An inflatable pillow to make flying in coach tolerable

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/03/27/an-inflatable-pillow-to-make-f.html

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That looks like it would fit very nicely inside my leggings.

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Obligatory Spinal Tap clip.

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Don’t wrap it in foil, though.

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Again, somebody gets it in first. Damn.

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Okay, I didn’t want to throw this in, but I owe a post that can’t be duplicated. True story:

Our aircraft design class was allowed to enter, study, and measure the cabin of a 747. (Discovered several nooks and crannies denied to the clueless passengers.) At that time, there were lots of free goodies provided to 1st class passengers, such as cotton sock-slippers, two of which I grabbed, and then *stuffed down my pants (*for some forgotten reason). Walking back through the terminal at the end of the day, the slippers started traveling down my pants (making a stop at my crotch along the way), and finally ending up on the floor. A very nice (and very, very prim) gal in our group, walking some distance behind me, came running up to me with slippers in hand and a smile on her face. I didn’t bring up the crotch stop.

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I use a thermarest lumbar pillow for the same reason.

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The important thing is to try not to think about how nasty these things might get inside after being repeatedly inflated.

You’d think there’d be a nice, sanitary, portable mechanical doodad for these things by now.

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What about closed-cell foam, the kind that expands when exposed to air? It’s not getting human-breath-air, so is that good enough or does it still get moldy, etc.?

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The thermarest one is self inflating. You don’t blow into it.

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I’ll order one and try it out. I don’t really think it matters what has occured in it, as I do not use the bladder as a spare air device when scuba diving, or attempt to re-inhale the air.

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I sit with mine every day but I have a lumbar disc injury.

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I can’t recall the brand, but there is one pillow that has a sort of hemispherical ‘button’ that you continually press to inflate the pillow. Takes a bit longer to inflate than lung power, though.

Me too. L3-L4 to L5S1.

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I had a 12-14 mm herniation of L5S1. I had minimally invasive surgery (and it really is minimally invasive as I only have a tiny cut and scar) on it after two years (two years ago this last month), which resolved about 90% of my sciatica but I can’t sit in any chairs for any period of time more than 20 minutes or so without a support cushion for it.

I did it doing relatively mild (230 lb) squats as I was a power lifter for three years. I still work out at the gym 3 days a week but no free weights anymore. I do 20+ minutes of pilates every day for it too.

I just want the dipshit in front of me to not lean his seat back.

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Unfortunately this won’t do much for me to make coach tolerable. It’s just abject misery every time I fly coach and a fancy neck pillow won’t solve it. Even if I did lose like 50 lbs, I can’t do much about my knees being jammed right into the back of the seat in front of me.

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I just roll up an item of clothing and shove that behind me, seems to work.

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