Other
Plastic spine
I bought this plastic spine to understand my health problems and
my x-rays (in dutch) better.
It has really helped me to understand them better.
Electric toothbrush
It might seem a very simple adjustment,
but for me an electric toothbrush is much less stressful for my neck than a regular toothbrush.
For everyone with neck problems, who is still using a normal toothbrush,
I can recommend an electric toothbrush.
Phone
I always use a headset with a phone.
If I have to hold the phone with one hand, then my neck is stressed on one side.
In my opinion it is bad for everyone to hold a phone with one hand for a long time.
For me, a headset with two speakers is better.
Due to my neck problems I am often dull, and with two speakers I have less trouble with
the conversation.
Because my voice is not very clear, I don't use a headset with a noise-canceling microphone,
because then people often don't understand me.
A phone with "hands free" or "speaker phone" could be useful,
but I have problems with those, because only one person can talk at a time
(except for some expensive phones) and I have to make more effort to speak clearly.
For a long time I used a phone that I tampered together.
In the picture below you see a phone, an amplifier and a headset (which is unfortunately with one speaker).
The amplifier is meant to be able to use a regular headset, which can also be used on my computer.
This way I don't have to use a special headset that are used with phones.
The photo below shows a phone with a connector for a headset.
I was not able to properly set this phone for me.
However, inside the phone was a chip which was programmable by use of the keypad of the phone.
I therefor was able to set the volume for the microphone louder.
So I could use this phone after all.
I thought a dect phone with headset would do.
But with the phone above, I had the problem again that people don't understand me, because my
voice is not very clear.
Board for reading and writing
To read or to write something while sitting at a table, I have to bent my neck too much.
So I sought the most simple way to make a board for reading and writing.
The simplest solution was a board with a clamp. And it does work very well.
Sometimes I stick a paper to the board with adhesive.
I use writable adhesive, because that is easy to remove.
Electronic muscle stimulation
Name: TENS
There are many devices that make muscles contract by electrical pulses.
I bought such a device which was designed to massage.
Two pads needed to be sticked to the skin,
and the electrical pulse goes through that.
But it turned out that it can only make the muscles to contract,
has it has nothing to do with a massage.
It made things worse for me, and it is also quite annoying.
Central Heating with zones
When a new central heating unit was installed, a few zones were made.
Each zone can be temperature controlled independ of the other zones.
I have now my own temperature control in the part of the house where my
bedroom and living room is.
I keep the temperature day and night at 22°C (or higher if my
neck problems cause more troubles).
Because of the constant temperature, it is easier for me to keep myself
warm, so I can cope better with my neck problems.
The gas usage was increased by 10%.
Rollerball pen
I don't use a pen a lot, because I have to bent my head during writing.
But if I write something, I prefer a rollerball pen
(also called roller, roller pen, roller ballpoint).
These pens write a lot easier and need only a very litte force against paper to write.
A roller ballpoint uses a water based ink or a gel ink, and therefor they write very easy.
Some are not waterproof, but others have ink that is immediately dry after writing and
are waterproof after just a few seconds.
Last change to this page: September 2011
