I don't know if it will go that deep, but Arnica cream will do wonders for sore muscles and surface level inflammation such as bruises and irritations. Before I go any further I guess I'll give my knee story...
Last August I fell sideways off of a stool while standing on it trying to hang a light for a show at a small bar. The stool started to rotate (I thought it was stationary) and I lost my bearings. My hand were above my head holding a 15 pound light, so when I fell I couldn't get my hands down to help and I didn't realize I was on a 45 degree angle. When I hit the ground with my right leg it took all my weight as well as the inertia and my knee bent towards my left leg quite a bit. After the initial pain, I limped around for a few hours but passed it off as a "bruise" and that was that. Many incidents of my right knee going out on me later, fast forward to late June 2005. I was running through the rain to get to my truck and jumped over a curb, landed on my right leg and it bent a good bit again this time with blinding pain. Ok time for the doctor. He said I could try to strengthen the muscles and live with it or have the ACL replaced. I told him I wanted to think about it.
August 7, 2005 I was on the last day of a location film shoot a few hours before the "martini shot" and when I hit the first step down a flight of stairs my right leg bent the wrong way and I heard 3 distinctive snaps. The boom operator down the other end of the hall said he heard the snaps in his headphones. I couldn't straighten my leg after that. The doc said my meniscus was torn and folded over preventing me from straightening my leg. A week later I got my ACL replaced, some meniscus removed, and a golf ball sized cyst removed from my ankle (the ankle was left over from an injury in my early twenties). I saw a pic of my shredded ACL after the surgery and it looked like a piece of old rubbery celery that had been bent back and forth several times. Two weeks later Katrina swept over my house destroying many things around it but luckily only took a few shingles, all the fences, a month of evacuating, and one very smelly refrigerator from me.
While evacuated in crutches and a wheelchair I had to find a hospital to take out the staples and then find a Physical Therapist so I could walk again. I was about two weeks delayed in getting PT so my right leg muscles were down to nothing and couldn't straighten my leg past 30 degrees because of scar tissue. It took some hard painful therapy and almost two months after the surgery before I was walking on my own although with a heavy limp. I finished PT in early December and was walking better, but I still need to go to a gym to work out my leg. Today I don't limp anymore and my only restrictions are no sports like soccer, or tennis that would require quick stops and starts. My two legs won't be the same in muscle tone probably until late 2006 but by then the doc said I can get back to normal activity. Not that I play soccer or tennis much these days but you know what I mean.
Anyway, back to the Arnica. A friend recommended it for my knee before I had the surgery. I asked the doc and he said to try it but stop if I noticed any bad effects. While the Arnica didn't do anything for the internal soreness of my ACL ( I had a cadaver ACL replacement ) it worked wonders on my sore muscles and bruises on my ankle. It also worked great for the lump I had on my shin from the keyboard shelf falling on it a week after the surgery ( OUCH!!! ).
Recently I gave some to my aunt who is a nurse. She had her ankle operated on mid 2005 and had been in pain ever since. The Arnica relieved the pain better than any other medication she has tried (outside of prescription pain killers) and being a nurse she has tried quite a bit of topical meds for the pain. It is an "alternative" form of medication so YMMV, I'd ask your doctor first. From what it did to my sore muscles and bruises I'm convinced it works better than other off the shelf pain relievers, and believe me I tried several before the Arnica and all I got was smelly. I would recommend the cream or gel not the kind that is taken internally.
Hope it helps, and good luck!
