When Chemical Burns are a good thing...

So, at the risk of boring most of you to death, this is what is going on in my life. As I have blogged my knees have been giving me serious grief to the point that I didn't know if I would be able to continue teaching Aqua. Well, on Tuesday I ran into a friend of mine from Aqua training and she said she sells (She is an Arbon (sp?) rep) an "all natural" icy-hot type cream. Well, I use icy-hot a lot, and I wasn't about to spend double on the "all natural" version...so I politely changed the subject. After my workout I saw her again and she MADE ME (I'm not kidding) put a pea-size dab on both knees. Within in 30 seconds I was SURE I was experience chemical burns on my legs ( I actually just said they were ON FIRE!!!!!, but Marie suggested that they may be chemical burns) anyway, this feeling ( along with an hot-icy chill) came and went throughout the day. Every time my knees sweated or got wet, it was burn-city all over again. Well, Tuesday is the night I teach, and at the end, my knees were surprisingly un-jacked. The next morning...FANTASTIC! They are feeling better than they have in quite a while. My two theories are that either:

1. It kept so much blood flowing to and through my knees that they didn't have time to swell, constrict, or do whatever it is that hurts so badly.

or

2. The burning was so painful that it took my mind right of the pain inside the knee.

Either way, I've ordered a tube of that fire-paste and I will be smelling like a retirement home for the unidentifiable future!

The one down-side to this is that I was unable to partake in one of my favorite past-times---the time honored SUPER HOT BATH!!! The water hit my knees and it was absolutely unbearable. Anyone who knows me, knows that it would take a near-death experience to keep me out of the tub...and it REALLY WAS THAT BAD! In fact, it kept me from the tub for a full 24 hours...