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The Zip-Loc Trick
Yet another Shogun Samurai Master IC comfort trick I forgot to share in my last post...
On my last trip to Costa Rica, we stayed in cabina on the south pacific side of the country. Swaying palms, 100 different orchids, birds of a feather, monkeys in the trees, and PAINFUL IC.
We were no where near electricity one night, and I could tell my wife was hurting bad. You see, she bounces her foot or leg like a metronome to "distract" her brain from the IC symptoms. She doesn't even know she's doing it, but her ankle bounces along, and wears through at least 2 pairs of linens a year. She says it's from me sliding in and out of bed, but the holes in the sheets are just the right length of her feet. So I rotate the sheets now and then and let her have this small victory to save face. Back to the Jungle...
With her leg twitching, and her body slowly curling tighter into the fetal position, I could tell that the meds just weren't doing it that night. I had to act. But what could I do? Here we were, in the jungle, under our mosquito net, with cold water only, and a small propane stove...
Ah HA! I slipped out of bed like a ninja master thief. I brought candle to coleman stove and boiled some water, then I (don't try this at home) poured the water into a large zip-loc bag, and tempered it with some fresh cold water. Then I squeeeeeezed out the air. I rifled through the cooler and found another baggie. I double bagged my concoction and brought it to bear on her lower back.
There was a quick inhalation of surprise!
Then a loooooong siiiigh of r e l i e f . . .
It became our evening ritual. For the following two weeks I prepared this hot water bottle for my honey's over-stressed sacrum every evening as part of our "going to bed ritual" that IC patients have to go through to try to get comfortable enough to contemplate sleep. It worked wonders. I even got up one particularly bad night and made up a fresh "hot water bottle" for her.
We only had the bag open up on us once, with just a few drops getting out of the outer bag the morning after it was already cooled down. Nothing that didn't dry in a day. I wouldn't try this with any old Zipper-bag, you run the risk of scalding, but it worked for us. When I didn't have a place to plug in my electric heating pad, I built one.
iH8iC = I Hate IC
On my last trip to Costa Rica, we stayed in cabina on the south pacific side of the country. Swaying palms, 100 different orchids, birds of a feather, monkeys in the trees, and PAINFUL IC.
We were no where near electricity one night, and I could tell my wife was hurting bad. You see, she bounces her foot or leg like a metronome to "distract" her brain from the IC symptoms. She doesn't even know she's doing it, but her ankle bounces along, and wears through at least 2 pairs of linens a year. She says it's from me sliding in and out of bed, but the holes in the sheets are just the right length of her feet. So I rotate the sheets now and then and let her have this small victory to save face. Back to the Jungle...
With her leg twitching, and her body slowly curling tighter into the fetal position, I could tell that the meds just weren't doing it that night. I had to act. But what could I do? Here we were, in the jungle, under our mosquito net, with cold water only, and a small propane stove...
Ah HA! I slipped out of bed like a ninja master thief. I brought candle to coleman stove and boiled some water, then I (don't try this at home) poured the water into a large zip-loc bag, and tempered it with some fresh cold water. Then I squeeeeeezed out the air. I rifled through the cooler and found another baggie. I double bagged my concoction and brought it to bear on her lower back.
There was a quick inhalation of surprise!
Then a loooooong siiiigh of r e l i e f . . .
It became our evening ritual. For the following two weeks I prepared this hot water bottle for my honey's over-stressed sacrum every evening as part of our "going to bed ritual" that IC patients have to go through to try to get comfortable enough to contemplate sleep. It worked wonders. I even got up one particularly bad night and made up a fresh "hot water bottle" for her.
We only had the bag open up on us once, with just a few drops getting out of the outer bag the morning after it was already cooled down. Nothing that didn't dry in a day. I wouldn't try this with any old Zipper-bag, you run the risk of scalding, but it worked for us. When I didn't have a place to plug in my electric heating pad, I built one.
iH8iC = I Hate IC
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