Soma Problems

The specialist was really sympathetic towards me wanting to work with the chair I have, and she tried to lean more towards that than even adding cushions or things to it. She said I looked tilted back a little instead of straight or forward, and I told her that I did think the chair broke and was doing that, so she suggested I look into having it fixed, which I did. I called the company and their technician was very helpful, and made some suggestions, and I think I fixed it, although it's hard to tell. Unfortunately, the forward tilt made my back hurt a lot, so I wound up just going back to the backward tilt.

She also made me really think about getting a new seat and backrest for the chair. She found a Soma supplier called Keeney's, about 45 minutes away from here. They had a Soma chair, so I went and checked it out. I was also able to sit in a *lot* of other chairs. I figured out that the seat on this Soma chair is ridiculously hard compared to some of the other ones. The Soma chair at Keeney's had an adjustable lumbar, and I think that would be better than the fixed one that I have.

I stopped in at Relax the Back since it was in the same area. They had fewer chairs than the last time I was there, and nothing that really seemed better than what I think I'll be able to do with the Soma. I didn't like the chairs with taller backs much, so I think the height of my backrest is probably where I want it.

I've been working for the past month to try to get Soma to send me out a new backrest and seat. They said they would look into it, but they're moving super slowly on it. The only person you can communicate with is the CEO. He's understandably busy, but it's kind of annoying how unresponsive he is. He's going to be in the area about a month from now, and he said he'll try to work something out then.

My backrest has some kind of a defect where the adhesive is leeching through, so if nothing else I think they should replace that, since it's under warranty, and I might as well get a backrest I'll like better since I'm getting a new one, anyway. I might be able to look into getting some kind of a more comfortable pad to put on the seat if he won't replace it, but it's already taller than I want when it's lowered all the way, so an additional cushion would only make that worse.

I currently have a foam block wedged in the chair between the seat and the backrest; they don't meet, and there's a gap there. I've heard some people are more comfortable in chairs without a gap, and the physical therapist suggested putting a cylinder of foam along my spine to see if that helped with back pain, so it would make sense that the gap wouldn't work for me. My back pain might be getting slightly worse, but in general I think it's staying about the same.