My knee hurts today–I was in the “palliative” drawer, which I emptied for the previous post.

But this thing usually does the trick. TENS stands for “transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation” and it can greatly help with those MS pains that show up just about anywhere. Then they start hopping around like a barrel full of monkeys.

It’s basically a nerve stimulation that zeros in on an aching joint or muscle. You surround the painful area with sticky conductive pads (there are also gloves and ankle gear to go with the TENS).

This particular model allows up to eight pads to fire at the same time. When they lose their stickiness, you can get replacement pads. There’s also gel to increase the conductivity. This TENS machine allows cupping and acupuncture modes too. I find for me, the cupping setting usually works best.

Today’s pain is a four-patch job. Two patches on the front of leg, above and below the joint; two pads on either side of the knee.

What will happen? Let’s just call it a knee-jerk reaction. Like that frog-leg + electricity thing in high school biology — which I certainly hope they don’t do any more. That was a total waste of good frog.