Sitting for long periods...

[BendyBoff]

I have cinema issues as well and got really angry when I prebooked a aisle seat and then got given one right at the end near the wall! I was not very impressed and neither were all the other people trying to watch the film with me needing to wriggle all the time!

xxxx

[Lillithe4th]

Yup. All of the above. I was at a presentation event through work this week. I was aware that the folk behind me must have had to shuffle in the opposite direction to me so they could see past me to look at the very interesting slides. At least I stopped them from get too comfortable and dozing off.

[Musiclover3261]

She now tries to get an aisle seat and can move a little bit! Car journeys and plane journeys are horrendous as well - 9hr flight to florida last year = wheelchair for 2 weeks and even that was just making it worse until we got a cushion for her to put at her back which helped her slough down in the chair a bit but still be supported and eased off her hips! Trip to France this year (by car) will be fun but planning LOADS of stops!!

This is exactly how it is for me: my back, hips, and knees get so bad after even 20 minutes sitting. How has Amy managed to handle it, besides frequent stops and stretching? I can't seem to find a solution. My family is driving to Florida in April (20 hours from New York ) so i'm trying to find help before it ruins my trip to Walt Disney World >_> any suggestions?

Danielle

[BendyBoff]

Hi Danielle

The only way I manage it is to stop frequently - it makes journey's take longer but it means I can do things when I get there. I went to the cinema the other day and it took my knees ages to feel normal and stop hurting afterwards, I felt like I was waddling like a duck as I left the screen!

xxxx

[Spireite]

Sitting is to be avoided like the plague.

I've been avoiding sitting for 10 years now. It doesn't help being petite or vertically challenged with unstable vertebrae and SI joints. All car seats are too soft, too deep by about 6 inches or 15cm which is a huge gap to fill. Office chairs are also far, far too deep, even those which advertise they are for short people - short men more like. When my old car packs up, I'll be housebound. As soon as I sit in another car, my back goes out instantly.

I can stand all day though!

[dragondee]

I got a special office chair through Access to work. Some of the chairs have a squab that adjusts back and forward.
I keep saying I'm tall (5'3") but others might say vertically challenged, however my mum's a dinky 4'10", so I'm tall.
I also have a 'small' electric rise/recliner chair at home.
They are around but not cheap.
Oh and I have to use pressure relief cushions under the btm.
I have trouble with SI and slipped disc. so the osteopath said try not to sit more than 20 mins and sit with knees lower than btm.
As for standing - forget it. If I stand to chat to a friend, I have a job to continue walking afterwards and the pain ..........
I used to have a cushion behind me in my old car, but this one seems OK, don't know what I'll do when we have to change it.
Must get on with some more work.
Dragondee

[leashy11]

Spireite my HMS twin I have been thinking exactly the same about my car!! I'm trying to keep the same one for as long as possible because it's the only car seat I can manage short trips in, every other seat I've tried has immediately knocked my SI joints out and left me in agony!! The one exception is my brother's car but he paid a fortune to have a particular type of seat put in it which won't be happening for me anytime soon! I too avoid sitting wherever possible but it does make life incredibly tiring doesn't it? My car's an old Rover 25 automatic and has very good seats, firm but not too hard.

As for the cinema, haven't been in years because I couldn't manage the pain of the sitting. I have to wait for the films to come out on DVD so I can prop myself on lots of cushions sprawled out on the sofa at home and watch them. I haven't been further than my local town (7 miles) except for hospital appointments that I have to go to for 6 years now either, shop online at Xmas etc I really wish I could get on top of the sitting problems, I find it hugely restricting especially living out in the sticks.

[Spireite]

Dragondee, I was told Access to Work would pay for an office chair, but I have the same problem in that after 8 years of looking I can’t find one with a short enough squab, ie about 35cm. Do you know of any PLEASE, pretty please? I mentioned above an advert for an office chair for short people, but at 42cm squab, it is far too deep for me and I’m a short person! I’ve tried emailing them, but the general jist is well we are a tiny, little bit shorter than average, so there. How does your mum get on Dragondee?

I’ve had two appointments today. The first was with the Disability Employment Advisor in order to get round the petty signing on rules at the JobCentre. The second was with the OT of a charity which tries to help people with their car problems. (Pity there’s none of this on the nhs – certainly not for me.) A car seat company representative also came along. Over the phone they are most interested in helping me with problems I don’t have, as usual. (I despair) They do do a separate car seat, but of course that is far too deep as usual. They do do a children’s version at 40cm deep. Then the seats are too soft, but they (or the OT from the other company) could look into replacing the soft foam with firmer foam, both at the back and underneath. Then the bottom of the seat is on a soft spongy mesh, which is no good for me, but that could also be changed for a plank, or lump of concrete or so. A lumbar support or two could be added at the back, but I would need two and also a lower thoracic support. After all that would I not dislocate anything? Who knows! That costs £1800, so not so cheap, especially if it’s no good. If I had a blue badge, and they were surprised I don’t, I would be spared the VAT. So there then followed the second conversation of the day about me having a blue badge. I can walk and even run on a good day with motion control trainers and my very chunky orthotics. So no-one at the gym would expect me to have a blue badge. I struggle to walk in shoes with my chunky orthotics, and that is another long-standing (no pun intended – Freudian slip?) weary search I have. The more valid point was made both times re carrying. I can’t carry much. I have a 10 year old severe bad weak fragile neck. That’s where it all started 10 years ago, when my head first ‘fell off’ ambulances were called, and I was admitted to hospital for 10 days. I’ve spent much of the last 10 years lying on the floor cos I couldn’t hold my head up. I was on the operating table last week having yet more treatment to my neck, and there is more planned. My shoulders are bad and I dislocated the right last November. Carrying strains my very very fragile neck. If I need to buy something heavy or bulky, I ‘kidnap’ my elderly mother (84), who comes with her own blue badge and is better at heavy carrying than me(!) on a good day and loves shopping and an afternoon out, and ‘use’ her and her disabled parking space. (She ‘uses’ me for my car too.) (The local council’s idea about everyone using public transport to get into town – ha ha, no way I could carry any shopping on the awful buses, even if they had any half-decent seats on them, which they don’t – all too soft, deep, fiercely backward-sloping and no head rest which I also need for travelling.)

Back on topic, the OT herself didn’t have too much really to offer. She was nice, but I was hoping for something to make the seat less deep, and/or something to lean against to keep the spine in neutral. She did have a few threads to follow up. She did have one thing I haven’t seen before except a very large (how heavy? Too heavy to carry?) bag-like thing, full of beans which you can put over the seat, squidge the beans around (not sure my fingers, thumbs, wrists etc could do too much of that without injury) and then use a pump to suck out the air. So quite hard work, risking injury! Still hopefully you wouldn’t have to do it too often. With my record of dislocating my back every single time I sit in another car seat (L4 last time) I’d rather first try it on my office chair at home. But I still need something for taxis, buses, coaches and I couldn’t lug that. The OT is going to write a report and could she send it to my useless GP who doesn’t know which planet he is on? At first I thought no cos he’ll get the wrong end of the stick and he’s so confused and doddery it’s unbelievable. But then I thought, well maybe it will help raise the profile of the sitting problem I’ve had for 10 years and absolutely no help or recognition from these arrogant appalling medics – a very long list of doctors, physios, one OT. I might even forward it to my good consultant, who though unusually will ‘be guided by me’ is absolutely blank if I say anything about sitting, or when he orders me to sit and is surprised but disinterested when I start to try and explain why I’m not sitting.

Help!

[Tiz]

I couldn't manage without my backfriend http://www.backfriend.co.uk/ Sometimes I'm in a better state getting out of the car than I was getting into it, and it makes a huge difference to how long I can sit in the wheelchair. It also pushes you forward in the seat a bit so I wonder if it might help a bit with that problem, though certainly won't do anything like the 6 inches someone mentioned.

[Stone]

Dragondee, I was told Access to Work would pay for an office chair, but I have the same problem in that after 8 years of looking I can’t find one with a short enough squab, ie about 35cm. Do you know of any PLEASE, pretty please? I mentioned above an advert for an office chair for short people, but at 42cm squab, it is far too deep for me and I’m a short person! I’ve tried emailing them, but the general jist is well we are a tiny, little bit shorter than average, so there.

I have an office chair that was bought through ATW after I couldn't sit on the previous one comfortably any more. Once they realised I'd only been offered the standard 'ergo' chairs before they sent out a physio who spent over an hour with me at my desk, discussing how to set up my workstation, posture etc. She finished by measuring my thigh/leg length, back height etc and got a chair custom built for me - they have four or five options for each of seat depth, foam stiffness, height, adjustability etc and then mix and match to suit your measurements. It's not amazing my any stretch but it's certainly a lot better than the last one!

My main complaint is that the lock/free-float lever is incredibly stiff and I can't adjust it without my wrist coming off. Their response to my enquiry was basically to tell me to go away so I just leave it in free-float now

So a mixed bag, but they can definitely improve things.

Stone

[Spireite]

The backfriend has got potential and is one half of the kind of thing I need (as opposed to those awful lumbar rolls physios rave about which just dislocate vertebrae). But I need it more arched, more ilium support and more lower thoracic support and much lighter for carrying. There doesn't seem to be any variations to it. One size fits all as usual. On top of that I need something to take out a chunk of the depth out of the chair, eg 6 inches all the way from top to bottom. My elderly, short, hypermobile aunties used to have such a thing/moulded frame thirty years ago for driving, so with the progress of the world, why or why have they disappeared?

Stone, who sent out a physio (and with an interest in sitting? - you are having me on?) and who custom-built a chair?

[Stone]

Stone, who sent out a physio (and with an interest in sitting? - you are having me on?) and who custom-built a chair?

The physio was an Access to Work one. Once they'd done their assessment they sent a report through to my work's OH department along with specifications for the chair - then work had to order and pay for the chair before claiming the cost back from AtW. I've always found them to be really helpful - while they're biddable enough that if there's something you know will help you can just say 'I definitely need this adaptation' and they'll agree and pay for it, if you need assessment or have more complex requirements they're happy to book you in.

Don't remember who the chair came from offhand but I'll look them up for you when I'm back at work...

Stone

[Spireite]

Stone, how long did the AtW custom chair process take from start to finish? I just imagine custom building a chair would take a very long time, especially when nobody seems to make chairs my size to start with (been searching for 8 years).

I rang AtW today as instructed by my Disability Employment Advisor and got my head blown off and immediately told to my surprise that I don't have any medical condition. As bad as doctors. Not impressed so far. More fighting.

[gila]

owwww spireite, "services" in your area seem to be particularly bad
hope you've got the name of the person you spoke to as they def need "their head blown off by their boss" for doing their job v badly!... talking like that to a person that has a medical condition, albeit a 'generally rare/rarely heard of" one... but one that is actually in the DWP's disabilities handbook...
xxg

[cavemonster]

Hi guys.
I currently don't have a problem sitting for long periods, but when my sister had SPD and someone suggested this sort of chair
is that a ridiculous idea? I can't decide if it looks like a good thing for lax pelvis type things...
Just curious really!
Jen