Here is a great article on how to make your own hot/cold compress for rehab. Not only will it cost pennies to make, it’s a lot better than those blue ice packs you buy at the drug store. It is more flexible and you can adjust the size so that you aren’t trying to wrap an 8″ square piece of plastic around your pinkie.

How to Make a Rice Sock

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

This guide will help you create a “rice sock,” a compress which can be heated in a microwave or chilled in a freezer and applied to the body to help relieve pain and discomfort. It can also be used as a physical therapy device for hands. Flaxseed can also be used and stays hot longer.

Steps

1. Get a clean cotton sock and fill it with uncooked rice. I first experimented by heating white rice, brown rice, barley, flax seed, etc. in socks to see how each worked. All worked fine, but flax seed was the smoothest to feel. It took a little longer to heat than rice, but also stayed warm longer. Don’t pack it in tightly, leave some room for the grains to move around so that it will more easily conform to the area to be treated.
2. Use a thick athletic type sock, so grain will not stick through. Tie the open end of the sock with yarn, ribbon or string.
3. Put the filled sock in a microwave oven for approximately 1 minute (or to chill the sock, put it in a freezer for about 45 minutes).
4. Shake the rice/grain sock to evenly distribute the heated or chilled rice.
5. Apply the sock to the desired body part.
6. To use for physical therapy, just create a smaller rice sock and knead it slowly and gently with the affected hand. As time passes and the hand gets stronger, knead harder.

Tips

• For easy scenting, open a teabag and mix the contents with the rice.
• You can add a few drops of your favorite scented oil, such as pure essential lavender oil, which aids in relaxation.
• You can add some dried herbs to provide scent, as well. A popular mix is dried lavender, chamomile and lemon peel.
• Be sure the sock is closed tightly and knot the tie to prevent a spill.
• If the sock becomes dirty, you can throw it away and make a new one, or empty the contents into a clean sock and wash the dirty one.
• An alternate way to make these, if you have more time, is to sew a little pouch (with or without a decorative design). These can be used for yourself, given as gifts, or even to sell if they are really good.
• New rice will give off quite a bit of moisture when microwaved and will smell strongly. The more your sock/beanbag is used and microwaved the less damp it will feel and the smell will gradually fade.
• Washed and dried cherry pits can also be used instead of rice.
• The foot of an old pair of pantyhose could be used as the inside layer of a two layer sock to keep the rice from migrating through a less tightly woven outer sock.
• Corn seed (available at farm outlets) can also be used and the heat generated seems to last longer. Don’t use popcorn for this project! The corn also has a slight odor when heated. If made from sturdy material, it can withstand years of daily use!
• A small pillow case may be substituted for the sock if you want a pad that covers more area. Remember, more area means slightly longer heating/cooling time. You will want to experiment with times and settings, but be careful not to burn yourself.
• If you have no materials around to seal the sock, just tie a knot in the end of the sock itself or sew up the end of the sock to create a permanent seal.
• To be prepared for the unexpected, keep one in your freezer, so it’s ready to use at a moment’s notice.
• A good way to make a larger rice “pillow” is to fold a soft dishtowel (clean) in half. Sew up two of the sides, fill it with rice, then sew up the third side. These are especially good for menstrual cramps, because the weight feels nice on the abdomen, and the heat soothes the pain. It’s also great as a foot warmer in bed.
• Flax seed (those little things you find in birdseed) is another possibility. Flax seeds are small, hard, smooth brown seeds about the size of a sesame seed. Their smoothness makes them conform very well to any shape.
• A rice sock also works well for comforting puppies who cry in the night. Warm it and put it in bed with the puppy. Be certain it’s not too hot.
• A small amount of Vick’s Vaporub can create an aromatic and therapeutic aid that will help with colds or allergies.

Warnings

• Do NOT use Minute Rice or other quick cooking sorts of rice. It will start a fire in your microwave.
• To prevent fires, put a glass of water in the microwave with your rice sock when heating it.
• Never use anything metal to make your rice sock because you will be using it in the microwave, and microwaves do not like metal.
• Don’t use twist ties to close your sock, as they may contain metal.
• Use caution so as not to overheat the sock. Rice socks can cause severe burns if overheated. The rice can also burn! At the very least this will smell bad, and it could possibly start a fire or burn a hole in the sock.
• Never use a rice sock on a person who is sleeping, anyone who is paralyzed, a person who has been given medication that might numb their body (such as an epidural), or an infant. They could be burned severely, because they will not be able to feel or tell you if the sock is too hot.
• Use a cool or cold rice sock to cool someone with a fever as long as it does not induce shivering, since this can increase metabolism and body temperature. For an adult with a high fever place a cold sock on the forehead and cool socks in each arm pit and, if tolerated, at the base of the back of the neck. Check the temperature about every 20-30 minutes. Continue cooling until the temperature is below ~101F . A cool sock at the base of the neck or on the forehead can be continued for comfort.
• Do not treat a child’s fever with cold; tepid baths are better.
• If the rice sock feels too cold or hot at first, you can wrap it with a light towel until the temperature equalizes a bit.

Things You’ll Need

• A clean cotton sock
• Uncooked rice or flaxseed.
• A piece of yarn, ribbon or string, not plastic
• A microwave and / or a freezer
• A small pillow case may be substituted for the sock if you wish a larger pad.

Related wikiHows

• How to Make a Paper Hat
• How to Make a Chocolate Bubble Bath
• How to Massage Yourself
• How to Make Banana Scrub
• How to Get Rid of a Cold Without Using Medications
• How to Make a Puppet With an Empty Bottle and a Broom Stick

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Make a Rice Sock. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Technorati Tags: Finger rehab, gadgets

It’s all about re-habra-cadabra! Using magic as a therapy for an injured finger or hand. I won’t bother reiterating here everything I wrote. Just head on over to the article and read it there. Be sure to come back though.

Re-Habra-Cadabra! Magic Therapy For Your Fingers

Patrick

Technorati Tags: Finger fracture, Finger rehab, swollen finger

Here’s a simple trick that can be used early on in finger rehab. It doesn’t involve any overly complex moves, finger strength or extreme stretches, so it is an ideal effect to learn soon after an injury. It can be especially helpful if you have a swollen finger. Enjoy.

Technorati Tags: Finger rehab, swollen finger

I knew that an injury to any one of your fingers can get in the way of every day tasks, but I would have never considered that it could put a race car driver on the sidelines.

An interesting story here:

A Real Cut Up: Jimmie Johnson To Play Through The Pain Of An Injury Fingered At Daytona

Technorati Tags: Finger rehab, swollen finger

As you know, I am a big believer that if you enjoy your therapy, you will do it more frequently and get better results. Therapy is painful and difficult, and in the past it has been incredibly boring. We can’t do much about the first two items, but we can fix the boredom.

Take a look at this video where therapists have discovered that using the Nintendo Wii helps their patients achieve faster results. No kidding!

Technorati Tags: Finger rehab, rehab, swollen finger

Especially if you count on that finger (no pun intended) for your livelihood. This is what I went through. Some people might say, “What’s the big deal?” But, if you’ve been through this kind of trauma, then just like me you know what a set back it can be.

This story is about a basketball player who dislocated a finger and is struggling to get her game back. It makes great reading.

Journey back rough for Malone

Technorati Tags: finger dislocation, Finger rehab, swollen finger

I love unusual approaches to finger rehabilitation. This idea makes use of a strategically placed mirror to fool the brain into thinking your injured hand is OK. Sometimes the only thing in the way of fast healing is the belief we can’t do it. This can take that factor out of the equation.

Technorati Tags: Finger rehab, jammed finger, swollen finger

If you’re looking for a more in depth look at what to do from the onset of a finger injury, here is an article that can help. I’d like to give it a rating of excellent, but that would not be fair, since I wrote the darn thing. Perhaps the rating from the eZine website will suffice.

Anyway, check it out here: Finger Rehab, What you need to know!

Technorati Tags: Finger rehab

• Trigger Finger Release Surgery - Banjo Hangout Discussion Forums - … to reattach about half of that, but it has been a lot of therapy to get back to banjo playing. There are a few decent rehab devices out there that are worth the money. I would highly recommend these for any kind of finger rehab. …

Technorati Tags: Finger rehab

If you’ve read my first post, some of the details may seem familiar to you. Perhaps I can jog your memory… Magician, hand model, banjo player and an incident with a lawn chair. If that doesn’t do it, then congratulations. You have been spared the parade of craziness that has surrounded me for the last several months. If you want to know what that craziness has been about, then read on.

Last summer, while helping my (at that time) future mother in law with some yard work, I sat down in a chaise lounge chair to put on my work boots. The poorly designed chair ended up severing the top half inch of my index finger. The recovery and healing process are what this blog addresses. The thing I can’t  talk about  is the ensuing legal action that was taken.

Although I cannot discuss the specifics of any law suit, I can address the media circus that came with it. You see, the parties involved are not what you would call ‘low profile’. So, when my attourney filed the case in our local court, his phone rang less than an hour later. It was the newspaper lookng for a comment. Evidently, they check in regularly with the courthouse to see if anything interesting was filed that day. My case was interesting. They grabbed a few quotes and put the story up on their website an hour later.

By late that evening, the Associated Press had picked it up. It had all the elements for entertaning reading; a guy with an unusual profession, a big name store and a bigger name behind the product. Plus, the headline they had written was catchy: “Magician has slightly less hand to use for sleight of hand”.

By the afternoon of the next day, my phone was ringing. TV and Radio stations all over the world wanted an interview. By the time I had caught up with it all, many of the details had been altered or made up. had I read the story without knowing the facts, I would have thought it was weird too. And, being a guy who ocassionally fills in on the local radio station, I would have wanted an interview with me too.

Suddenly, a Google search for my name would bring back hundreds of thousands of matching pages! And many of the pages had places for comments, so I was able to see what the world thought of me. Not much it turns out! I read some pretty vile stuff. I would say one out of every fifty commentors actually said that people should wait until the facts are known. That person would then be ravaged by the next fifty commentors. It was pretty odd I must say.Especially when my mother got around to reading some of them. She took it qith a great sense of humor. She assured me that I was not the “problem with America”.

The TV show TMZ called next. They wanted me on. Since I didn’t respond within the allotted time (my guess is that they gave me about twenty minutes) they put me on anyway. Holy moly! I have to admit, the piece they did was hysterical, but it took some serious swipes at me. Fortunately, I had inherited my mothers sense of humor. If you want a good laugh, here is the youtube link.

That is when my phone really began to ring. Mostly it was long lost friends wondering what had happened to me. But it also got the radio shows yakking up a storm. Jonathon Brandmeier, Adam Corolla and quite a few others talked about it, and many tried to get me on to discuss it. Dr. Phil even called. (Well, one of his people did.) I finally ended up on Fox and Friends. Here is that link.

It took about a week for the furor to die down. What has taken longer is dispelling the “facts” that came out of the craziness. The opinion that was formed is that I was a fat, drunk, moron who didn’t know how to sit down in a chair. Well, I’m of average weight, I don’t drink, and as far as I can recollect, this is my first incident with any kind of chair. And, thanks to the press feeding frenzy, we have been contacted by quite a few others who had the same thing happen to them.

Anyway, I will reveal more of the details as this case goes forward. Until then, enjoy a few laughs at my expense. I can take it. If it didn’t bother my mother, I won’t bother  me.

Patrick

p.s. Just for the heck of it, I’ve included a photo of my finger 3 weeks after the incident. It’s pretty gruesome even after three weeks of healing. Banjo playing was going to take a while…

Technorati Tags: Finger rehab, lawsuit, patrick albanese