Small medical treatments

katex · 10-06-2006, 12:39

Have just done what I always told my kids not to do .. i.e. walk about the house without shoes. 'Course got a blooming spell of something in my foot and after breaking off the end with tweezers have now resorted to the old trick of fishing about with a needle. Would send for daughter with her nursing experience, however, different with her family than she was with patients .. no local anaesthetics for me.

Got me thinking about some of the household cures had to suffer in the past to name but a few :-

1) Spells as above.
2) Styes/powkes (spelling) .. bathe in Bicarbonate of Soda to draw it then this Golden Eye Ointment stuff which made it look bigger cause of the shine.
3) Head lice, smelly Suleo .. seems though best way now is just to comb the buggers out.
4) Impetigo .. never had it but remember kids walking around with this purple stuff painted on their faces.
5) Thread worms .. Ah yes, the Creme de la Creme. Salt water put into this bulbous container that was pushed up your orifice .. maybe then they knew something about colonic irrigation.

Not old enough to have suffered string tied on door to extract tooth, but must be many more that you remember.

Now down to bone trying to get out this foreign body from foot.

Margaret Pilkington · 10-06-2006, 12:49

Sugar and soap poultices were used for bringing boils to a head.
Vinegar was used to dab onto wasp stings....dolly blue bag for bees.
Mustard foot bath when you had a cold.
The purple stuff for impetigo was Gentian violet and it stained everything it touched.
Thread worms were treated with Worm Cakes...used to buy them from Thornbers Chemist on Higher Antley St....they looked like those chocolate Dazzles.......but they made you poo like there was no tomorrow.....they certainly didn't taste like chocolate Dazzles.

katex · 10-06-2006, 13:07

Hey just remembered those hot polticies when you got swollen glands, this putty stuff in a tin was heated up and spread over cloth and slapped on yer neck .. ouch !! just the warmth I suppose.

Margaret Pilkington · 10-06-2006, 13:19

Would that be Kaolin.....? When I worked at QPH we used it to draw infected wounds.....it came in a tin which we had to heat on the gas stove.....many a time the pan would boil dry and the stuff would explode and go everywhere. No health and safety regulations in those days. Now the same poultices come ready packed you just put them in boiling water for 90 seconds and put them on the sore place. They used to use the same stuff for pneumonia too......a poultice either side of the back in line with the base of the lungs....medical patients loved them.

katex · 10-06-2006, 14:00

Yep, Kaolin .. that's the one. Still using them then ?? Suppose can't do any harm, just was particularly horrid after the heat had gone out of them and left with this soggy mess on your throat.

Expect can put in micro-wave now,'cept they would go on heating up a little wouldn't they

Margaret Pilkington · 10-06-2006, 19:40

Katex.....I hope you got your splinter out....I thought I had put that in a previous post. The current Kaolin poultices come in a sort of sachet and you just immerse them in boiling water for about 90 seconds, cut the plastic cover off, put some gauze over the gooey mess....test the heat with the back of your hand...and then you apply to the affected part and the thing stay hot for up to 12 hours. Interestingly, you don't have to use them hot.
They still work at drawing out any infection even if you use them cold......though they aren't nearly as comforting!

katex · 10-06-2006, 19:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

Katex.....I hope you got your splinter out....I thought I had put that in a previous post. The current Kaolin poultices come in a sort of sachet and you just immerse them in boiling water for about 90 seconds, cut the plastic cover off, put some gauze over the gooey mess....test the heat with the back of your hand...and then you apply to the affected part and the thing stay hot for up to 12 hours. Interestingly, you don't have to use them hot.
They still work at drawing out any infection even if you use them cold......though they aren't nearly as comforting!

HEY, that's cool Margaret

Will go and buy next time I get a boil on me bum .. only joking.

For anybody interested, spell still intact in the foot. I have now graded it as class A ... splinter of glass that has entered at 90 degrees. Wonder if my vacuum cleaner will be successful ??

katex · 10-06-2006, 19:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

Katex.....I hope you got your splinter out....I thought I had put that in a previous post. The current Kaolin poultices come in a sort of sachet and you just immerse them in boiling water for about 90 seconds, cut the plastic cover off, put some gauze over the gooey mess....test the heat with the back of your hand...and then you apply to the affected part and the thing stay hot for up to 12 hours. Interestingly, you don't have to use them hot.
They still work at drawing out any infection even if you use them cold......though they aren't nearly as comforting!

HEY, that's cool Margaret

Will go and buy next time I get a boil on me bum .. only joking.

For anybody interested, spell still intact in the foot. I have now graded it as class A ... splinter of glass that has entered at 90 degrees. Wonder if my vacuum cleaner will be successful ??

Mancie · 10-06-2006, 19:53

My mum swore by vinegar to get rid of the nits (my bruv had em not me you know) ha ha .. and the one I remember was when she cleaned my ears and used to pull a large spud out!!

Margaret Pilkington · 10-06-2006, 19:59

Katex....you need to get it looked at, and soonish. You will end up with some nasty infection.

junetta · 10-06-2006, 21:52

My Nana had this horrid black soap to get rid of the nits, then she used to sit us down with a newspaper on our knees and comb them out. Pretty grim really. Being quite a shy child, the worst day of my life was when I had to take a note home from Nitty Nora. Not all the memories from St Andrew's were good ones.

katex · 10-06-2006, 21:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

Katex....you need to get it looked at, and soonish. You will end up with some nasty infection.

Aaaawh Margaret, you are so kind, just seems so trivial, however, that's what I meant this thread to be.

Sure will be OK. xx

Hey, how about the Verrucas ? ... got two once on the side of me foot, heard these horror stories re. visiting the Chiropodists, cutting into it with sharp instruments. Took matters in my own hands, picked with Geometry compass in bath .. worked a treat.

Mancie: Vinegar on nits ?? well, tis acid I suppose.

Thread worms ? Oh no, bet you never got them !! Why are people so ashamed to admit this fact

When my grandaughter was in last year at Clayton School, head lice was prominent .. lots of literature handed out on this.

Same time she was getting repeated attacks of thread worm, which we were addressing throughout the family. Just kept getting re-infected. Daughter wrote to school to send out same type literature as head lice ... but, oh No !! too personal, can't handle that one !!! As if didn't exist. Mentioned it at work and lots of the mothers replied by saying, "never got those" .. as if !!!

Cure is easy now, just one tablet, no side-effects like there used to be.

Mancie · 10-06-2006, 22:06

when I was a lad if you did'nt have nits you were posh! one story I do remember was when my mate asked his mum to go to the chemist down town to get him some cure ,there were 2 young girls working in there and he didn't have the balls to do it himself, we stood outside while his mum was saying "do you know my criag? he's about your age and he got nits!! ha ha ha

garinda · 10-06-2006, 23:33

To get rid of styes rub with a gold ring. Sounds mad but works well.

For vigour and youth bathe in a virgin's water on the first of May. I'm not making this up, as I still look fabulous at eighty seven.

katex · 11-06-2006, 10:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by garinda

To get rid of styes rub with a gold ring. Sounds mad but works well.

For vigour and youth bathe in a virgin's water on the first of May. I'm not making this up, as I still look fabulous at eighty seven.

Oh Garinda, you are such a card !! Damn 1st of May just gone will have to wait nearly a whole year now .. any virgins out there willing to offer their water?

Almost believed the story about warts when I was little .. summat about running around a tree naked in the moonlight.. no, didn't. Now realise just a virus. ha ha.