my finger infection got me thinking...bout the old days.

[vash]

i slipped slided down a steep slope, pig hunting. we were double timing it for some pigs on the horizon. i got a nasty splinter in my pinkie finger nail. hurt like the dickens, but i just gnashed it out with my teeth and kept motoring. i never washed it out properly, and my finger blew up like a grape, and my hand started to hurt. infection!

i got treated. back in the day, this would probably kill someone, right? gangrene? doc, said the infection was bad enough not to heal on it's own. what did they do back in the day?

i was told by a pelican i should have pee'd on it.

[Evans, Marv]

Probably would have had to cut it off. I guess that's why predators will only go so far chasing prey. The don't want to take a chance on a dangerous injury.

[masraum]

Well, other than washing and using standard medicines and treatments....

Honey may have helped. I've never tried it myself.

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

For at least 2700 years, honey has been used by humans to treat a variety of ailments through topical application, but only recently have the antiseptic and antibacterial properties of honey been chemically explained.

Wound Gels that contain antibacterial honey and have regulatory approval for wound care are now available to help conventional medicine in the battle against drug resistant strains of bacteria MRSA. As an antimicrobial agent honey may have the potential for treating a variety of ailments. One New Zealand researcher says a particular type of honey may be useful in treating MRSA infections.[65] Antibacterial properties of honey are the result of the low water activity causing osmosis, hydrogen peroxide effect,[66] and high acidity.[67]

Honey appears to be effective in killing drug-resistant biofilms which are implicated in chronic rhinosinusitis.[68]

[Tishabet]

Urine is sterile and can in fact be used to irrigate a wound in an emergency, but I've never heard of anyone actually doing so in the field.

[dad911]

I had a bad leg infection 3 years ago. One day fine, spent all night up with fever and cold/sweats, next day realized my leg blew up to twice it's size. Antibiotics worked, but within a few days had an allergic reaction, throat closed, spent the day in the E.R. IV painkillers and antibiotics wiped it right out, took a few months for the swelling to go down.

Got me thinkin..... bout how fragile life is....

All because of a persistent wound on my foot that didn't heal right away.

[Rikao4]

in the old days..you would have been considered old.
married by 15..6 kids..and scalped at 35....
worried about the finger..heat up the old bowie..red hot..
bite on this ..argggggggg.
as we dig it out...

Rika

[vash]

imagine a toothache? back in the wagon train days, i bet you just yanked it out and jabbed a hot poker in your mouth.

lovin the anitbiotics right now.

[juanbenae]

Originally Posted by vash

imagine a toothache? back in the wagon train days, i bet you just yanked it out and jabbed a hot poker in your mouth.

lovin the anitbiotics right now.

or do what tom hanks did in cast-away.......

[cantdrv55]

Was it your booger-picking pinky because that'd be real bad news if you couldn't pick anymore with that digit.

[white85carrera]

Back on the farm I worked on through high school, the farmer's favorite line for a banged, cut, scraped or slivered finger was to "soak it in cider tonight", took me a few years to get what he was really talking about. Still laugh when I hurt my finger though. Farmers are crazy.

[ramonesfreak]

"my finger infection got me thinking...bout the old days."

this must be the best thread title i have ever read. before i opened it i thought, .....well, i thought it had something to do with a nasty high school girlfriend

[KarlCarrera]

Make sure you take care of the infection. Pay attn. to the Dr., infection goes away, and your off to the races and back in the hunt.

Didn't know about the pee solution, but had read about the honey. I think I like the honey better.

Did ya get the Pig?

Karl
88 Targa

[aigel]

Any bacterial infection back then potentially could kill you or at least dismember you. I know a guy who's (pre-penicillin) grand dad died from what started as a pimple on his nose ... There is a reason folks would only get to 50 years average 100 years ago.

G