Or perhaps, very cold gadget. It is the Donjoy Iceman. Picture a beer cooler with a pump that circulates ice water through something that wraps around your shoulder, wrist, arm, leg, whatever is inflamed. Unlike a conventional ice pack, it will continue to cool the body parts for hours on end, until the ice in the cooler finally melts.
Also, unlike an ice pack, because it is circulating water, there is no danger of freezing your skin -- the thermometer shows you the temperature, and it never gets to freezing.
My wife uses it for her shoulder after the surgery, but ice packs have become a regular part of my life because I have a hard time just working an eight hour day, and typing causes tendonitis. This is a very neat gadget, and even though it is technically a medical device, the price isn't particularly unreasonable.
Me mum had something like that after her knee surgery.
ReplyDeleteOne thing to note--at least on my moms pump--is that you're supposed to keep the pump at the same height as the affected body part. The pump (on hers) wasn't designed to pump water up three feet from the floor to the bed.
The hospital had left it on the floor while she was there, so we put it on the floor when we got her home. After about 2 days it burned out.
The company was f*ing awesome, I called them troubleshot hte device over the phone and a new one showed up the next day.
As to your tendonitis and ice packs, I saw this the other day: http://www.mobilitywod.com/2012/08/people-weve-got-to-stop-icing-we-were-wrong-sooo-wrong/ and am starting to wonder.