You’re right to seek a physio’s advice. Hope you get someone good.
My understanding is that it’s best if you can look at the TV/window/whatever you look at most head on, ie not on your side but on your back. And that changing your position is important eg being able to turn onto either side for a rest/change.
@JemPD ‘s sofa with chaise looks brilliant! I’ve always gone the bed route. In the rented house I was in from when I got ill to recently, I literally had a single mattress on the floor in the sitting room. That was a stopgap measure when I kept falling asleep on the teensy loveseat provided, and lasted over a decade, am embarrassed to say, long past the point when I could regularly get down the stairs to even avail of its charms. But it did mean I had good support. When I could spend time with my husband (and there have been many years when that was very limited), we mashed our over 6 foot selves together like sardines on the single mattress on the floor wedged between the loveseat and an armchair to watch a little TV.
I’m now in a house where we’ve made me a living room right beside the bedroom. I lie one way to look at the garden, and then swivel 90 degrees to watch the TV. We struggled with what sofa-like-item to get, particularly as I have to lie rather than sit and am very tall. A sofa with chaise was out because of my height. A corner sofa was another option we tried to make work, but
· it would have needed to be deep enough to allow me to use my laptray (for computer, meals etc)
· it would have meant the TV would have had to go in an odd place
· I just couldn’t imagine that we would find a sofa with a supportive enough base, particularly as I can’t go anywhere to try any out
Eventually, when we couldn’t find any good sofa options, so we bought a big bed, a really good mattress and got a local upholsterer to make headboard-cum-sofa-backs for two sides. I designed them so that they
· curve back (rather than being straight up like many headboards)
· have softer foam on top of the usual foam (I find most headboards kinda rock-hard these days and they hurt my neck)
· look like sofa cushions but are in fact one continuous piece
The bed-sofa actually cost way more than we anticipated, but they did an absolutely brilliant job and it’s really changed my quality of life, and my husband’s, because we’re able to spend more time together, and it takes less out of me. My husband had to check out a few upholsterers before we found one that sounded like they could do it and they were actually really excited about finding solutions to all the little issues.
@Trish ‘s wedge sounds great. I’ve never seen a wedge at the right angle for me, so I just use two pillows – a medium fill one on the bottom and a soft fill one on the top. Recently I’ve been experimenting with big square pillows – they’re 65cm x 65cm and called square/European/continental. You can get them from John Lewis, La Redoute and lots of other places. A square pillow is just right for me now watching TV – we put the TV high up on the wall. Theduvetstore.co.uk had pillows that sounded interesting to me but there was no soft/medium/firm option on the website, and they didn’t stock the square option either, but they ordered everything I wanted in for me. They came with a 3 year guarantee which I value as I have had some pillows that dissolved into teabags.
If your room is big enough for a chaise sofa or a corner sofa, and you can position it and the TV so you can sit/lie on one bit to watch the TV and the other bit to look out the window, that could be brilliant. If the part you end up on most isn't supportive enough, an upholsterer might be able to make a section just for that part. Or a single bed or the small single
@Kitty talked about could be great.
Edited to correct the size of square pillows to 65x65cm
