I briefly had a painful bout back in 2000 - was working full-time and was taking classes too. Luckily, had a good physiotherapist and went for ultrasound. The nerve damage was minimal, and the following helped: 1. Get some rubber squeeze balls - they have different strengths (indicated by color). Remind yourself to use them every 30 minutes 2. You can substitute the above with Chinese medic(Baoding balls). They are extremely effective 3. DO some hand stretch exercises (yoga helps here). A basic exercise is twining your forearms around each other and stretching them gently. 4. Keyboard setup - make sure that your fingers are positioned as in playing the piano - that is, they should not raise the wrist but lower the wrist to the keys. 5. Give regular rest to your hands - go free of mouse/keyboard.

These worked/are working for me - YMMV - I luckily avoided having surgery (not fun)