Better Than Frozen Peas

Well, I survived my first week of physical therapy (PT) and it hasn't been too bad.  I think I'm making a little progress.  If we were to go by the achiness of my shoulder at the end of the day, we could probably say that we're making great progress.

Since I've been feeling a dull ache after doing the exercises, I've been trying to ice down the sore area.  That's not easy when you're a knitter and a typist.  I've tried wrapping up a bag of frozen veggies in a towel and holding it on the sore spot but it doesn't stay in place unless I keep on holding it.  I can't knit or work on the computer with one hand......at least not easily.

One of my friends who is a physical therapist was telling me the other day about a homemade frozen gel pack that I could make from two bottles of dish soap poured into a Ziploc bag.  Then you double-bag it and stick it in the freezer.

I was doing fine on making my own gel pack until we got to the freezing it part.  It wasn't too stable in its "unfrozen" state and I wanted to lay it flat in the freezer.  I could have taken it down to the big chest freezer and found a spot to lay it flat but I solved the problem by putting it on a wire cooling rack.  This gave it stability.

Then I jury-rigged a spot in our refrigerator freezer by stacking some food boxes to make a flat and level surface and placed the cooling rack with the makeshift gel pack on top of the boxes.  Voila!  Now I'm just waiting for it to freeze enough to apply to my shoulder.

Ah, and I noticed today at PT that the therapists were putting their official gel pack into pillowcases and then letting folks sling them over their shoulders to ice them down.  Actually, you could sling them anywhere you wanted to ice something down but the folks I happened to notice today were all icing shoulders and doing it without having to hold the pack in place.  I'm going to try the pillowcase myself at home.  It seems like it would be much easier to work with than a big towel.

So there you have it.  If you need an ice pack and your insurance isn't providing you with one or you don't want to go out and buy an expensive one, try to make your own.  In the meantime, here's to pain-free days!