Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Incredible Icy-ness

After I had six -- SIX, count 'em -- milliliters of Synvisc-One AKA hylan G-F 20 injected into my cranky right knee today (more about that later...) I slapped my very favorite ice pack over the injection site.

I brought it from home because those wimpy squeeze-till-you-hear-a-pop-and-the-liquid-turns-cold-for-three-minutes chemical ice packs they give you at Dr. Young Guy's office are pretty useless.

(To continue to experience the full effect of this post, push the play button on the YouTube video of Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man NOW).


Wait for it.....wait for the trumpets....yeahhhhhhhh.


Allow me to introduce you to my previously unsung frosty hero: The ice pack that's been frozen and refrozen and frozen yet again and still packs an icy cold punch of relief. It's not a compress.....it's not a poultice.....it's not a balm.........NO! It's.........SUPER PEA BAG!

Yes. This small bag filled with 12 ounces of cold pea goodness has comfort superpowers.

It conforms to my knee shape perfectly.

It cools divinely.

It thaws evenly....... and then refreezes quickly.

It has survived countless smashings against the kitchen countertop to break apart frozen solid pea clusters.

I don't know how this bag has stayed intact after it's been dragged around everywhere in this house, in Goldie, and now into Dr. Young Guy's clinic without the white plastic springing a hole, but it has kept on keeping on.

I chose Super Pea Bag's theme music carefully, having considered the opening theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey but rejecting it since SPB is a meek white polymer container arising from humble WalMart origins.....thus the Copland Common Man.

Truly. My. Hero.

What? What's that, you say?

AAACK! EAT SUPER PEA BAG'S INNARDS??

People. Y'all are seriously deranged. Tsk.

5 comments:

cargillwitch said...

number one suggested icing bag recommended by those of us attending births!
they do not a bad job on engorged breasts postnatally as well.

stephanie said...

Three times in the past year in my right hip joint, and once this past weekend for my right knee, I suddenly, out of the blue, for no apparent reason, have such horrible pain in these joints that comes on suddenly, I cannot lift my lift because the pain is so severe, and then 2 days later, poof! The pain is gone. I am wondering if this is SS or something else. Will have to ask doc. Wondering if this is similar to what you are dealing with now. Bye.

stephanie said...

PS: Instead of peas, my PT recommended filling a large zip lock bag with corn syrup and squeezing out extra air before zipping shut. Then put that bag into another zip lock to prevent accidents, and keep that in the freezer. It conforms to the body perfectly.

Julia Oleinik said...

Hi Stephanie -- ouch. Sounds very painful! I'm glad that your pain eventually goes away after a few days.

My owies are due to two different causes: my hip bursa becomes inflamed on occasion and it is related to the inflammatory response to autoimmune disease. I have it injected periodically and do exercises which help but it's a chronic thing. My knee x rays showed bone-on-on bone osteoarthritis.

Send me a "poof!". I could use one.

stephanie said...

Shoot. Getting old sucks.

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