Date: February 27, 2008 8:30:35 AM EST
Subject: Re: [TMIC] gel cushion
I have used gel cushions from Jay for a decade. The primary use is in my wheelchairs, but I have used them in restaurants. Being in a chair leads to atrophy of the butt muscles, and these muscles pad the ischial protuberances.
The first came with the manual chair in the summer of '92, model, J2. This had the gel in less than a dozen large, shaped compartments. After three years the gel had hardened; the cushion discarded, the cover, still in good shape, retained.
The second, a JAY Gel, is under me now. I have two chairs, the old, manual chair for traveling, the power chair for use at home, highway travel, cemetery work, cross-lawn travel, and bull-dozing furniture and the toilet bowl. The cushion that came with the chair is junk, a stiff cushion on a rigid steel plate, a butt killer - the supplier was saving pennies at my expense. So I use the new Jay on top of it. That isn't quite sufficient, so I frequently put a third cushion on top of the other two.
When I travel, the Jay Gel is the only cushion on the fabric sling of the folding chair. Ahh, pure comfort, like a hand in an old glove. I can sit all day in that chair and often do.
All three cushions are rather heavy, and the covers have a loop handle in the front. The handle is used to move the cushion and to serve as an anchor for my night bag. Couldn't do without the handle.
I shall solve the comfort problem, either with a new base cushion or with a home-made sling. Medicare reimburses me for cushions.
Alton
