Back in Utah, the only relief I could find from the pain was in hot baths and heating pads. Unfortunately, we don't have a bathtub here and a heating pad is something we didn't think to bring.
Fortunately, Jared had the bright idea of adding rice to some retired socks and nuking them.
Unfortunately, we don't have a microwave.
Fortunately, this third-world-country thing has turned me into an unnervingly creative human. Our crockpot has recently become quite the big cheese in our kitchen when it comes to dinner prep. (Literally, most of my crockpot recipes include a diabetes-big amount of cream cheese.) So my thoughts turned to our little Rival crockpot to solve my sock heating problems.
I plugged the crockpot into the only outlet that can support its wattage needs and let the rice-filled socks heat slowly in its belly. Half an hour later, I extracted one piping-hot sock from the chamber and it was exactly the sweet pain relief I needed. Ever since, I've been rotating the socks out of the crockpot so I can have one makeshift heating pad available at all times. Our apartment may smell like a high school gym, but it radiates with the light of two brilliant minds.
Dear Future Children,
Your lives are not even hard. Stop crying and do your homework.
Love,
Future Mom
