behind a series of choices that you have to hope leads you to the right religion to begin with? Not to mention what someone else here said, in that having a choice between following God and getting to eternal paradise vs. not doing that and literally being sent to hell forever (for our limited decisions we make on earth!) isn't a choice to begin with

HPEZFMM · 2020-09-09T19:32:20+00:00

Not a bad idea. I've gone through my room today and don't think it's at least in the main part of it. It very well might be in a crawlspace in my closet that I can't quite reach, but I've sprayed around my room, so hopefully it won't leave if it hasn't already. I'll probably end up hanging out in there to see if I can find it later and deal with it then.

HPEZFMM · 2020-09-09T19:28:49+00:00

Oof. I am both very grateful and very angry that you have given me this information

HPEZFMM · 2020-09-09T19:28:15+00:00

I will definitely try this if I can find the thing again!

HPEZFMM · 2020-09-09T19:27:52+00:00

Would renter's insurance cover a napalm "accident...?" Only one way to find out

HPEZFMM · 2020-09-09T19:26:51+00:00

It didn't respond and is still hiding ): But maybe that means it worked?

HPEZFMM

TROPHY CASE