soaking - anyone worse off?

[Guest guest]

If I'm in pain (which is very often) and have the stamina I find getting

into a very warm bath utterly necessary to make a real dent in the pain.

I cannot stay in long for reasons I don't know. But on thing I find very

relaxing (and I do think that the warm baths work on breaking pain is by

some mechanism(s) relaxing muscle contractions) is to have the bath

fairly warm and run the tap with cold water on my ankles and feet. In

fact the contrast between hot and cold is what I use in bed (heating pad

on my back and cold pack on my head).

Depending on how bad a shape I'm in (i.e., if it's just pain from one or

two stints of activity vs many days of that plus other activity that's

too much--like dealing with financial and welfare stress issues on the

phone, etc.) the bath will help but the help won't last.

I've not been writing or reading for several days because I've been

forced to engage in far too much in the way of dealing with impossible

and frustrating and nuts-making stuff with Medicaid issues and housing

issues. That, on top of having felt better and having overdone it

probably, meant I couldn't rest my way out of the effects of the

overdoing, which requires me to have virtual total control over pacing

activity if only giving and getting info by phone.

So when things get that pressureful bathing has less of a beneficial

effect, as it constitutes activity!

But when you can live with some control over the pacing, pushing against

the box as Donna put it but stopping when you've seen you've probably

caused some flare and bath and be quiet and rest, all help you recover to

where you were before.

At least with me. I've just gone thru one of the worst periods of having

outside interuptions from welfare crapiola that I couldn't avoid or place

on the back burner.

This totally exacerbated my flare and prevented recovering activity, of

which bathing is a part for me.

I'm seeing (I'm afraid to jinx myself) that things, via my hard work and

finding some people in the system and right at its margins, to help and

by being more insistent that I must let go of lots that I feel that I'll

be able to regain where I was as long as I can rest when I sense I

absolutely must, bath (hot and cold) when I feel inclined, and get some

enjoyment or practice deep breathing (really is helping me at my worst

moments).

So, mainly I'm apologizing for dropping out of the conversation and also

recommending the cold water running on your ankles and feet while in a

very warm bath. I don't know it's mechanism but it is I believe

physiological. Never mind. It works for me whereas just a very warm

bath wears me out to much even if it relieves muscle tension.

Judith Wisdom

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