I know there are a lot of people that are in pain on a daily basis, anywhere from a scale of 1-10, with 10 being "I'd rather be in labor" for the ladies or "I'd rather pass a stone" for the guys. I just thought it'd be cool to hear what everyone else does to ease the pain or tips for everday type things like opening jars.
As far me, I've found that hot Epsom salt baths are divine. Even a short soak seems to help a lot. A 30min soak is best, but I can only get those in when my hubby is home. Epsom salt is pretty cheap and definitely worth the cost! You can get a big bag of it in the WalMart pharmacy section for under . A nice hot bath at the end of the day right before bedtime is my suggestion. And when a bath doesn't work, there's always Vicodin and Flexeril.
For the everyday type stuff, the battery powered toothbrushes with the wide handles are excellent! The handles on manual brushes are too slim so your hand hurts holding on to it and then there's the pain of brushing itself. Ugh! Crest Spinbrushes are absolutely wonderful!!
I haven't really found any foods yet that make me feel any better or worse, but I have noticed fried foods give me a general ucky feeling. I also notice if I don't drink a lot of water during the day, I feel pretty bad in the evening. Drinking a full glass of water before a meal also helps me not to eat as much which is helpful for shedding a few pounds. Oh! I do feel good after I eat a banana. I've been having one a day for over a week now.
Oh days when the pain is really bad it's hard to maintain a positive attitude, but I try anyways. No one wants to be around a crabby pants. I try not to sweat the petty things, laugh more and smile often. My thought is, "it could always be worse." Sometimes it's easy to wonder why things happen, but I think everything happens for a reason even if you can't see it right away.
Hope everyone is having a comfortable day!
exercisemy daughter says that tiger balm feels good.. not sure whats in it but she likes it. :-)
Exercise is definitely good and makes you sleep better at night, too.
Tiger balm? I don't think I've ever heard of that. I'm gonna google it.
Grapefruit juice, like other citrus juices, is chock-full of Vitamin C and potassium. But that's not all. A cup of fresh, pink grapefruit juice contains:
Fresh white grapefruit juice has less Vitamin A due to it having less beta-carotene; white juice has only 81 IUs of the vitamin. Canned unsweetened juice has fewer vitamins all the way around, and sweetened juice cocktails can have quite a lot more calories and quite a lot fewer nutrients, so 100% unsweetened juice is best if you're interested in its healthy attributes.
While not as powerful in this area as oranges and tangerines, grapefruit juice contains a variety of flavonoids and glucosides called limonoids that are thought to protect against cancer. Lab tests with rodents showed protection against lung, mouth, breast, prostate, and colon cancers.
Anyone who was alive during the 70s remembers the fad grapefruit diet; as it turns out, it was not as goofy an idea as we might have thought.
Researchers at Dr. Ken Fujioka's laboratory at the Scripps Clinic in San Diego recently did a study on 100 obese patients. Participants who ate half a grapefruit at each meal lost an average of nearly 4 pounds during the 12-week study; those who drank a glass of grapefruit juice lost on average 3.3 pounds. Some people in the study lost a good deal more weight.
An as-yet-unidentified compound in grapefruit juice appears to reduce and regulate insulin levels in the blood; reduced insulin levels in turn affect hunger and blood sugar levels and improve the body's metabolism. The compound may prove useful for diabetics as well.
Many women are plagued by maddening, uncomfortable yeast infections. For some, drinking a glass of grapefruit juice every day staves off the infections, either by acidifying the woman's system or due to an unknown botanical compound that helps the body fight off fungal infection.
Grapefruit juice is cheaper and less toxic than the antifungal drugs used to treat yeast infections. However, women who want to give the juice a try should watch out for drug interactions and should also avoid sweetened juices and juice cocktails. Sweetened juices are loaded with sugar, and a high-sugar diet is commonly believed to make a person more vulnerable to a yeast infection.
If you drink a lot of grapefruit juice, the acid may cause indigestion or (if you're susceptible to them) canker sores. However, treatment for these side effects are pretty simple: don't drink so much juice. Alternately, try taking a calcium carbonate antacid along with your juice.
A more problematic feature of grapefruit juice is that it causes you to absorb more of certain types of drugs, thus potentially causing accidental overdose. It does this by inhibiting naturally-occuring enzymes in the intestines (specifically, cytochrome P450 isoenzymes) that break down a certain portion of said drugs before they have a chance to enter the person's bloodstream.
If a person knows what he/she is doing, of course, this means that grapefruit juice can potentially allow you to take much less of a medication and get the same beneficial effect from it, thus conserving the medication and saving money on prescriptions. But unless one is working closely with a pharmacist, its best not to try that at home.
The amount of grapefruit juice needed to produce the drug-enhancing effect varies; some studies show that as little as a single glass of juice can do it. Others didn't show an effect unless subjects downed nearly a quart of the juice. However, a 2-hour gap between taking a medication and drinking the juice seems sufficient to avoid interactions.
Several compounds in grapefruit juice have been identified as causing the effect, mainly quercetin, kaempferol, and furanocoumarin compounds such as naringin. There may very well be others.
Drugs that should not be taken with grapefruit juice include:
All the above are prescription medications; there's been no evidence so far that grapefruit juice interacts badly with any over-the-counter medications. In many instances, the precise effects haven't been worked out, but all the above medications have the potential for some kind of interaction.
The drugs that you should absolutely avoid taking with grapefruit juice are the calcium channel blockers (which can dangerously lower blood pressure), drugs that can depress the central nervous system such as busipirone and benzodiazepines (an overdose of such drugs can cause accidents or put you in a coma), or drugs used to regulate heart rhythm like amiodarone.
However, there's one central nervous system depressant that grapefruit juice goes just dandy with: alcohol! If you're not a teetotaler, try the following potent potables:
Wow! Thanks, LEV! I had heard grapefruit juice was helpful for losing weight, but I never knew about the potential drug interactions. That just blows my mind. Very interesting!
When at "I'd rather be in labor" pain I find a hot rice bag or hot bath/ shower "if I can get in there" helps. I think the heat messes with the pain receptors.Warm whirlpool baths with Dead Sea saltsDarn, I love grapefruit juice, can't have it because of meds....
Anyway, I listen to my music, close my eyes, put a few hot rice bags on and wish I was at the beach.
streaching deffinatly helps me- i try to do it everynight before i go to bed it seems to help the morning stiffness, i also drink lots of water,
i take tylenol extrastrength 1200mg every 6 hrs on the bad days and that seems to help a lot, i also ice the joints that hurt (hot baths make me feel worse), i also rest and sleep alot when i'm starting to not feel well so i dont make myself worse.
i completly agree with your whole last paragraph mrsalex, thats how i try to think about things- not just ra
yoga in a dark room with a bees wax candle burning and some soft, soothing music
walking outside, concentrating on something like a cool breeze on your face (yeah I know...winter is coming)
doing something you really enjoy (music and writing for me) that occupies your mind
talking to a friend that you trust
Alan
Stretching does seem to help, Jessicakes. Wow! Heat makes it worse for you? Cold seems to make it worse for me. Have you had a hard time finding cold stuff to help you out or are you stuck with ice in a ziplock?
Alan, I think we've already got a little more than a cool breeze here in CO
When I'm a level 4 or lower I do pilates and that helps a bunch.
A warm bath if I can lower into the tub or a heat pad if I can't is the best.
I've had a toy breed service dog for about a week and he has helped me soooo much. I wouldn't recommend it if you're not a dog person, but something about having a furry warm buddy to curl up with that'll give you unconditional love that is helpful. Also he helps me with minor chores like laundry and he makes me walk. LoL I'd be a total couch potato if I wasn't forced.
Here he is, how could you not smile looking at that face?
Let me tell you, we could not have chosen a better breed. At first I was skeptical about pugs as service dogs, but he is such a cuddlebug, he makes me feel so much better just by being around. :)
They are such emotional little dogs, too. When they get excited and breath through their noses, it cracks me up. There's a guy here at the apartment that has one and when ever he takes him out, he spins before he does his business.
Having a pet that loves you unconditionally definitely gives you something to look forward to when you walk in the door.
Mrs.--great thread
buckeye--exercise works for me too. I go first thing in the morning now. Let my DH get the kids off to school and since they are 12, 15, & 17--it really isn't a problem. I just feel better all day if I just do it. I think part of that is the taking time for myself. I go to a gym and I have found that if you are there in the morning, you are there to exercise and not be seen. If you go in the evening (here anyway) you are there to be seen. I swear there are a few people who look like they could head off to a cocktail party from the gym.
I have found that the OXO brand of kitchen tools and knives are fabulous. The handles are big and have cushioning in just the right spots. They are also quality products.
My 'puppies' (two 100lb labs--one yellow, one black) are a great comfort to me as well. They really don't know that they are large beasts--they think that they are little bitty things--just like Amber's baby. They know when I am having a bad day and are very careful not to lean on me too hard or bump into me as I am trying to get from point A to point B.
And if I am just feeling blah but not hurting too much, I go for a ride in my Jeep. I don't know why, but it makes me feel good when I am in the driver's seat.
Hope all of you are having a good day!
Andrea
Amber...what a cute dog!!