Don Knotts

Ok, so this isn't a tribute blog to the comedic prowess shown in such characters as Barney Fife or Mr. Furley. Sorry, about the false pretenses my title portrays.

Actually, this is a gripe/praise blog.
gripe: I often get knots in my shoulder that are rather uncomfortable. sometimes these knots escalate to all-out painful shoulder aches, stretching into my neck and arm.
Over the weekend, I had a thrilling and fun-filled evening with some friends at Valleyfair. And let it be known - love rollercoasters. It turns out, however, that all of that flipping, turning, tossing and jerking around makes underlying shoulder knots come out in full-force. After a few rides, Katie noticed her shoulder getting sore...I was soon to follow. I certainly hope Katie is fairing better than I am, but I found it hard to use my left arm for much of anything yesterday. Even after laying on the heating pad for a good half hour last night, I could barely find a comfortable position to subside the pain long enough to fall asleep. I awoke this morning with a screaming pain through my shoulder and neck. Again the heating pad was applied and subsided some of the pain. I honestly thought I was going to throw-up or die of a head explosion this morning due to the throbbing sensations.

Praise: After much consideration of calling in sick, I decided to stop at Walgreeens to get some of those stick-on heating pads before work (thanks to Mike's suggestion). I was much convinced they would be the same medicine as my regular plug-in heating pad. So not true, my friends. The heating pad is supposed to stay warm for 8 hours, and although I'm only on hour 2.5, so far so good. The continuous warmth allows me to move around, function normally and not grimace in pain. It's a wonderful thing. The heat is a very soothing, comfortable temperature (perhaps better than my usual blazing-hot setting on the regular heating pad). I certainly recommend the stick-on heating pads for all of your muscular aches and pains...really!