Hey, so, I've been coding and playing guitar for ages, two things that definitely give you carpal tunnel. But I also studied Aikido and Judo, two things that give you strong flexible wrists. This means that I generally rarely get pain in my wrists, and when I do I can fix it with some exercises and stretches.

So, I'll try to give you some advice, and hopefully this helps without hurting you.

The very first thing you need to quit doing is:

"I'm typing sitting upright on my smaller couch, with ample room for my right arm (the pained one). Normally, I type lying down on my other couch while watching TV or just relaxing, and my right arm can sometimes get pinned a bit."

What the hell is wrong with you? I'm saying this to kick you in the ass, but in no way is this comfortable or good for your body. You are probably contorting your whole body into all sorts of weird problems, and I'm betting you don't exercise, stretch, take breaks, or do anything physical to maintain your health.

First clue, get a damn desk and a good chair, or invent one. Then, don't sit at it for too long at a time. Take breaks. Setup a rule where you don't code while watching TV. It's just a bad habit and it's actually hurting you.

Next up, your whole body is probably screwed. You need to start doing some stretching at a minimum. Stretching your whole body. You can easily go get a book on how to do it, and you should do it every day, twice a day: when you wake up, and before you go to sleep. If you can take a yoga class then that'd be even better.

You should next make sure you're eating right. Stop eating crap, and in fact, eat out if you can if for no other reason then it gets you away from the computer and walking around. Eat vegetables. Lots of them, and not too much meat. Quit eating junk food, meaning fake food that's crapped out of a machine into a plastic bag. Eat real food.

Finally, for your wrists. As you start fixing up the rest of your body and learning to relax through stretching, you'll probably find a lot of tension in your neck, upper shoulders, and back. It's important to stretch your whole body, but focus on these areas specifically. As you sit and code, keep track of tension in your body and give it a number. Then try to change the number up and then down. You want to start analyzing where you hold tension, and using a number system helps you visualize it.

Once you've got some control over tension, and you've got yourself getting more relaxed, you now need to start working on getting your wrists mobile. Now, your doctor sounds like a retard, but he's a doctor and I'm not, so he wins. However, keeping your wrist in a sling is not going to make it improve, so unless he's giving you exercises that improve it, then you need to find a new doctor.

There's no way in hell I'm going to give you wrist stretches online, even though you need some. You could sue my ass. I will say you should talk to your doctor about getting exercises to work with, and potentially that you should find a free Aikido class and see if they will teach you their wrist exercises. They probably won't let you do them since they also don't want to be sued, but they can teach them to you and then you can ask your doctor.

But, the most importan thing is quit living so unhealthy. I'm not saying become a granola eating hippie, but hell man I work at home and I've got a decent setup and don't kill myself coding for hours without breaks infront of the TV.

Good luck.