There are, and there are also waterproof cases for your un-water-proof player; pir says that he's been using one of the latter and it was working pretty well. But they're not so cheap, either, and I may have trouble since I don't have An iPod[tm], and they all seem to be fit to the various iPod specs.

About how long a period of diligent care did it take for yours to heal up? I'm trying to frame realistic expectations.