Nothing here happens without a physician’s order, and the order sets the strength. It runs only while a physician is on site and immediately available.

What happens in a session?

Depending on the order, your technician applies moist heat, an ice pack or an infrared heat table to the treated area. It opens most visits, because it sets up everything that follows.

Why would your physician order it?

Cold reins in swelling and quiets nerve endings that are firing, which is what a fresh injury or a flare after a procedure needs. Heat increases blood flow and lets tight muscle relax, so stretching, traction and exercise reach the tissue instead of fighting a muscle that is still bracing. Your physician picks which one, based on where you are in healing. A muscle that stays locked despite heat may need a trigger point injection.

What will you feel?

Heat should feel comfortably warm, never hot. Cold starts cool and turns slightly numb. There is always a towel between pack and skin, and the technician lifts it to look at your skin at the 5-minute mark.

When is it ruled out?

• Areas where you cannot feel normally
• Heat on a bruised, swollen injury from the past 72 hours (it gets cold)
• Cold when you have Raynaud’s, hives triggered by cold, or weak circulation in that spot
• Heat on a pregnant belly or lower back
• Burns, rashes or open wounds
• Running a fever, or an active infection

Spoken safety questions open every visit. Any change since last time goes to the physician, who rules on it before the machine runs. Ask to stop whenever you want.

How much time to plan for

Plan on about 10 to 15 minutes each time.

Related reading

• The painstl.com physiotherapy program, every station and test
• Trigger point injections
• Sleep, movement and behavior
• Vibration therapy, another station
• Traction chair, another station
• Neck decompression, another station
• Laser therapy, another station
• Shockwave therapy, another station
• TENS (gentle electrical stimulation), another station