Pain in the "A double S"? This 'Slab o' Gel' is under me in the car, in restaurants ....

Today one of the Grate Group is talking about using a donut for sitting and being limited at her time on the computer.  "I hear ya, sista!" but perhaps my background as an occupational therapist which included doing some wheelchair positioning (whether I liked it or not, long story there about education and changes and employers' expectations) combined with my EMPATHY about pain with sitting can pan out for you.  (Wheelchair pun, the seat has a 'pan'...).  

I really want to commend the people who are in pain and are still undeterred from using the computer for learning -- it is one of your greatest tools.  I am posting this link so you can see what I sit on a LOT of the time. My AliMed Gel Cushion/ Slab o' Gel mostly stays in the driver's seat of my car and I usually have my car when I go to anything OR I think to transfer it to another vehicle if I am the passenger. I take it to restaurants and shows if they don't have good seats.  I hauled it on the plane to Berkeley and had FUN with the safety people as it is gel, but not at all the kind that blows up planes and it's obvious by the color but did they know that?  NO... because everyone is having to learn so much. 

So now I have information to teach the security people at the airports about gels, just as you have information here to print and teach YOUR providers.  You can PRINT and take to a DME (Durable Medical Equipment) vendor in your area.  How to find a good one?  Call any reputable PT clinic and ask them for the name of 3 in your area and then say 'if it were you, which order would you call them in'?

And naturally, at Lumigrate I work hard to provide YOU with a resource to work with no matter where you live in the United State (and hopefully beyond, as much as possible).  Last I called, The YouCan Toocan Store's Martha Hanson was as enthused about a different type of gel that is lighter and also about 1/2 the cost (or less), so I'm going to suggest you check with their website first.  YouCan Toocan is located in the center of the US in Denver, Colorado, so shipping is efficient time-wise; I've known about them since I was in OT school as the owner, Martha, came to speak with the room of about to graduate occupational therapy students.

Honestly, her company and it's little catalog of the top 200 items they sold were invaluable to me and made me a much better OT once I was out working.  This was in 1997 through 2007 or so, and most people didn't have computers to look things up while we were working together, so I could show people photos of products.  Even if they didn't order something from YouCan Toocan, Martha would send me as many catalogs as I asked for and here and there someone would become a customer.  She used to joke and say she knew when I'd moved somewhere new because the sales in that area would go up.

Now I'm 'ubiquitous' (which kinda means everywhere but not one place in particular, I think) and so I hope she just sees orders coming in for no explainable reason from all over the US and beyond.  Last I knew she only was shipping in the US but it never hurts to call and ask because I know she was looking at expanding some day.

One day about 2000/2001, I walked through the doors of the YouCan Toocan Store on a Saturday, when she knew I was working in Colorado Springs.  "Mardy Ross, what are YOU doing here?" Martha said from behind the counter and I introduced her to my father, who she may have guessed was just another customer who I arrived simultaneous to and held the door for.  I said  'today I'm a daughter not an OT' and let her staff member talk with him about the problem he was having with his hands/dexterity and transfers from the toilet and bathtub/shower and they did a perfect job of setting him up with equipment that was essential to his safety and independence.  

He and the rest of the family and now our friends families have become "frequent flyers" as their parents age (and we share equipment when it's no longer needed).  Without her knowing it at the time, or my fully realizing it then, we shared a very important turning point in my life and certainly that of my father.  He'd previously told me the day he needed a toilet riser like what he was disgusted with at his mother's in Florida was the day he wanted to die.  

But thanks to the ongoing improvements in products and savvy, progressive companies like YouCan Toocan, there was a 'hinged elevated toilet seat' that was just like a thick toilet seat 'spacer' and was totally cleanable on all surfaces with no problems and my dad left with his dignity in tact.  For almost the next decade he had a slow deterioration due to the underlying, undiagnosed (and therefore untreated) condition and despite late intervention and some improvements temporarily, died with the assistance of hospice with his dignity.  I wish that every step along the way was handled with the kind of expertise that Martha and YouCan Toocan have consistently shown me and the many families I have personally directed their way. (More about that elsewhere on Lumigrate blogs and forums if you're so interested.)

So thank you Martha and staff!  Here's the link. www.youcantoocan.com/

Sammons Preston has online ordering and sells to the public now, they even have a catalog just for consumers.  (The DME companies used to only sell to medical professionals then ....... smart people said 'let's get right to the PEOPLE who need it, kinda like I'm doing with progressive information on Lumigrate).  I cannot find the AliMed cushion, actually, but this is a link to some of my favorite backs for wheelchair positioning -- two on the same page!  And NEW to me is something for putting heat/cold packs on the seat back (a picture can plant a seed for doing something on your own at home too).  www.sammonspreston.com/app.aspx  (THIS LINK WAS NOT WORKING AT LAST REVIEW)

LINK FOR Ali Med 'Slab O Gel', my favorite thing today:  

www.allegromedical.com/cushions-covers-backs-c544/t-gel-cushion-p199139.html

My Ali-Med gel is about 10 years old, it is in my car in the cold of winter (sub zero) and summer (over 100 degrees) and I carry it inside places by the handy handles and it still looks BRAND NEW.  It's heavy, that's it's only 'downside', and it is a 'pretty penny', but it has been worth every penny I didn't spent on expensive coffees or whatever I rationalized in my head I was giving up in order to purchase it.  I've gotten other FREE cushions from vendors over the years to demo, but never a freebie on this one and I'm kinda glad for that so I can say I totally recommend purchasing it (or asking for it as a gift if it's in the price range that your 'people' can pool their resources or 'spring for').  

Hope this helps if YOU have a pain in the a#$ like I do (which then flares all the back muscles up clear to my occiput (back of the head).  Luckily I have someone to work on that for me so today's better than yesterday but it's time to do it all over again, as it's a new day with places to go and things to see and do!  And/Or work on the computer obviously since I'm writing this .... to help educate YOU. 

Which is my privilege, so I hope this helps!  It can't hurt, as Yenta says!