Archives for January 2007

I think I’ve mentioned before that I have bad knees. Certainly my loyal readers will remember that I had a very bad fall on my right knee last July that resulted in my knee being swollen up to twice it’s size for three months. Man that hurt. I spent so much time first putting cold pack on it, then alternating between cold and hot packs, and keeping it elevated.

Well, the swelling finally went down in my knee by the end of September but then as the weather here grew colder my knee began to ache. By the end of November I could barely move my knee without pain, and now that the cold weather has really set in my knee bothers me almost as much as my Crohns has been. It’s not nice having two painful areas of the body at once.

I’ve begun to think that my knee problems are not just related to my bad fall thought. You see, my left knee has been acting up too. Crohn’s can affect the joints too, so I might have an injury and an autoimmune system problem going on with my knees. Oh joy!

I’m not just writing today to tell you that my knees hurting. I’m actually writing this post to tell you about a newish site that sells Cold Therapy Ice Wraps. I actually wish that I had discovered this site during the summer because – as you can see from the photo I put above, their cold ice wraps for the knee would have not only provided some pain relief for my knee when it was so sore and swollen, it would have also allowed me to have some mobility while I was icing my knee.

As it was, I was using cold packs on my knee. You know those rectangular gel packs that you can purchase and throw in your freezer? I used those with either a dish towel or an elastic bandage to secure them onto my knee. If I didn’t move much the ice pack would stay in place, but if I had to get up to get a drink or walk up the stairs to use the bathroom the ice pack would start to slip off.

If I’d had one of those nice Ice therapy wraps I wouldn’t have had that problem at all, and I would have been able to move about much more easily. The wrap would have compressed the swollen knee, and between the cold and the compression it would have helped reduce the swelling or at least prevented further swelling.

Did you know that swelling slows down healing? It does. It impairs circulation and when the circulation is impaired healing is slowed. That’s why, as a nurse in the ER we always tell the patients that come in who’ve sprained their ankles or injured their knees to practice the RICE method. Rice stands for Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. All of these things help reduce swelling and thus promote healing.

I really like the icewraps.net site. It has a very simple user friendly layout. The first two featured products that you see upon visiting the site are a shoulder wrap and a Back wrap. As you may realize – shoulder and back pain commonly cause people to miss work, and both areas are very easy to injure either through sports or simply through use as we age. So I found it especially fitting that those were the first two products that I saw on the site.

The design of the products are great. The photos are large enough that I can see the details of the wraps, and if I want a closer look at the photo I just have to click on it to be taken to a page that has more information on the product itself and a larger picture of the item.

The site has wraps for pretty much all of the joints that could be injured through sports or overuse- back, shoulder, elbow, wrist, knee and ankle and they have both cold, hot and combo wrap products available too.

The site is easy to navigate and the color choice for the template is pleasing – to me at least, being mostly white with a mossy green header bar, and greenish gray sidebar. It’s easy to read, the text is a nice size and style and the site loads quickly.

There is a lot of information in the article section about common joint injuries, and the various types of wraps and their uses for each type of joint and joint injury.

The prices of the wraps are quite reasonable. The shoulder wrap that I discussed earlier is on sale for 84.98 which I believe is a fair price for something that looks easy to apply, and that is both therapeutic and offers support for a sore joint.

In the hospital where I work we have shoulder supports for people that have dislocated or injured their shoulders and they come in two pieces. I can’t see how anyone could possibly put our shoulder supports on properly if they were by themselves with no one to help them. Most of the nurse and doctors have trouble figuring out how to put these items on the patients properly too. No support or therapeutic device should be so difficult. Our knee supports are similar in difficulty. Neither have any form of cold or heat functions either- just support. I think that our patients are charged about $75 for the two piece shoulder support. They are more expensive than that, but our government health plan covers a portion of the cost. That’s expensive for a product that doesn’t look like it’s very user friendly or all that therapeutic.

That’s why I’m saying – as a nurse, and as a person who has ongoing joint pain – that the shoulder wrap and other products on icewraps.net seem quite reasonably priced to me, considering all that they can do when compared to the products that I’m used to using on myself or my patients.

In fact, I’d be happy to recommend this site to patients with injured joints in the future. I’m not sure that I could legally do this while working in the hospital, but if I was having a private discussion with the patient I might be willing to mention the site.

Oh and did I tell you that they offer free shipping?

The only con that I can see for this site is that they do not ship outside of the USA. That’s a drag since I’m in Canada. If the owners could at least increase their shipping area to cover all of North America I think that would be great.

If you have joint pain or a joint injury check icewraps.net out. I’m sure you’ll find some very useful products and information on the site.