How long do you do the stair climber?

I recently was diagnosed with some ulnar-sided tendinitis and slight tears in the sheathing as well. Stems from mid-carpal instability that I was diagnosed with last year, so I have had to give up tennis (likely led to problem more than anything else), swimming, weight-lifting (except for legs, but can’t hold weight up either), and any other type of exercise involving my wrists until at least February. Sucks pretty bad.

Anyway, I’m pretty much relegated to leg workouts with machines, running/treadmill, spin classes/biking, and finally the stair climber. I didn’t realize how hard that thing was. I have been doing it for three weeks now on average of 4x/week and I can only go a little over 20 minutes before I have to hold on. I typically do the Interval Setting or Fat Burner programs. What amount of time do most people do this for? Do yo hold on?

I figured with how much I had been swimming lately, I would be able to do it for long time, but it wears me out and I sweat more than almost any other cardio exercise I’ve done.