I have always been told that you should only lay on a rolled towel for no longer than 15 or 20 minutes. I had a few years of dizzy spells, passed out one time and broke my humorous in 3 places. I woke up one night, was sick to my stomach and so dizzy I could not walk. That is when I realized it was the bean neck pillow. I threw it away and never had a serious dizzy spell since. I also have a friend with the disease that starts with an m, mineras or something like that. He passes out all of the time and he believes it is the position of his neck when he has problems. So be careful about laying on a towel or semi hard pillow.

Is it a whirlpool tub with jets that you're after, or just a nice comfortable soaking tub? If you want one with jets, pay attention to where on the tube they are located - near the base of your spine, something that can reach sore muscles, etc. Beware of too deep tubs. Aprilneverends is right; you have to try climbing in and out of the tub you are considering, even if it means traveling to find a place that has your model. I researched and researched online until I found what I thought was the perfect tub. I made malls until I found a plumbing supply store that had the tub I wanted, got in, nice and deep and roomy. And then I couldn't get out. Could. Not. Get. Out. It was narrowish, and in the middle of the showroom, so there were no grab bars nearby. Finally I managed, but it wasn't easy, and I think , even with grab bars, it would have been difficult. Speaking of grab bars, they help a lot, even if you don't think of yourself as needing them. Plan where you'll want them to be, and have your contractor "brace" the area behind the tile where the grab bars will go.

I had shin splints once, terries. Wow, is that painful. Funny but I had them at the same time I was recovering from carpal tunnel surgery and everyone kept commiserating about my hand. My hand didn’t hurt at all but my shins were killing me. I actually got them from standing in too high heels on a stone patio for hours. Wish I’d known about turmeric then. Impressive that you do the Camino every year!

Yes. I had an extremely tight achilles tendon a few years back. In fact, the dr. I was sent to wanted to do surgery and clip it. I told her she'd have to come up with another alternative. She agreed to PT for so many weeks with the warning if I wasn't showing progress, that was it. (HA) PT was a life saver and if you don't get relief, I encourage you to try it. Pills don't really solve the problem, just the symptoms. I didn't take meds for mine. I can't take NSAIDS, so they "pushed" a steroid cream into my leg via electrical stimulation. I even had dry needling, which I would do again right now if I was having the trouble. I can't believe the relief. As far as heat/ice, the therapist used heat at the beginning (to loosen the muscle) and ice after treatment (as treatment was painful and I obviously had inflammation in the calf and heel). I did the same at home. Heat felt the best. They also used massage in my treatment and at times it was down right painful, but greatly helped the spasms. Do you have any numbness or tingling? Sometimes a pinched nerve or pressure on the nerve causes the pain to travel. Good luck!