I have always used a heat bag for arthritic type pain [inflamed areas] but in a thread not that long ago Mrs D, & David both said use cold packs instead.
I always thought that using heat dilates blood vessels, which increase the flow of oxygen and nutrients.
On the other hand cold packs makes very good sense too, as i believe it reduces the inflammation & can numb the sore tissue.

I have a good reason for asking this, as i am waiting for a call from our local hospital to do a total hip replacement, its suppose to happen early this year but whilst i wait, i am in a fair bit of discomfort as its bone on bone now there's no cartlidge left, i have had 2 steriod injections in the last 6 months which help for a while but they don't last that long, so i have been using magnets on accupunture points to get me by, but its pretty bad right now and even the magnets are really struggling to help me.

So there are 2 main area's that are given me the most trouble, thats in the groin and right in the femor head [hip joint], so i really don't have a clue in the proper use of cold packs which i would like to try out.
any help would be really appreciated,