Try Warm Whiskers Wraps to Help Relieve Juvenile Arthritis Pain!

Warm Whiskers has a fun line of products that can provide hot or cold therapy to those suffering from arthritis pain and stiffness.  They offer neck wraps, body wraps, slippers and body pillows in various adorable animal-shaped designs.

These aromatic products can be heated in the microwave to provide soothing warmth to sore joints or muscles and can also be frozen to provide cold therapy as well. 

If you’re child has juvenile arthritis, try using Warm Whiskers products instead of a traditional heating pad.  Heating pads are great for adults, but they are difficult to control the temperature.  Warm Whiskers offer a safer method of warming sore little joints.

Kudos to Warm Whiskers for these child-friendly products that offer a solution to serious pain! 

Warm Whiskers gives back too!  Last year, they gave away “Laraby Lab” pillows to 400 children at the 2008 Juvenile Arthritis Conference.  You have to love the smiles on the kids’ faces!

Through March 31, 2010, Warm Whiskers will donate 5% of each sale to the Arthritis Foundation.  Now, that’s a win-win situation!

Whether you have a child with pain or you are a child-at-heart, these Warm Whiskers products are bound to brighten up a sore day!

Tips for a Bad Flare Day – Part 2

In Tips for a Bad Flare Day – Part 1, we went over various tips to help you deal with an arthritis flare up.  Those tips primarily concentrated on various hot or cold treatments. 

Here are even more tips to help you get through the day:

Reschedule priorities:  If you have plenty of tasks scheduled for the day, but you feel terrible and know that you will not be able to manage it, then the first thing you should do is reschedule your priorities for the day.  Postpone what you can and only complete the tasks that are absolutely necessary or make arrangements for someone else to perform those tasks.  If you do this early in the day, you will not feel guilty that you could not accomplish what you originally planned on.

Hot tea:  Try warming up your body by drinking hot tea.  Green tea provides antioxidants and traditionally has less caffeine then coffee.  There are also many different types of herbal non-caffeinated teas that will warm up your body and help you to relax.

Relax:  Do something that helps you relax.  Listen to music, meditate, etc.  Everyone is different.  Just do whatever works for you.

Rest:  Try taking a nap or lay down for a while.  You may just find that you feel a little bit better after resting for a while.

Use assistive aids:  Use a walking aid, such as a cane or walker, to help you move with less pain through the day.

Enlist your family:  When dealing with arthritis pain, many daily routines can seem monumental.  For instance, doing laundry, making dinner, shopping for groceries, shuffling children to and from school, activities, etc.  On these days, enlist your family to take on some of your daily routines.  Talk about it ahead of time and let them know that you desperately need some help on those painful flare days. 

Independent play for younger children:  If your pain is too much to deal with and you just need some time to regroup, have a list of activities your children can do independently.  For instance, quiet time in their room, watch a movie, art activities, etc.

Easy dinners:  Keep some frozen food on hand for easy dinners.  Save those for days you just can’t bear to cook.  Choose from family size casseroles, pizzas, individual frozen dinners, etc.  There are many healthy options to choose from.  Have a salad on the side by using the pre-made salad options in your local grocery store. 

Get moving:  You may just want to curl up into a ball when your flare hits, but at some point in the day, you need to get up and get moving.  Keeping your joints stiff is not the answer.  Try some tips to warm you up and then take advantage of that by moving around a little bit.

Hopefully, these tips will help you get through your day with a little less difficulty than normal.

Good luck!

Tips for a Bad Flare Day – Part 1

As arthritics, we all have those bad flare days, weeks, years, etc.  It is just a part of life.  But some days just seem to be unbearable.  What do you do on those days? 

Here are some tips that may help relieve some of the pain:

Take a hot bath:  This sounds like a no-brainer, but in today’s world most people would rather take a shower due to time constraints, busy lives, etc.  Taking a hot shower can help because of the heat.  However, when you take a bath you receive two benefits.  First, your body soaks in the heat which helps your joints feel better.  Second, due to the buoyancy, your joints are not weight bearing which relieves the stress on your joints.

Epsom salts:  If you have tried hot baths and they do not quite relieve some of the pain, then try adding some epsom salts to your bath.  Epsom salts tend to reduce inflammation and relax muscles.

Use a heating pad or electric blanket:  Try a heating pad on the worst offending joint or an electric blanket if you have multiple joints in pain.  Just make sure to not leave them unattended or sleep with them on.

Hand gloves and socks:  If your hands hurt or are cold, then try wearing gloves to keep the heat in your body.  That goes the same for your feet.  Wear thick socks or socks with shoes or slippers on.  Keeping the heat in your body assists in relieving the pain.

ThermaCare heat wraps:  Try ThermaCare heat wraps on your joints if you need a portable heat source.  They are designed to provide heat for about 8 hours once activated.

Cold treatment:  If you have tried the tips above and you still do not experience relief from pain and stiffness, then try some cold therapy by placing an ice pack  or cold pack on the painful joint.  You may even want to try alternating between cold and hot therapies.

The overall message here is for you to find the treatment that works best for you.  Everyone is different.  When you find the combination of treatment that works best for you, jot it down so you know what to do the next time.

Tomorrow, we will give even more tips for those unbearable flares in Tips for a Bad Flare Day – Part 2.

Tired of Balancing Items When Using Crutches?

Anyone that has used crutches knows how difficult it can be to get from point A to point B, especially when you’re in pain.  That is hard enough.  But what happens when you’re trying to carry an item as well?  Or maybe multiple items?  It usually does not end well.

When using crutches during a flare-up, post-op period or any other type of recovery, we don’t always have someone to help us out.  Or, some of us tend to be too independent and refuse help. 

In times past, I have used a lightweight backpack to carry items.  However, if you only have an item or two to carry, the backpack is too bulky.

The answer to this problem is the Crutch Tote.  It simply attaches to your crutch near the hand grip.

Now don’t plan on packing your life into it.  They are not that large!  Besides you wouldn’t want that much weight hanging on your crutches anyway.  That’s just an accident waiting to happen.

They are usually big enough to carry a cell phone, bottled water and other various small items.

Here is what the Crutch Tote looks like: 

(To view a larger image and closeup pictures of the Crutch Tote, click on the image.)

Check this one out.  It may just be your life saver!