[Maria]

I know plenty of people who even thought they had a similar disc condition as me or at least that's what radiology reports said they could sit and I could not. In fact this was such a big problem for me that I went thru graduate school sitting or semi reclining in a bean bag chair in classes and also lying across a long table in grad statistics class. I could do the clinical part Ok as that involved standing and walking *Nurse Practitioner/MSN degree.

So for a number of years I pretty much avoided sitting as much as possible. If I had to fly back east I would stand for as much of the flight as possible and after 911 when passengers weren't allowed to stand up as much I bought 3 coach plane seats and laid on my side for a 5 hour flight back east to see my parents each way. Again I had to give up much and just do what was necessary with regard to anything that involved sitting.

By the time I had my last job I had undergone a discectomy at L5S1 and that rebulged, I had an annular tear at L3 that was symptomatic for a while and I had also undergone a failed percutaneous discectomy at L4 that left me with horrible burning pain that rain thru my buttocks, my legs and into my feet and it was 24/7. I was told that scar tissue at the sacral nerve roots caused clumping and then set off all the sacral nerves.. hence the horrendous burning pain that at one time labeled "arachnoiditis" but this pain eased off completely after 17 years (various treatments used during this period).

Ok so when I got my last job I weighed about 110 lbs.. I forgot to mention I have super flat feet (now have a prob re tendons because of that) and I had 2 surgeries on my right knee.

I tried the stability ball for sitting at home because it was sort of like a softer version of a rocking chair and it seemed to not bother my tailbone as much as sitting on anything else. I found a contraption that could be rigged to add a back to it for support however that was too difficult to maintain in place so just took it off and "sat" on my stability ball sort of rolling it about underneath me. Very good for CORE exercises.

But I have to say the only manner I could take pressure off my discs and my tailbone seemed to be in a semi reclining position with the beanbag chair yet that would not have worked at my computer station. Also I found that sitting like this rather upset my neck.

There are chairs at Relax the Back and some other stores that are pretty heavy duty the way they're made and one can sort of recline with knees bent and legs elevated (which should be very good for your lower extremities and feet re avoiding dependent pressure and swelling). Then you would have to have a monitor sort of suspended above you or use a laptop.

What you might find however is that you will have some increased strain and tiredness on your arms and wrists at a sort of funky angle. Also you have to have your neck supported well so that you don't increase the potential of inducing neck pain while trying to take care of your back pain.

These would be my suggestions based on my own experience. Good luck. I'm sure you can find some way to modify a station and work at it however not sure if your employer will go along with it though I would hope as long as you're able to do your job they will (re ADA and all that).