ISO a topical pain killer for me that is safe for my cat to be around

Hi, not sure if this is the right place to post this but I gotta start somewhere! Please delete if not allowed or steer me elsewhere if necessary, thank you!!

So I had COVID in the spring, and I’m still having symptoms now. (Yes, the long haul sucks.) My main lingering issues are related to breathing, and on a secondary level, muscle aches. Most pain killers (Tylenol, Advil) don’t really do much, I was having horrible chest pain in my early months and I found that weed edibles were the best for dealing with that pain.

But I haven’t found a suitable solution for my muscle pain, it’s keeping me awake and really messing with me. I’ve been using IcyHot to help me fall asleep, and that works pretty well actually, BUT my cat loves it.

If you’re like me, and have only a general intuition in this area, you might be thinking “cats probably shouldn’t be exposed to IcyHot,” and you’d be correct!

The first night I used it, my cat showed up seconds after I applied it and insisted to sit on the blanket on the other side of my IcyHot legs - no direct exposure but deeply inhaling the fumes, there was no stopping him. So I looked it up first thing in the morning and yeah, apparently one of the main ingredients in IcyHot and similar products is extremely toxic to kitties.

I had to close him out of my room the last time I needed to use it and that is not an acceptable solution for anyone involved.

So, my long winded question is: does anyone know of a topical pain killer (or “heating” agent like IcyHot) that is for use on humans but is safe to use around cats?

I would like to stress that I am NOT looking for a product to use on my cat. It is for ME, but I’m hoping I can find something that would be safe for him if he was exposed to it.

(I mentioned weed edibles above to introduce the fact that I am a medical patient in my state, so if your suggestion is for something like that, I can ask my doc, no problem. I haven’t tried anything in this area but I’m open to it, I don’t know anything about topicals really)

Thank you! Happy insomnia to you from me and my dear kitty

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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/kc6y6k/iso_a_topical_pain_killer_for_me_that_is_safe_for/