I'm going to sc so I'll be in the car for a good 12-13 hours. I'm sure there will be plenty of stops on the way. I was wondering what to do binder wise. Should I wear one the entire time? Like a looser one, not wear one at all, I don't own any sports bras or anything like that. I'm just worried if we make a pit stop and I'm not wearing one, the bathroom situation. I know it's not goo to wear a binder more than 7 hours or so. One Of my binders do bind like a sports bra tho. What have you guys done on road trips?
The odd day or two won't hurt, just make sure you take deep breaths when you get it off, stop and take it off if it does get too much, and don't make a habit of doing it.
Personally I'd suggest not wearing one and wearing like a hoodie in the car. Don't put it on until you reach your destination. I tried wearing mine for this long during a beach trip and it got to the point I couldn't wear anything and had to wear a jacket in 90degree weather to hide the fact. Mine was also stretched out and I thought it would be fine. Nope. It became quite painful. Wearing a hoodie in the car shouldn't be too weird, I do this on road trips cause it's comfy and I can use the hood as a pillow. Please play it safe, you don't want to ruin your trip by injuring yourself.
Funny, I JUST did this. Went on a trip to the outer banks, which was about 12 hours both ways. On the way there we stopped at the 8 or 9 hour mark to sleep and finished the next day, but on the way back we drove straight through.
I wore my binder the whole way. During the last few hours before we stopped at a hotel on the way up, I was experiencing quite a bit of back pain. I have some chronic conditions that cause pain so I would have been hurting even without a binder, but I'm sure the binder didn't help.
On the way back I slept for 6 hours on and off (yes, I slept in the binder) which made it much easier on me because I didn't have to experience pain the whole way.
In my opinion, if you have a properly fitting binder that allows you to move around and take deep breaths and isn't made of stiff, cheap material, you SHOULD be okay. If your binder isn't too tight and you can truly breathe freely and still stretch your back and such, then wearing it during the ride isn't going to kill you.
Also, all of the naps I've ever taken in my binder were completely accidental. I've always known that it's bad to sleep in your binder, but again, keep in mind that if your binder is truly the right size, falling asleep for a short amount of time isn't going to kill you. If you feel like you might fall asleep and you're worried, maybe ask a buddy to keep an eye on you and wake you up after an hour or so.
The reason I wore it was because I wanted to pass and not have to deal with chest dysphoria. I was also meeting the people that I'd be sharing a vacation house with and I was introducing myself as Luke to them.