It arrived Thursday. I brought it to work Friday morning.
Set it up at my desk before anyone else arrived. Positioned it behind my lower back. Read the instructions.
Start with heat only for a few minutes. Let your body adjust.
I turned it on. Warmth spreading across my lower back almost immediately. Not surface warmth like heating pads. Deep, penetrating warmth that reached the actual source of pain.
After three minutes, I activated the vibration. Felt tension releasing in my hips and lower back. Knots I didn't even know I had started loosening.
Then I pressed the traction button. The pillow began to inflate slowly behind me.
I could feel space being created in my spine. Feel pressure releasing. Feel my vertebrae separating.
Fifteen minutes later, it auto-shut off. I kept working.
9:15 AM. Feeling good.
10:15 AM. Still good. Slight awareness of my back, but no pain.
11:15 AM. Usually I'd be feeling warning signs. The ache building. But I felt... normal.
11:30 AM. My usual breaking point. I checked in with my body. Pain was at maybe a 2 out of 10 instead of an 8.
I kept working.
12:30 PM. Lunch. I stood up expecting that familiar shooting pain.
It wasn't there.
I turned the TheraSpine back on after lunch. Another 15 minutes. When it shut off, I felt that relief again. Pressure releasing. Tension loosening.
3 PM. Still working. Still functional.
5 PM. End of my workday.
I'd worked a full, normal, eight-hour day.
I hadn't stood up mid-meeting. Hadn't disappeared to lie on a break room floor. Hadn't sent a single message about my back.
I just... worked.