When I started at my present job a year and a half ago, there was somewhat worn but still serviceable chair at my desk. "Replace that piece of crap," my new boss said, "get yourself something better." "Nah, it's fine," I replied, "it's comfortable if a bit ugly, but it works great. Why do I want to waste money to replace something that works OK?"

Move forward 6 months. I awake at night with a numb right arm, nearly immovable and unsensing from the bicep on down. Waving it around to restore pinched-off bloodflow does nothing, and I start wondering if this is some symptom of a heart attack. 10 minutes go by before I get much sensation at all, and the next day it's still not right.

I go to a doctor, a neurologist, etc., etc. I get thousands - yep, thousands! - of bucks of testing done before a doc with more brains than the rest starts grilling me about the timing of the onset of symptoms, after she explains I have a pinched nerve in my elbow. Had I noticed this earlier? Well, yes I had, in a milder form. When exactly? Well, several months before. What was going on in your life at that time? Uh, I started a new job and I ..... uh......

And it hit me. The old chair had unpadded, metal arms, and my natural position at the chair - with my elbow draped just off the edge of the chair's arm - put the inside of my elbow right against the thin, outside edge of the unpadded metal arm of the chair. DOH!

Bought a new chair immediately. Within 2 weeks, my arm was 80% better. Within 2 months, the tingling was virtually gone. As I sit and type this, my arm is fine.

Chairs matter. Better chairs could lower the total national health care budget! A better chair would have lowered my health care budget!!! 😀

I didn't spend a lot on my new chair, but you better believe I sat in every chair I considered purchasing and evaluated where my elbows would rest!

Yours,

Rich Mechaber