Basin and Hot Towels-Tip to to survive this Christmas

HOT towels!!

This has worked well and conveniently for me, that I wished that other fibromyalgia or rheumatoid arthritis would benefit from it too. This has been mentioned before in What works for my fibromyalgia, so far. [These works for my RA too!] The weather has been uncharacteristic lately, with some places really getting much colder than it normally is!

I have been walking 1/2 hour each way, to and from work, a couple of times a week in freezing temperatures and have been "defrosting" myself with the basin/towel method.

The tip first came from my dear rheumatologist who told me a simple quickie way to "defrost" my stiff feet and hands in winter- hot basin of water. All I need is a kettle to warm some water, (and someone to help with kettle sometimes) and a basin.

I have since modified it. I use hot water from the tap, and run it into my wash basin. (No kettle, no danger of scalding). I soak my hands in the hot water to help with the stiffness.

For other areas, I use a small face towel to soak up some hot water, and put in painful places like my neck, knees, shoulders, elbows etc. Works well! The only "side-effect" of this method is it is rather drying to the skin. That is not a problem as I apply Tiger Balm/Bengay Gel/NSAID gel after the hot towels. The heat from the towels increased the blood circulation to the area, and the gels get absorbed quickly and works better. Just be careful not to overdo the NSAID gels, as the NSAIDs do get absorbed quite a lot this way.

The advantage of this method??

• You literally have some relief on the tap.
• You can even do it in your office pantry, toilets at work.
• When visiting friends/staying overnight, have some towels with you. You can have do it in the discretion in the wash rooms, if you don't want to alarm others. We don't want our illness to replace the Christmas craker jokes as the focus of dinner, don't we? For the towels, be creative! Even those cheap flannels (or dusting cloth!) than come in packs from the supermarket, and literally "disposable" could be of use. Just bring one along, use and throw! (errr, I hope the environmentalists won't yell at me for this suggestion). Try it out at home first, and see if it works for you.

Hope this helps. Merry Christmas and Happy New year.

And please please let me know if this helps, or you have other methods to improvise on it.