Thursday, June 22, 2006

A new computer chair: so I can sleep

I have bad circulation. I always have. It isn't really a major issue or anything but it's why I'm always cold, and why I hate cold weather. It's why I wear a fleece housecoat even in July. If my feet get cold, they stay cold for days. To make things worse, I have a bad habit of sitting on my feet, which probably started out as a way to keep my feet warm, but has the side-effect of cutting off all circulation. It's such a habit, and I do it so constantly, that at the end of the night, my legs and feet ache from it. The aching causes my restless leg syndrome (which used to only show up when I was pregnant, but has turned into a nightly thing since I had my tubes tied) to start up, making sleep an impossibility. I haven't been to sleep at a decent hour in months. The whole thing has had me being a little obsessively aware of how often I sit in weird circulation-stopping foot-tingling positions, and how to change that habit.

I figured out that the only way I was going to ever sleep at night was this:
I can't sit on my feet in that seat! Right? My brother used to have one of these. I sat in it once. It was very comfortable, makes you sit in a better position as far as posture goes, and the height is adjustable giving me the chance to get at a better position for typing. See, sometimes my fingers, especially the last three on my left hand, go a little numb because of the chair height/wrist angle/circulation thing.

So today I got the damn chair, or one pretty much like this anyway... Office chairs are too g'damn expensive, for the record. But let me tell you, it beats the hell right out of a broken kitchen chair that sits too high, and it has a 3 year warranty. My feet and legs haven't been asleep once all day, they don't ache at all! My fingers are still numb but I think that's just going to be a point of my hand getting used to being in a better position.

So. Yay me! I have a new funky chair, and blood in my toes! Here's to hoping I can sleep now.

This is how well it worked out.

3 comments:

  1. Okay, I cannot for the life of me figure out how you sit in that chair.

    I am thinking the big pad is for your butt, but those two front pads, are they for your knees? Then again that would propel you forward and face first into the computer screen which could no doubt cause some other serious issues.

    Hmmm, I give up, help a girl out here...xx, Lori

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  2. Yeah, give us a picture of Erin in the chair!

    I, too, have poor circulation. Right now I'm sitting indian style in my huge (and overpriced) office chair. I'm also wearing a sweater (in the middle of June in Hawaii --ok, so we have central air...) But that's besides the point.

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  3. Yup, they're for your knees, lol. And actually it makes you sit very straight, and does wonders for your posture... but the face-first mental image had me laughing like hell.

    Eve, we have a/c too (window units though) but even when everyone else is sweating and complaining, I'm cold. And since I'm outnumbered, they get the a/c cranked, and I get the big frumpy ugly warm housecoat.

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