So I banged my knee sailing back in May and it swelled up a bit, and eventually went back down. I went running a little while ago and it swelled up again, so I’ve been icing it. This proves pretty difficult to do at work while sitting at my desk. I first tried just some ice cubes in a plastic bag (all I had at work). It wouldn’t stay on very well because the cubes move around and all that, especially when I move my leg. I tried tying it on, but the only thing I had was my iPod power cable. That didn’t work very well either. So I tried something new. I filled a medium sized ziploc bag with water about 1/4 of the way. I draped it over a water bottle in the freezer, creating ice in this shape (inside a plastic bag):
With my leg extended, I can keep the ice on without holding it at all. I can rotate my leg a good amount and it won’t fall off either. After I’m done, I just stick it back in the freezer on the water bottle. Changing the amount of water could also lower the center of gravity, making it more stable on the leg. And changing the size of the bottle could make it possible to put on different areas of the body. Also, different sized bags can change how long the sides are.
Anyway, I thought it was a pretty cool technique that I had never heard of anyone using before.
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2 responses so far ↓
1 campo // Jul 12, 2008 at 7:36 am
that’s definitely an interesting approach. you can also just suck all the air out of the bag before you tie it and usually it’s much better about not sliding or falling off your leg
2 teagan // Jul 14, 2008 at 11:51 pm
this is why you go to MIT. so you can spend hours on psets and in the end think of simple inventions like this for the world
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