Hacker News Reader

Comment by smeej | Hacker News Reader

I have a skeletal deformity in my neck that causes severe cervicogenic headaches. One of the best ways to relieve them is to rest the front of my head on something, or even push against it.

If anyone finds a place these are available in the U.S., please let me know. This could be a game-changer for me where nothing else works well.

View on HN

"The sleeping item will be available at electronics retailers and other stores from Oct. 15."

Keep an eye out - I wonder if Amazon.jp will have them. If so, Amazon Japan often DOES allow you to ship direct to the US and you can just sign into AMZNJP with your .com credential and it'll let you get set up to order from that side.

Otherwise, if you see it somewhere like Bic Camera or otherwise, there's services like Buyee and Zenmarket that can help coordinate getting it into the US. I've used Zenmarket before to buy a Makita cordless microwave from Bildy so I know it works, and I'm way too much of a frequent flyer at Buyee with my Yahoo Auctions habit...

Thank you for these detailed recommendations! I've set a calendar alert to check back then!

If you can find one for sale on a Japanese retailer, there are third-party proxy services you can use to have it shipped to the US. IIRC some are platform-specific (like services for Yahoo! Japan auctions), and the proxy obviously adds to the total price, but it's all legit. I've bought a fair bit of stuff through proxies.

Suggestions for services that you have used would be appreciated.

You can use either a forwarding service where you order yourself to an address with a personal code, or a proxy buying service which does the ordering for you.

The big forwarding service would be Tenso: https://www.tenso.com/en

Proxy services include

Buyee - https://buyee.jp/ (though they don't like VPN access)

Noppin - https://noppin.com/

Japan Rabbit - https://japanrabbit.com/

amongst many others.

Unfortunately it's been about a decade since the last time I had anything shipped from Japan, so I don't remember which proxies I used :(

If you're looking for recs, I'd recommend trawling some of the subreddits for figurine collectors or garage kit hobbyists since they're both groups that employ proxy services quite a bit. Any type of otaku group really, lol. They'll almost certainly have some stories to share about good/bad companies.

Tenso. Service agnostic, just use the provided address.

https://www.amazon.com/Skyrest-Inflatable-Airplanes-Napping-...

This might be similar

I haven't found inflatable units to offer quite enough support or push back, but I appreciate the suggestion! The one in the article looks to be made of firmer stuff, but I could be wrong.

I have the same issue, and also experience relief by resting the front of my head. It is so bad these headaches often trigger visual artifacts.

I have found that stretching my shoulder joints works well to stop my severe cervicogenic headaches when they are beginning to develop. I need to rotate my shoulders 90 degrees back till they click. My neck gets in place. Sometimes it does not work. Avoiding laptop work decreased the frequency of issues quite dramatically.

You may have a weak back, lower trapezius. Perhaps look into superman poses as a way of regaining strength, e.g. https://www.artofliving.org/nl-en/node/329473

Thanks for the suggestion!

Unfortunately my neck doesn't always get in place even when coerced by repetitive 15 psi hammering, and even when aligned well, there's a protrusion that aggravates a nerve that shoots the pain up into the head.

I appreciate the suggestion, though, and I'm glad it works for you!

Have you tried massage chair?

https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Professional-Light-Weight-Th...

I would, but 1) there's major cost difference, and 2) I can't kneel like most massage chairs are designed (skeletal problems rarely come in isolation).

Looks like there are all sorts of adjustable massage table headrests on Amazon — perhaps one of them would do the trick?

Most of them are only designed to be attached to a massage table. They don't have independent frames that could sit on a desk. Unless I'm see a whole different set of products than you are?

They look like a massage table, without the rest of the table.

use a site like dejapan to have it proxied. easy.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com