Pressure Blister and Lift Recliner Warning

I'll be 3 weeks out from my LBL on Monday.  Unfortunately I have developed a pressure blister at the base of my spine, just above the crack of my butt, and then one slightly to the side.  This comes from spending a lot of time sitting/sleeping in the recliner that lifts me.  I was told that if I stay off of it for a week it should heal quickly.

This seems impossible because I can't get comfortable in any other position!  I'm standing as much as I can and trying to sit in a regular chair and my office chair, but I still need to sleep on my back in the recliner.  Laying on my side pulls at my side incisions in a very uncomfortable way.

I have tried pillows and my sofa and my temperpedic bed and numerous other things.  I'm going to try laying on one of those hemorrhoid donuts next if I can find one that is big enough to take pressure off the entire area, but I'm not sure if that will work.

Does anyone else have any suggestions?  Also I'm hoping this serves as a warning to those in the lift recliner.  Try to shift from side to side and don't stay in the recliner too much, less you run into the same problem that I have.

Thanks in advance to any ideas, suggestions and responses!

 Ouch! So sorry to hear this. I basically have no butt since losing weight & as such sitting for long periods of time hasn't been comfortable. While the recliner is comfy to most I knew I'd need more cushioning. I purchased a mattress pad, the egg crate foam type & cut it to size. I placed two pieces on the recliner & covered it. I almost never felt uncomfortable.

Where do you get those?

I'm very comfortable in the recliner, but unfortunately  I spent too long in one position not knowing I was creating an issue.  Wish I had tried padding it better but now I'm supposed to totally stay off of that area.. not sure extra padding would be enough to take off the pressure necessary to heal the area.

 I am not a back sleeper, so I was desperate to find another way to sleep and to be comfortable at night. I learned that if I sat in my desk chair at a table, then piled pillows up on the table, I could comfortable lean forward, and rest my head on the pillows. It felt like I was sleeping on my stomach (without all of the pain the sleeping on your stomach so soon after surgery would cause) and it was nice to not have to sleep on my back. I couldn't do this every night, but I did do it frequently. I would recommend using pillows to make the chair more comfortable as well! 

Interesting ideas. I will have to give these a shot!

 I had the exact same thing happen after my first surgery (a brachioplasty and BL).  I still have a scar above my tailbone.  I finally found that I could get semi comfortable if I propped myself up on pillows in the bed.  I put a pillow under my thighs, right below my butt and one under my lower back.  This left a hole where my tailbone was allowing it to be kind of suspended. This relieved a lot of the pressure and it healed in a week.  With my LBL, my surgeon actually added a fat pouch above my tailbone to keep this from happening again and because I have a bony tailbone and am always complaining about it being a pain.  It looked like I had a little tail in the beginning, but now it had gone down and actually adds a good curve to my butt :).  Also, with the second surgery I rented a hospital bed instead of a recliner.  It feels much better on my tailbone.  Good luck!  I was SO depressed when I found out I had that.  It felt like I would never get comfortable again. It passed though :)

This sounds terrible. Could you make a big wide donut out of a piece of memory foam or something else to get the pressure off that spot?  What do the nurses out there suggest?  Diane

I tried the hemorrhoid donut thing yesterday and it really didn't work.   Was very uncomfortable to sit on.  I managed after much maneuvering to lay on my side for about 4 hours, but I couldn't easily shift in that position and it was just barely comfortable enough to rest in. 

It took me several minutes each time to get into position, put the pillows just right, and several minutes to stand very carefully again, and I had to take a fresh pain pill to get into this position. Ugh! I ended up in the recliner again on my back just to be able to sleep.

The nurses basically just say get off the area and rest/sleep on my side.  I've talked to them several times about how I do this, have tried various positions on my recliner,  my bed and my couch.   I also try to spend time sitting in my office chair and a regular dining chair, and just moving around a lot.

Most of my incision is pretty well healed but is still very tender and uncomfortable when I pull it.  But the incision area on my tailbone is in bad shape from having pressure on it.  I'm not supposed to twist at all because all of the muscles are severed, and it's very difficult to get in a side laying position without twisting to a degree, or one side or another of my incision pulling.

Hi, I was thinking of making a much larger donut out of a matress pad of memory foam. like two feet in diameter with a six inch hole or something. maybe a double layer. a hemorrhoid donut would be too small to sleep on. anyway, sounds unpleasant and i hope you can get better soon.  diane