Selfsufficientish.com

Honestly, men are so annoying!!

A bit before Christmas, OH mentioned that he thought he had an ingrowing toenail... I said "does it hurt" he said "no". He said he would ring the local chiropodist and book and appointment.

He never said anything else about it. Over the weekend, his toe started to hurt, got very red and swollen and was leaking pus/fluid He never said anything then either.

Last night he came home from work in agony, I couldn't believe how bad it was!! I rang this morning to get him an appointment at the health centre, but it's not until thursday morning.

Last night, I made him soak his foot in warm salted water with a few drops of lavender EO - this reduced the swelling and pain whilst it was soaking, but once it was out of the water, it was no better.

Are there any remedies for helping an infection/drawing an infection out etc that I can use before thursday?
The poor love was in agony when he put his socks and shoes on for work

Put one drop of neat lavender oil directly onto the affected area. If you've got some tea tree you can add one drop of that too.

You can do this pretty much as often as needed up to 6x day. The lavender will soothe and heal and has some very mild anti-fungal/bacterial the tea tree is a fairly good anti-fungal/bacterial.

It should clear up in a day or two - but he does need to get the ingrowing nail treated or it'll just happen again.

I bought a thing from the chemist last winter, when my chilblains got infected - I think it was Magnesium Sulphate (but the tub is up the stairs, and LO is napping)

Anyway, I just described my yucky toe to the pharmacist and this is what he gave me - it was 70p or something for the wee tub, and is good for drawing out splinters and ingrowing hairs too.

Manuka Honey is absolutely THE best thing for infected wounds as the hydrogen peroxide in it kills germs and the vitamin C and amino acids help the skin heal.

Just put some on a bit of gauze and wrap around the effected area, clean and re-dress every two days.

Seems a bit odd putting a sandwich spread on wounds but I have a wound on my leg which isn't healing so I'm trying it out as it is said to be a hundred times better than any antibiotic or other dressing / treatment you can be given.

Edit - OH used Magnesium Sulphate on his toe when it was bad and it took about a week to clear before he had his op... he says it was very, very bad at the time.

The only problem with putting honey on is if the condition is caused by a fungal infection - it'll love it! But it is very healing, you just need to get rid of the fungus first. Mag sulph is epsom salts and a foot soak in a bath of that will help no end.

A bread and mustard poultice is good for drawing out poisons - and skelfs - apply warm and bandage on overnight. The poultice heats up.

invisiblepiper wrote:A bread and mustard poultice is good for drawing out poisons - and skelfs - apply warm and bandage on overnight. The poultice heats up.

skelf?

Oh, I'm feeling uneducated.....

JulieSherris wrote:

invisiblepiper wrote:A bread and mustard poultice is good for drawing out poisons - and skelfs - apply warm and bandage on overnight. The poultice heats up.

skelf?

Oh, I'm feeling uneducated.....

That is what we call a splinter up here... Skelf is much more appropriate a name, don't you think?

Aha! Well, the amount I get off the hawthorns I'm clearing, any name that doesn't start with F^%$ doesn't even quantify 'em!

Thanks Annpan!
Send us some Irish ones Julie!

I have an ancient pot of some greasy black ointment which smells a little of tar. I'm not sure what its proper name is (we always called it something like icthammol but the name has long since worn off the cardboard pot) but it is superb at dealing with infections in nails, splinters, etc. It will usually work overnight if it is applied thickly with a dressing on to keep the goo off the bedclothes. I suspect it's something which has long been "outlawed" but if you can find someone who will sell you some it should work wonders. I imagine the white Magnesium Sulphate paste is the more modern version but I'm not sure how they compare for effectiveness.

That takes me back a few years!

We used to do "glyc and ic" (glycerine and ichthmol) dressings 30 years ago - don't know if they still use it, most of the things we used then are now verboten.

Last night we soaked his foot in epsom salts and warm water, then applied the essential oils.

Although it still looks horribly swollen, he says it is not as painful. The epsom salts seemed to draw quite a lot of pus out so at least until tomorrow morning he can walk on it...

Thanks guys!!

As an aside, does anyone know of a good book about 'home remedies' type of thing?

There are a few - a good one is Kitchen Pharmacy by Rose Eliot and someone, whose name currently escapes me.

Masco&Bongo wrote: As an aside, does anyone know of a good book about 'home remedies' type of thing?

I've got a great book which has different sections for home/folk remedies, ayurvedic, chinese, homeopathic, aromatherapy, you can look stuff up by ingredient or by ailment. I use it all the time, but annoyingly can't remember the name right now (I'm at work) I will check when I get home and post it for you.


found it on amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Illustrated-Enc ... 833&sr=1-2

(not sure how to put a link up, hope that works)
x