In Hot Water......

First of all, my apologies for the slightly unsavoury nature of today’s photo, but it does illustrate a point….

….What do you do in front of the television?

Normally I put my feet on the coffee table, eat stuff, and shout at the vast number of incompetent referees, sportsmen, and politicians there are in the world.

At the moment however I am being encouraged to sit, up to my shins, in tubs of water.

To cut a rather long and boring story short, I’ve been having problems with my feet & ankles for a couple of months, and have been very restricted in terms of walking or getting about. Fortunately I seem to be over the worst of it now, but prolonged hobbling has left me with muscle strains in one foot, and chronic tendonitis in the other.

As part of the physio to get me going again I have to plunge my feet into cold water for about 15-20 seconds, and then into hot. (Both as hot and cold as you can bear.) You’re supposed to do this for about 10 minutes, twice a day.

The idea is that the cold water quickly constricts the blood vessels, and the hot then expands them again. By repeatedly doing this you create a “flushing” action that increases blood flow to designated area, and which is vital to the healing process for soft tissue injuries. It is also more effective than icing alone for stubborn problems.

Although the cold bit initially prompts a loud “Hooo Haaaa” moment, you very soon get used to it, and your feet really begin to tingle.

The point of this post is that as a instant painkiller of sprains and strains etc, it seems nothing short of miraculous....I’ve certainly never come across a prescription drug that even comes close. And the beneficial effects seem to last quite a few hours. So together with some normal ultrasound physio, I expect to be back to my rambling best soon.

I hope that having to look at my foot has not put anyone off trying this in future, should the need arise, as I can strongly recommend it.

Oh, and by the way, I am not really a dark hairy, gorilla-like man/beast/thing…..flash photography just makes it look that way, OK.