Freeze It!

I have probably told this story at least once or twice before but I can't find the link, so here it goes again just to keep you busy for a minute or two before you nod off and spill that coffee in your lap.

I have lower back pain. Occasionally my back feels great. No stiffness, no pain, everything works fine. More often than not my lower back aches a little bit. Nothing too terribly bad but it will ache consistently. There are days though when I have worked particularly hard, or when I haven't had enough sleep that it just feels like it's killing me. It hurts to move, walk, bend, sit, anything. I have some pretty weak muscle relaxers for those times, I think they are actually an anti-inflammatory, that seem to help out a bit particularly if I have had a beer or two.

Anyway, a few years ago when it was really acting up I went to see the doctor about it. The wife and I though I might have a kidney infection it hurt so bad. I made my appointment and went to see him at which point he put me through some tests including taking a urine sample, after which he concluded that it wasn't a kidney infection. 'That's a good thing', I thought.

He decided that he would take X-rays, so he sent me to his X-Ray tech (same office). She took the pics and after I waited for about half an hour they decided that they needed to redo the pictures. Another thirty minute wait later and my doctor and his X-Ray technician got me back there again and we had a short conversation that went something like this...

Doc "Have you been involved in a car accident?"

Me: "A couple of fender benders maybe, but that's about it".

Doc: "No, not like that. Like you have been thrown through the windshield at high speed"

Me: "?"

Apparently I have two severely compressed vertebra in the small of my back. Once I got to thinking about it I knew exactly what had happened and explained it to him, after which he gave me an anti-inflammatory and a series of instructions on some exercises that would help me out over the long run. Without going into the gory details here I will suffice it to say that it involves stupid teenage drunk tricks. These things have a way of coming back to haunt you 25 years later.

Jump to the other day and I got some samples of this stuff in the mail called Freeze It. I thought, "Oh yay, another heat rub...can't they send me something good?" but had the wife put some on my back anyway. Hey, free stuff is the best kind. This stuff is actually pretty good. I could immediately feel it going to work on my back. Apparently (according to the package) Freeze It is for Muscle, Joint & Arthritis Pain Relief. It works! I was truly impressed and it worked for quite awhile. Enough to relax me so that I could actually sleep, which is always a nice bonus. I've looked around too and it's available all over. Amazon, Wal-Mart, and a bunch of other places. It's cool that it is available locally to me. I am surprised that I have never heard of it before.

Yeah I know, ugly self promoting photo. What can I say? It doesn't help that both of my digital cameras have bitten the dust and I am reduced to either using my web cam or my cell phone. The quality of the camera does much to improve my look, especially right after work when I am tired and have that googly eye thing going on. OK, here's the obligatory self-serving commercial too...

What the heck, I like the stuff. I have tried several different brands of heat rubs and they always work, but the effects don't seem to last as long, nor do they relax me that much. I still have one or two packs left and I guess the next time I go grocery shopping I will have to pick some up. It might be the difference between actually getting in some work or fun time or laying up in bed for two or three days, which is exactly what happened when I went to the blog meet last September. I was really disappointed because I spent the majority of the weekend holed up on pain relievers and sleeping instead of getting out and having a good time with everyone.