Minor Wounds, Cleaning and Assisting Healing

  • Thread starter Thread starter Deleted member 36384
  • Start date Start date
D

Deleted member 36384

Guest
About 3 weeks ago I stepped over a 2'x2'x2' cardboard box in my garage, stumbled and banged my shin over the top edge. The knock scraped the skin off and the wound began to bleed. It was only a surface scrape and didn't look serious.

The wound proceeded to get a lot worse, became very swollen, red, sore and a deep hole appeared on the shin. Anyway, a trip to the doctors to have it cleaned and a course of antibiotics and its on the mend. The doctor advised that shin wounds are quite difficult to heal because of the low blood flow in this area.

A friend and I got talking about this and how such wounds could have killed one in the olden days. We rapidly moved on to amputation and the fact that amputation in the olden days at sea obviously saved lives, despite what was probably unhygienic, traumatic surgery methods. I guess the surgeons didn't just use turpentine and hot pitch (I got that one from the Onedin Line series).

We were wondering how could you aid healing without modern aids. For example saliva is a good medium that apparently promotes wound healing. Would regular rubbing of gob on a shin wound help it to heal faster? I have read about concentrated sugar paste being applied to bed sores to aid healing but cant remember much more than that.

Any other ideas for self help wound healing? What did the olden days' folks do once they got over being bled as a cure?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
comfrey.


Ionised silver is a really good bactericide - and viruses too, if some the research is to be believed. We use it for treatment of persistent foot inflammation in sheep, and have a small ionised silver generator which makes it at about 1p a litre ! It certainly works on nasty scratches involving oil or earth.
 
Comfrey was called knitbone by some.
Poultices are a common method of cleaning wounds - we use kaolin-based ones on our horses when they get hoof abcesses, but have used iodine & sugar or even flour/ saltpetre/ turpentine mixtures. The latter was "an old irishman's remedy" - boy, did it work, but our poor neddie thought his hoof was on fire!
Aloe Vera is also a good one.
Arnica for reducing swelling.
Look up Culpeper's Herbal - I'm sure that'll have loads of stuff.
 
Pee on it

Seriously, although I doubt it would be advisable today (some antiseptic cream would be infinitely preferable).

The really gross bit is that it is all but impossible to DIY so you get somebody else to do it (yuk)

It was a common method of treating wounds in various African tribal cultures and its effectiveness was apparently noticed by slavers and hunters who to some extent adopted th practice. It is also said that soldiers in WW1 were told to urinate on wounds rather than use dirty water to clean them

The science behind it is mixed - fresh urine is fairly sterile (but not necessarily completely so) and arguably has some antiseptic properties. In the absence of sterile wipes from a first aid kit it was probably better for washing a wound than the available water!
 
BlowingOldBoots said:
We were wondering how could you aid healing without modern aids. For example saliva is a good medium that apparently promotes wound healing. Would regular rubbing of gob on a shin wound help it to heal faster? I have read about concentrated sugar paste being applied to bed sores to aid healing but cant remember much more than that.

Any other ideas for self help wound healing? What did the olden days' folks do once they got over being bled as a cure?
Click to expand...

Whoever gave you the idea that saliva was a good wound healing medium, it certainly is not.
If it were sterile then it probably would be, but saliva is far more infectious that just about all other bodily secretions put together.
 
I banged my shin at the weekend whilst on the boat.
Took the skin clean off about 1cm/sq.
Applied surgical spirit shhhhhhhhhhhh**....... it stung. (Always kept on board.)
Left it to dry and breathe.
I now have a very red blister that seems to be healing well.

swmbo brings back an antibiotic cream sold over the counter in the states, which is also good for minor scrapes and burns.
 
Last edited:
SAMYL said:
Whoever gave you the idea that saliva was a good wound healing medium, it certainly is not.
If it were sterile then it probably would be, but saliva is far more infectious that just about all other bodily secretions put together.
Click to expand...

Certainly, the saliva of a lot of carnivores will give you a VERY nasty infected bite if you are unlucky. We are expressly warned about getting bitten by fur seals - apparently when it happens, our doctors have enormous trouble cleaning up the resulting infections; no two cases are alike. Fur seals also have rather impressive teeth, and a nasty disposition!
 
BlowingOldBoots said:
About 3 weeks ago I stepped over a 2'x2'x2' cardboard box in my garage, stumbled and banged my shin over the top edge. The knock scraped the skin off and the wound began to bleed. It was only a surface scrape and didn't look serious.

The wound proceeded to get a lot worse, became very swollen, red, sore and a deep hole appeared on the shin. Anyway, a trip to the doctors to have it cleaned and a course of antibiotics and its on the mend. The doctor advised that shin wounds are quite difficult to heal because of the low blood flow in this area.

A friend and I got talking about this and how such wounds could have killed one in the olden days. We rapidly moved on to amputation and the fact that amputation in the olden days at sea obviously saved lives, despite what was probably unhygienic, traumatic surgery methods. I guess the surgeons didn't just use turpentine and hot pitch (I got that one from the Onedin Line series).

We were wondering how could you aid healing without modern aids. For example saliva is a good medium that apparently promotes wound healing. Would regular rubbing of gob on a shin wound help it to heal faster? I have read about concentrated sugar paste being applied to bed sores to aid healing but cant remember much more than that.

Any other ideas for self help wound healing? What did the olden days' folks do once they got over being bled as a cure?
Click to expand...
We carry a very old fashioned liquid called TCP (tom cats pi ss we used to call it when I was less than 10!) Excellent for cleaning and starting the healing process off
Stu
 
Good nutrition is necessary for healing. During the healing process, the body needs increased amounts of calories, protein, vitamins A and C, and sometimes, the mineral, zinc.
 
armchairsailor said:
Comfrey was called knitbone by some.
Poultices are a common method of cleaning wounds - we use kaolin-based ones on our horses when they get hoof abcesses, but have used iodine & sugar or even flour/ saltpetre/ turpentine mixtures. The latter was "an old irishman's remedy" - boy, did it work, but our poor neddie thought his hoof was on fire!
Aloe Vera is also a good one.
Arnica for reducing swelling.
Look up Culpeper's Herbal - I'm sure that'll have loads of stuff.
Click to expand...

Stockholm tar is sold in our local sports shop for putting on horses hooves for treating some common infection or the other.

I would imagine it would be effective on humans as well.

I buy the stuff to put on my rigging......
And always have a large pot of the stuff somewhere on the boat.
 
SAMYL said:
Whoever gave you the idea that saliva was a good wound healing medium, it certainly is not.....
Click to expand...

The idea has been in my head for donkeys years but untested and not proven. It probably came from some idea about animals licking their wounds to help heal and the old adage "licking your wounds". My thought process was based on my own spit, not another person's and certainly not an animals. Oh well, I'll bin that one then, however ..........

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wound_licking

.......... the jury may still be out.
 
There are some interesting chapters in the book 'Where There Is No Doctor'. Chapters include 'Healing without medicines' and even includes a 'Skin' chapter that explains when to use hot compresses, when to use cold compresses, when to use talc on the skin and even when to put lard on the wound!

Downloadable from the hesperian foundation (Publishing for community health and empowerment) here...

http://www.hesperian.org/10411911.php
 
>We carry a very old fashioned liquid called TCP

We do too, very effective. We also carry sterile water for cleaning wounds, sterile packing for if the wound is deep and can't be stitched. We also carry injectable Novocaine for numbing round the wound before stitching. Obviously that means we carry needles and sutures. Bear in mind if you do stitch you must get beneath the flesh, if you just stitch the skin Gangrene can set in. On the other hand A&E if you don't want to DIY.
 
Martin_J said:
There are some interesting chapters in the book 'Where There Is No Doctor'. Chapters include 'Healing without medicines' and even includes a 'Skin' chapter that explains when to use hot compresses, when to use cold compresses, when to use talc on the skin and even when to put lard on the wound!

Downloadable from the hesperian foundation (Publishing for community health and empowerment) here...

http://www.hesperian.org/10411911.php
Click to expand...

I have several kilos of lard on the boat as well. Used for greasing the mast truck and the ring which gets hauled out along the bowsprit.

What with that and the stockholm tar it looks we are well set for DIY surgery.
 
We always have hydrogen peroxide to hand. It cleans up minor cuts and scrapes, insect bites and rashes. It's as essential as duct tape to a successful cruise.
 
Brigantia said:
Pee on it

The really gross bit is that it is all but impossible to DIY so you get somebody else to do it (yuk)
Click to expand...

Nurse! Nuurse!

Nursey.jpg
 
Lake Sailor obviously goes private. Not noticed a NHS uniform like that...

Those alcohol hand cleaners are useful for minor cuts and scrapes. Used vodka to sterilise some cotton for stitching up once. No novocane, so it was not pretty.
It is important to get the edges together quickly to avoid a scar and butterfly plasters are better than a bad stitch job + less likely to get infected. One can cut butterflys from normal stock by 'V'ing it at the join.

Spiders webs were once used to clot wounds. Probably not good from the infection front, but those who survived then must have had impressive immune systems.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top