A Bar of Soap

Our local newspaper carries a syndicated column by Dr. Peter H. Gott, who answers questions sent in by readers. I, admittedly, sometimes go days without actually reading the newspaper, just scanning the headlines on the internet. I often hear Dr. Gott's name come up in conversations at work, though. He gives common-sense advice and once even advised patients that if their doctor keeps them waiting more than 45 minutes, the patient should bill their doctor for their time. (Gotta love THAT!...*LOL*)

As long as I can remember, I've suffered with miserable cramps in my legs at night. Not all the time, mind you, but often. A sound night's sleep is shattered by sharp glassy pain in my calves or across the top of my foot. The worst is when there's a pain across the top of my foot and the outside of my calf at the same time! *wincing just to THINK of it*

I was whining to Mom one day about losing a couple of hours sleep with a leg cramp, and she asked if I'd seen Dr. Gott's column about the bar of soap. She went on to explain that a reader had written Dr. Gott to ask if there was any validity to a home remedy for leg cramps involving putting a bar of soap in the bed.

Dr. Gott said that he had no idea WHY it works, but according to letters received from his readers, it works. Seems the cure is to put an unwrapped bar of soap (anything except Dial or Dove....don't ask me why) at the foot of your bed. Some folks must also rub another bar of soap on their legs, but in most cases just having a bar of soap in the bed gets rid of the leg cramps.

Yeah......right.

When I changed the sheets on the bed the following Saturday morning, I remembered the soap cure and thought, "What the heck? It's a cheap enough thing to try." I keep a drawer of assorted soaps at all times (long, relaxing baths are my big vice), so I unwrapped a fresh bar of Ivory and tucked it between the fitted sheet and the mattress pad.

My leg cramps stopped. So HELP me.......stopped COMPLETELY. I would have assumed that it just so happened that I'd put the soap in the bed at a time the leg cramps went away for some other reason, except for what happened a month or so later.

I was talking to Mom on the telephone one Saturday morning while changing the sheets. Distracted, I forgot about the soap under the fitted sheet until I heard it hit the floor. It had fallen between the mattress and the footboard of my sleigh bed, landing under the bed. I even commented to Mom "My soap just hit the floor. I have to remember to get that out in a few minutes." Well, I forgot. THAT VERY NIGHT I woke to that familiar glassy pain in my leg. Moaning, I hopped out of bed, wondering why my soap quit working. Then I remembered.....IT FELL OUT!!

I fumbled under the bed in the dark, found the bar of Ivory, and tucked it back in its proper place between the fitted sheet and the mattress pad. Haven't had a leg cramp in bed since. It's just plain weird. Even if I'm having mild leg cramps during the day and in the evening before bedtime, they stop when I slip into bed.

Why does it work? I haven't a clue. I don't even CARE. I'm just happy it does.

Wonder if there's something I can tuck under the sheet that cures chocolate cravings? *LOL*