I know! No, I'd send it back if it was that hard to get apart.
Oh wow! Glad you were able to avoid the surgery!!
That's great that your boss was so proactive!
I've heard tennis elbow is extremely painful too!!
In the years that followed my thumb issue, there were 3 at our store that ended up having to have the surgery.
Florists are in a high risk category for it. My SIL, was one of the three, and she ended up having to have both hands done, course, not at the same time.
My mom worked there the majority of her adult life, and never had a problem.
I guess some are prone to it, and some aren't. Unless that's changed, but that was what I was told years ago.
I know I've mentioned before that I sleep in those wrist braces, I'm hoping that will stave it off, so far, I don't have any symptoms of carpal tunnel.

The other gal in our office has an ergonomic keyboard. I hate it!!


Thankfully, much of my computer work is just doing spreadsheets, and for short intervals.
I do about equal hand writing (acct. coding invoices), ten-key, and computer time. Plenty of breaks in between it all....filing, up and down getting questions answered from people in the different departments, etc.
So, I'm very thankful that I don't have to sit and pound on the keyboard all day.