Wednesday, June 25, 2008

A WONDER PHARM!

this is a tried and true trick we began using about ten years ago when we had no medical insurance.

one of our children developed "pink eye" and the eye drops prescribed for the same malady the year before had expired - what to do?

every year at our home SOMEBODY gets a light case of "swimmer's ear" and are in need of immediate relief - what to do?

i had a crown break on one of my top teeth after eating tortilla chips and it cut my gum around the tooth and i wasn't seeing the dentist for a week or so after - what to do?

it's a three-and-a-half dollar remedy if you buy the store brand. can you guess what it is?

yup! triple-biotic WITH pain reliever - or as some of you know it as "neo sporin", applied in tiny amounts at bed and/or naptime to the affected areas and the symptoms will usually disappear after two treatments. i recommend you continue the treatments for at least five days.

when applying it to eyes, you'll need to first clean your hands and place a small amount (about the size of a tiny pea) on the tip of one of your fingers and put it into the corner of the affected eye and close, meanwhile lightly massaging the eye to ensure equal distribution. the symptoms will be gone by morning, but continue for a few days.

no, i'm not a doctor, but i know what works and can attest to the effectiveness of this treatment. use at your own risk. i'm not responsible for adverse outcomes of your using this treatment.

26 comments:

Eyes said...

how about some tips on cleaning the oven? I hate that job....

nanc said...

i love self-cleaning ovens...

none said...

Thanks for the tip. I also use the collodial silver that was mentioned previously.

I never thought of the neosporin for infected gums.

Z said...

edge...get Scarlett Johansing to do it for you!

The Merry Widow said...

Eyes-A cup of regular ammonia in a glass bowl left in a warm(but turned off)oven should loosen everything...
Use neosporin+ over swollen glands, or infected sinuses, or place an amount the size of a pea on the end of a q-tip and place gently inside an infected ear. Kills the pain and clears things up rather quickly!

tmw

Dr. John said...

Very innovative and frugal, I must say. Triple antibiotic ointment has neomycin, bacitracin, and polymixin B, all relatively old antibiotics that still work well in combination in topical applications. Don't swallow it cause they don't get absorbed well from the intestine and therefore won't work "from the inside".

I am not sure what the pain reliever is (probably some kind of mild topical anesthetic like benzacaine) but I would advise against putting that in the eye. Such chemicals can actually impair healing of any lesions that may be on the cornea (the thin membrane that covers the colored part of your eye) such as abrasions and ulcerations which can masquerade as pink eye. Usually, though, the person will have a feeling like something is in his/her eye that they can't get out (a foreign body sensation in medical parlance) yet there is nothing visible in the eye. That should be seen and treated by a doctor or optometrist. Also, if you get irritation of the eye as well as a rash that looks and feels like shingles (groups of little blisters on red skin and a feeling of burning, shooting pain) on your forehead, don't f&*# around, get to an ER or an eye doctor pronto! A shingles infection in the eye that is not promptly and properly treated can screw up your eye like you don't want to know.

The Merry Widow said...

Hi, Dr. John!
My tube of Equate says, Pramoxine HCL 10 mg. Lidocaine or Benzacaine?
And I certainly wouldn't put any "+" in the eye of anyone I was caring for!
A nurse friend told a group of us to not put anything on our skin that we weren't willing to eat. The skin is the largest organ, and is a semi-permiable organization of layers, it's better to work with it, than to fight it.
One of the nice things about doing some of these things yourself is, you can jump on it before it gets to the point that you need to make an appointment, nip it in the bud, so to speak.
BUT, and I reiterate the BUT, if it is the first time you have encountered something, like a sinus infection, see a doctor to be sure.
Get to know your body, it's rythms and functions and weaknesses.
I've fought sinus infections for 32 yrs., I recognize the signs, and can deal with them based on experience gained over that time.
To be pro-active in learning your body, can save you a lot of grief and suffering...and also inform yourself as to what can be adverse or allergic reactions, and don't fool around!

tmw

nanc said...

it works in the eye. amazingly so. none of our children has ever been sent home with pink eye even though they've exhibited all the symptoms of it - it disappears when used. pink eye is quite common with people who have pets and/or farm animals, i've used it in animal eyes also.

i don't recommend swallowing it either, but i hasn't hurt when it has been swallowed - we usually expel it after holding it on a mouth wound for several minutes - the next morning no mouth wound, but then i realize mouth wounds heal quite fast.

nanc said...

p.s. - the treatment we gave my husband over a weekend for "cellulitis" of peroxide and triple biotic is all that saved him from a much worse fate - that from the urgent care doctor he finally went to see. her words, "i don't know what you did, but you saved your leg from having to be amputated from the knee down." dr. john won't like the other treatment we used that can be bought at a farm supply for less than six bucks...

Dr. John said...

Merry Widow: I did not realize that the anesthetic was Pramoxine and not benzacaine. My bad. I couldn't find that ingredient online (i.e. I didn't look long enough, LOL). I do know, however, that Pramoxine is an ingredient in a medicine that used to be called Proctofoam (I think it is marketed under another name nowadays) that was used for hemorrhoid treatment. I have no idea if Pramoxine will do any harm to your eye or not.

Nanc: so, what is the $6 secret for cellulitis treatment? You have peaked my curiosity...

nanc said...

it's just an old farmer's remedy - livestock teramycin(sp?), but just through the weekend and then he went to the doctor on the following workday and they prescribed a very strong antibiotic. i mixed it up according to the directions for a 2,000 pound animal and divided my husbands weight by the dosage - hey, it worked...

what happened was that he did a commercial pool pump replacement, unbeknownst to him, he had a cut on his knee - while kneeling down in the slimy pump water to remove the old pump, some of the bilge got into the cut on his knee and that was on a thursday so he got to stay home friday - by friday night, he was in sad shape and his boss said to go to the doctor first thing monday, so we treated him with what we had on hand - again, emergency measures.

Dr. John said...

Yikes! I am glad to hear that you husband is doing okay. I did a little research and Terramycin is the brand name for Oxytetracycline. This is in the same family of antibiotics as tetracycline, doxycycline, and minocycline. They have fairly narrow uses nowadays given antibiotic resistance and all that, but it obviously did something for you. I am not smart enough to know what kind of bacteria hang out in pool water, but as I tell my patients I'd take lucky over good any day.

The Merry Widow said...

Dr. John-You're going to love this, I had that stomach bug a week ago, a few hours later came down with otitus medea(sp?), fought both of them off and ended up with a really "good" case of swimmer's ear.
I called my doctor, and she prescribed Ofloxacin drops...so, see? I do to know when I'm out of my league! LOL!
Now, how to get the drops down a swollen ear canal...and I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy!
I'm going to bed, good night, all!

tmw

nanc said...

dr. john - we're not ones to rush to the doctor every time somebody sneezes and know when the time is right. please don't blame us for the rising cost of health care.

if you rarely see farmers at your office, good chances are that they tend to their ailments with what they treat their livestock with - you have to figure that something that outweighs you by five times and lives through a treatment there must be something to it.

reference "dead doctors don't lie" and the calcium treatments.

The Merry Widow said...

Mayo Clinic suggests using a 1:1 of white vinegar and alcohol to make sure you have flushed out your ears.
Mixed myself up a batch, with dropper...better prepared for the next time!

tmw

Dr. John said...

Merry Widow - besides the vinegar and alcohol trick you found, you can also use a hair dryer set on low heat to dry out your ear canals and prevent swimmer's ear. As far as getting the medicated eardrops in, sometimes using a wick of some kind inserted into the canal will help.

Nanc - more power to you in learning to take care of yourself. Believe me, I have seen the whole range of patients from hypochondriac types to diabetics with feet about to rot off (didn't come to the doctor for months for fear of losing the foot). The trick is to find the correct balance. People coming to the doctor all the time is only part of the rising cost of health care nowadays, but that is another topic for another day. And I have to say I do not take care of any farmers, nor have I in my career. Eight years in the Air Force (no farmers there) and 6 years in NJ (again, no farmers near where I live in suburban NYC sprawl) have deprived me of the pleasure. They have always struck me as the hardy, salt of the earth type of people.

The Merry Widow said...

Morning, Dr. John! Another AFer, ehhhh? AF brat myself.
I agree, we as a society have become too dependent on others, as a society our brains have atrophied! A real shame, because we used to be such a can do people. Noted and admired around the world for our innovative and creative thinking...and jury-rigging! But there are a few of us still out here...want to move to northern Arkansas? Up a mountain?
Praise be to G*D, the swelling is way down, and the ear canal even is opening up a little...the fever is gone and I can chew again! The throbbing and shooting pains have all but dissappeared, and I'm taking a break from mowing the yard.
I'm blessed, I bounce back fairly rapidly!
Good morning, G*D bless and Maranatha!

tmw

nanc said...

it takes alot to get a farmer to a regular doctor...they won't hesitate to go to a vet, however!

nanc said...

p.s. - dr. john - have you ever thought of going into veterinary medicine?

Dr. John said...

Nanc - not in the least. I get enough of that taking care of infants and toddlers as well as Alzheimer's patients... :-)

The Merry Widow said...

But, but, but...the dogs would give you kisses!
Good morning, G*D bless and Maranatha!

tmw
ROTFLOL!

nanc said...

well, the way i look at it, the malpractice insurance is probably close to nil and it seems every time you see an animal you also see a person.

tell me, dr. john - can you say the same thing - when you see a person, do you also see their animal?

ah-ha!

Dr. John said...

Nanc - can't say I do. Good point. Problem is I would have to leave my career and go to vet school and then start all over again in the vet business. Sorry, not for me. I want to retire as soon as possible...

Anonymous said...

Nice home remedy. Probably wouldn't have needed it if you had access to public health care.

The Merry Widow said...

fotr-You will REALLY need this sort of thing WITH government "health" care!

tmw

nanc said...

thank you, dr. fotr - i and my children have access to free health care through native american health care. we only use it in extreme cases of emergency. just because it's free doesn't make me feel any better about it. i prefer taking precautions and treating at home whenever possible.

are you the same doctor i did a post on several months ago at curtains?