That's interesting, because it's like the opposite of what happened to
me.  In my late teens, I quit school in order to program
professionally.  Out of high school, I tutored CS undergrads at local
universities, and I considered CS undergrad and grad students to be
programming dilettantes who needed knowledge spoonfed to them by
professors, and couldn't make it in industry.  Not that you are of
course!  My views have obviously changed a lot since I was a teen.

I've spent most of my waking hours every day sitting at a computer for
about 10 years now.  So far, I've managed to avoid CTS while many of my
friends haven't.  Here are some things that work for me:

1) Always have a wrist rest for the keyboard.  I use a regular keyboard (can't
stand the "natural" shapes), but I must have a wrist rest.  If I try to type
without a wrist (or, according to my usage, really palm) rest, I instantly
feel pain on the underside of my wrist, prime CTS real estate.  At home, my
keyboard has an attached plastic wrist rest.  At work, it's a fabric squooshy
rest.  The key point is that my wrists aren't sharply angled while typing.
Along with this goes touch typing, so that my hands are rarely in weird
positions on the keyboard.

2) Trackball over mouse.  I'm told it slows me down in fast-twitch games, but
I love them.  BUT -- big but -- it has to be the *right* trackball.  The ones
that rely on my thumb to roll the ball quickly tire my wrist, so I seek out
the ones that let me use my index finger.  Trackballs are also great for
clutterhounds like me who have piles of stuff all over their desks.  Unlike
the keyboard issue, I can work with a mouse, but over time a trackball is less
tiring.  Because models are phased out every few years, I actually have extras
of some of my old favorites that I found at a used computer shop.

3) Trackball or mouse wrist rest.  Definitely.  This one really does support
my wrist.  I place it so that the rest is about an inch further down than the
heel of my palm.

4) Vastly preferring keyboard to mouse.  Long ago, a professor told me that
she never had CTS problems until her computer had a mouse.  I've always
preferred keystrokes to mousing, anyway, but her comment really hit home to
me.  If there's a way to accomplish a task with the keyboard rather than the
mouse, I'll find it.  I know my command-line tools and use vim as my text
editor.  In the last two years, I've had to use a lot of "Office" style
software (Word, Excel, etc), and my wrists got fairly unhappy until I got the
mouse wrist rest.  I really do think that wrist troubles come primarily from
having to mess with the mouse.

4) Cordless!  At home, I have a cordless keyboard and trackball.  At
work, just the trackball is cordless.  Logitech is a godsend for
reliable wireless tools.  It may sound silly to have a cordless
trackball, but otherwise I find that the weight of the cord, or objects
interfering with the cord, gradually pull my input devices into awkward
places.  Especially with mice, I'll notice that I've been having to
exert more and more force to move the thing around as the cords
inevitably seem to get tangled up under my desk.  If the pull is from
other cords behind the desk, it can be tricky to fix the situation.

All of that being said, 10 years isn't all that long; if I'm still CTS-free 20
years from now, maybe I'll have some idea that I've been doing the right
things.

Cheryl, as for popping your wrist, do you happen to have an existing
patient relationship with a chiro?  I'm currently having a (non-CTS)
wrist issue, and my chiro was able to diagnose the problem and suggest
some stretches to help.  I get "pressure" that builds up over several
hours until I have to pop my wrist, which it does with a satisfyingly
loud pop, after which my wrist feels better for a while.  But "popping" the
joint isn't fixing the problem, just providing temporary relief.

I have one of those splints somewhere. I'll have to find it.

Radial, never heard of that. The pain from this feels the same as
if you fell forward and put out your hands to break your fall. The
wrist gets weak, I can't in any way pick something up when it
flairs up. When I typed that yesterday, it was in agony. This
morning it barely hurt, but the pain returned this afternoon.

I'll try a wrist rest. Thank you.