By Eric Brand

The other day I made one of the classic blunders. I was stressed and flustered, not paying enough attention to what I was doing as I helped my father move boxes around the house. Shortly thereafter, I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach as I realized that I’d been lifting without attention and my lower back started hurting. I tried to stretch and loosen up, but I could feel my QLs tightening up and I knew I was going to be sore, if not completely debilitated.

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A few months ago, we started carrying “Pain Terminator” herbal patches (made by Golden Sunshine) here at Blue Poppy, and I had a few samples of the patches sitting around. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try. In the past, I’ve used a variety of common patches and the effect had always seemed somewhat limited, with the exception of thick, homemade plasters that I’ve tried at hospitals in Taiwan. The homemade hospital plasters were always thick and gooey/sticky; those big patches would leave the skin stained with a yellow-black color and they were a bit of a mess, but they were highly effective. All the other typical Chinatown patches that I’d tried didn’t do much besides tingle a bit, so I didn’t really know what to expect when I tried the Pain Terminators.

I know the people that make the Pain Terminator patch and I’ve always liked them- very friendly people, great service and I always knew that they had confidence in their product. But until I actually tried their patch yesterday in my hour of need, I never really put much stock in commercial patches in general. I expected either a typical mild Chinatown patch or at best a numbing and tingling sensation of fire and wintergreen, but I was stunned when I put it on. The sensation of the patch itself was quite comfortable, gently tingling without being too weak or too strong. Within two minutes the pain had noticeably decreased, and within ten minutes my entire perception of patches was changed forever.

I had been sitting down with my father at dinner and he remarked on the fact that I was moving very gingerly because my back was so stiff. I had put the patch on right before sitting down, and by the time dinner was over my “objective observer” father was amazed at how much more natural and relaxed my posture had become. The pain in my lower back was dramatically better, and when I woke up this morning my back was only minimally sore. From the way it felt after the injury, I thought I’d be laid out for days or weeks. I was expecting to wake up crippled and hating myself for lifting heavy stuff without paying attention, and instead I woke up amazed at my good fortune and impressed with those patches. I will never look at patches the same way again.

If you haven’t ever had a good experience with patches, try those Pain Terminator patches sometime. I am not easily impressed when it comes to herbal products but those patches really came through for me and I’m now their biggest fan. It is really a distinctive product and I’m excited that we are carrying them here at Blue Poppy. The first thing I did after I saw the results was to give a couple patches to a friend with back pain. The next thing I thought was that I should write a blog to let people know how distinctive they are. Try it and let us know how the results are!