Wound Dressings From The Old Days

HiDesertHal

HiDesertHal

Senior Member
Location
Southern California's High Mojave Desert
When I was a kid and got a cut or scrape, my parents always cleaned it and painted on Mercurochrome, then a bandage of some kind.

Later, it was Merthiolate, and Iodine was always around too.

Now my wife applies Neosporin and slaps on a Bandaid.

My skin is now so thin that if I scrape my arm going through a doorway, I'll get a dark area under the skin from broken blood vessels.

"Smokin' cigarettes and watching Captain Kang Kangaroo, now don't tell me I've nothin' to do!"

HDH
 

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HiDesertHal said:
When I was a kid and got a cut or scrape, my parents always cleaned it and painted on Mercurochrome, then a bandage of some kind.

Later, it was Merthiolate, and Iodine was always around too.

Now my wife applies Neosporin and slaps on a Bandaid.

My skin is now so thin that if I scrape my arm going through a doorway, I'll get a dark area under the skin from broken blood vessels.

"Smokin' cigarettes and watching Captain (Kang) Kangaroo, now don't tell me I've nothin' to do!"

HDH
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That's how my family did it too, Hal.
 
My Mom used to use mercurochrome on us kids too Hal, and I also remember some iodine. When we get a cut now, we just use either rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide on it, and whatever kind of bandaid or bandage is needed.

 

My husband's family used chewing tobacco and a bandage over that. He used it some on our kids. It works pretty good and if its a nasty cut when you take it off you'll see pus on the tobacco. We always had things heal up well.
 
From first hand experience I know that tobacco will also help stop bleeding.

I received a rather large wound while working in S.E. Asia out in the boonies and the locals hurriedly tore apart several cigarettes and packed the tobacco on the wound and made a makeshift dressing to hold it in place......I was skeptical but after a few moments the bleeding all but stopped and I was able to continue on till reaching first aid a few hours later.
 
HiDesertHal said:
When I was a kid and got a cut or scrape, my parents always cleaned it and painted on Mercurochrome, then a bandage of some kind.

Later, it was Merthiolate, and Iodine was always around too.

Now my wife applies Neosporin and slaps on a Bandaid.

My skin is now so thin that if I scrape my arm going through a doorway, I'll get a dark area under the skin from broken blood vessels.

"Smokin' cigarettes and watching Captain Kang Kangaroo, now don't tell me I've nothin' to do!"

HDH
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Counting flowers on the wall.

Playing solitaire till dawn with a deck of 51. Smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo, now don't tell me I've nothing to do.

I remember that song. Roger Williams I believe.

Iodine was the worst because it burned the skin and stopped it from melding together to seal the cut.
 
I remember having a little bottle of dark brown stuff with a skull and cross bones on it in our medicine cabinet. I guess that was iodine.
 
Trade said:
I remember having a little bottle of dark brown stuff with a skull and cross bones on it in our medicine cabinet. I guess that was iodine.
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It may also have been Friars balsam. We had all kinds of weird stuff in our medicine cabinets and the main thing was keep it clean and cover it so it doesn't get infected.

It doesn't need any other topical ingredient of any sort.
 
Falcon said:
I always keep a bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide in the meds cabinet. That's the 1st thing I grab when I get a cut.

THEN I use a bandage if necessary.
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My Grandmother always had a bottle of that. My parents used to paint my scrapes with something that stung so badly it made me scream bloody murder. Now if I get a scrape, I use ice on it right away and then arnicare which is a cream made from arnica.
 
My mom was great for letting things bleed. She figured if the wound bled enough all the bacteria would bleed out and it would never become infected. I remember as a kid getting a rusty nail in the bottom of my foot. She sat me in the bathtub and kept running water on it and squeezing it until she figured it was safe to slap a band aide on it. By the time that happened the bath tub looked like she slaughtered a pig in it.
 
I used to get bruises and scrapes from insignificant bumps until I stopped taking geezer aspirin every day. When I stopped the problem went away. I told the doctor and he told me to not take them anymore. That was about 8 or 10 years ago.
 
My grandfather believed that kerosene would fix anything. He had no feeling in one of his feet and ran a rusty nail right through the bottom of his boot and through his foot; he didn't notice it until he tried to take his foot off and found out that his foot was skewered in the boot. So, his solution, after getting his foot out of the boot, was to soak it in a bucket of kerosene for a half hour. Must have worked; he didn't get tetanus from the nail.
 
I remember my mom using the mercurochrome, and I am pretty sure that we also had iodine as well. I still do keep a small bottle of iodine, just in case I need it. I use the hydrogen peroxide to clean out the cut, and then once it is clean, I put some iodine on it to help it heal.
My mother always had aloe vera plants, too, and those were awesome for burns, and slivers that would not come out any other way. The aloe would draw it out overnight, so we put a chunk over the place where the sliver went in, and covered it with a bandage . The next day, it had usually formed an area where it pulled out the infection, and the sliver would come right out as well.
When I was a teenager, my mom explained to me about using the "blisters" from a balsam tree, and she said that it would heal almost any kind of a cut, and do it fast, and that was what they used to use when she was younger.
To get the balsam "syrup", you just took a small pocket knife and poked the blister on the tree bark, and then put it on a spoon, or other object to collect it. When you had enough balsam then you would put it on the cut, and it seemed to work really well to start the healing process.
 
HiDesertHal said:
My skin is now so thin that if I scrape my arm going through a doorway, I'll get a dark area under the skin from broken blood vessels.HDH
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Thin skin and bruising easy seems to be part of the joys of aging....I'm the same way. I get banged up fairly often with all my outdoor activity, but I've found a simple solution that seems to work. It also does a good job on "age spots"

Make up a small bottle containing 1/4 Olive Oil, 1/4 Apple Cider Vinegar, and fill the rest of the bottle with water. When you get a bruise, shake up the bottle real good, then quickly dab some of this solution on the bruise with a q-tip, before the oil and vinegar begins to separate, and within a day or two, the skin will be back to normal.
 

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