Last night as I lay in bed some pain started to build in one hand. Knowing arthritis as I do, I knew without fail, possibly slowly, but surely the pain would build and spread. I had taken an anti-inflammatory drug too recently to take another at that moment so I decided to leave the warmth of my bed and get an ice-pack filled with gel from the freezer compartment.
I have a few of these ice-packs. They are flexible and so mould themselves to the shape of my body and wrapped around the joint and tied with a velcro tab. For my ankles it is much better if my wife does it. She can really get a tight fit, which helps the cold temperature become really effective. However right now I wanted the ice initially around my wrist.
So once back in bed I made the ice-pack into roll ready to slip my hand inside. As I just said as tight a fit as possible makes the ice-pack more effective. But I know that once lying down I can press down with my wrist into the ice-pack and help get maximum benefit.
It only takes about five minutes and the pain, and I guess any swelling, begin to subside. Leaving it another five minutes for good measure I then manoeuvre the ice-pack around other parts of my hand and thereafter start on my other hand. At one point I squeeze fingers from both hands inside getting the benefit to fingers on both hands at the same time. A lovely aspect of using ice-packs is the ice can be applied to almost the exact spot of wherever the most pain is.
Within about half and hour (or was it an hour?) I am lying in a beautifully calm state with almost no pain. At such a moment going to sleep does not matter to me. Knowing that I am lying with relatively no pain is just so comfortable, compared with the initial pain that I started with.
Because of my diet I am now in control of such pain, in that any new pain does not come back for several hours. Meantime I have fallen asleep.
All is well. Yes, I am neither totally free of pain nor inflammation. But they do not control me, I control them. Result.
Add the RIGHT foods to your diet to REDUCE arthritic pain and inflammation.
Include the WRONG foods to your diet and INCREASE arthritic pain and inflammation.
My choice? A life-journey based on a low-oil whole-food plant based diet.
Whatever your current state of health, make yourself healthier - you deserve it. Start your plant based diet journey today.
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