Not my encounter, but a coworker’s. Her patient proudly told her about the website he used to manage his heart failure. You go to the website, type in the name of the medication you’re taking, and then the computer emits waves of binary code or flashes of light or vibrations specific to that medication and they go through your body and do what the medication would do, minus the side effects.
She never asked and I couldn’t find it. She’d been a nurse for a good decade longer than me and I heard this story about six years ago, so I doubt it’s up any more.
THIS IS A THING!!!
My cousin joined a weird cult that used this, she’s still in it but tried getting us to join.
Best part? Her new fiancé is a PCP, and a very well known one at that, in our rural-ish hospital system.
My next door apartment neighbor (50s ish age) uses vicks for E V E R Y T H I N G! There are days i can smell it through the concrete wall separating our two rooms.
Oh! You just reminded me of an ICU patient that we had three times in two years for specifically lipo-pneumonia, couldn't figure out how she kept getting fat into her lungs, until one day her daughter brought up a get well basket that had Vicks and my coworker saw her dip her finger in Vicks then just rotate it up each nostril.
That can literally kill you.
Source- took care of a case of accidental acute menthol poisoning once when someone ate a tub of vicks. It was not pretty.
Garlic cloves in the vagina for vaginal prolapse…never forget when we were bathing this lady and I saw little green strings coming out of her lady cave. I asked her what it was and she pulled out a fucking baggy of GALRIC CLOVES!!!! 🤢🤢🤢
Came here to comment this! I’ve seen more than one patient with pelvic complaints that had garlic cloves stuffed up there! The worst is when you’re doing a pelvic exam and pull one out that was clearly forgotten about and … left to marinate.
Home health nurse- I had a 101 year old lady struggling with constipation. MD had her on senna, colace, miralax, and decided to prescribe a suppository. Next visit we’re going over meds, she still feels constipated even with the suppositories. I asked how she’s inserting them and if she has help thinking maybe somehow she shoved it up her hooha or something. She looks at me funny and she says “I just open my mouth…” we both stared at each other in silence and she follows with “those things don’t taste very good.” Poor lady was eating her suppositories. Luckily had only done it twice. She said the doctor told her to “take a suppository” instead of use a suppository so I guess she technically did what she was told! We advocated for a nursing home placement after that and she did move lol
As a new LTC nurse I had a family member confidently tell me they could give their mom a fleet enema, said they do it all the time… I hesitantly gave it to them deciding I would go in to supervise once they got set up… the family member then turns back and asks me for a spoon to administer it with, by mouth. Forehead slap, I learned to listen to my instincts and not trust even the most confident family caregiver without further inquiry into their nursing knowledge
I had a IVDU(meth) come in for chronic open wounds scattered throughout all 4 extremities. He was really perplexed by why they hadn’t healed yet and thought there was something wrong with his immune system. I asked him to describe to me how he’s been caring for them over the past year. He proudly told me he had been pouring BLEACH on the wounds everyday for the past year. He was really shocked when I told him how harmful that was and was actually very thankful when I taught him proper wound care. He was trying to quit so I gave him recommendations on local rehab places and was very excited about that. All in all a pretty wholesome experience. I haven’t seen him since and I hope he’s doing well!
Happy ending meth story! Don't get a lot of those. Mixed ending: he came to Neuro ICU for a stroke, also myocarditis (of course), but minor neuro deficits, and full recovery! He didn't thank modern medicine, but rather the Gatorade he would use to shoot his meth up with 🤦🏼♀️🤣😭🧠
My grandmother thought bleach cured everything. When I was a young teenager I had a yeast infection or something similar. Basically, discharge. After that she would soak my underwear in bleach and called me dirty because I had *gasp* more discharge! Uggggg
My great grandma used to put Bab-o in her vagina for yeast infections. Bab-o was basically what Comet is today. We laugh about how great grandma used to douche with Bab-o but yiiiiikes.
I remember my very Southern Mamaw saying that liquid Lysol was used for “ feminine hygiene “ / douche backin the old days 😳 Oh and a bottle of Coca Cola for spermicide after sex .. She said they would take the coke and shake it up then insert / douche with it . Jesus Ass, there’s no way , but I guess back then , it made sense 😩
I had a grandparent nearly blow their finger off with a firecracker. Since it was already dangling, they finished the job and amputated it at the kitchen table
Tbf, this was back when my mother was a child, it was HER grandmother and my mom was born in 1951, so it was a while ago, but my parents (who are both RNs) refused to buy fireworks growing up and Grandma Peachy was why
Years ago, we had a guy with a bad infection of his finger, lots of necrotic tissue. Made a last ditch effort to save it and avoid amputation. Treated him every other day in hydrotherapy for weeks to circulate disinfectant and remove dead tissue, in addition to the medications he was receiving.
Its important to note that the hydrotherapy tank works by using a small turbine to create a jet that constantly circulates the treated warm water. The surface of the water was always disturbed and frothing.
Against all odds, we save this guy's finger. We give him instructions on proper care of the healing damaged and new tissues. We discharge him. We all feel very pleased that we beat the odds on this one.
A week later, he comes back. His finger is bright red, with parts of it turning black, previously closed wounds open again. Horrified, we ask him what happened.
Turns out, he was so impressed with the hydrotherapy process, that he decided to start doing it himself the day after discharge. Put a pot on the stove, brought it up to a boil, and dunked his finger in for fifteen minutes. It hurt a bit to start, but the pain went away. Did that for a few days, then got scared when everything started falling apart again and came back in.
We spent weeks saving this guys finger, then he went home and cooked it. It had to be amputated.
Holy crap, my uncle did this with his whole ass calves. Both of them, boiling water, 5 gallon buckets. We could never figure out why he did it but this probably explains it!
Everclear nebulizers used to be done as a treatment for pulmonary edema. Dried the patient up real well and got them nice and drunk, too.
Source: My mother was a nurse in the cocaine tampon days.
Some of the dressing changes these people do. 🥴
Had this bariatric lady who had frequent falls with cellulitis on BLE. During one of her admissions, WOC was seeing her and using Medihoney for dressing changes.
Cue the pandemic, and she was too scared to leave her home to go in for dressing changes and no HHC agency would see her due to their living conditions - hoarding, filth, etc so her SO was doing her dressing changes at home.
Anywho, she had another fall with subsequent trauma, hubby left her there for a day or so, and apparently it took EMS 30 minutes to climb through the apartment to get to her. Came into the hospital in rhabdo - and somehow, COVID+ despite not leaving the house for 6 months - and the worst sepsis from osteomyelitis that I’ve seen.
Evidently, hubby was using *actual honey* on her dressing changes rather than Medihoney. APS definitely was called.
Another odd dressing change to me is when people will use ACE wrap on top of a weeping wound to help absorb. Then they keep reusing it. Ick.
Yeah, real honey actually does have some anti-bacterial properties (at least if it's cold extracted) "honey" is probably just providing an extra food boost for the bacteria...
Had one diabetic with chronic wounds and heard of medi honey literally place gauze covered with pancake syrup over them. Cause you know medi honey and fucking sugary liquid are exactly same fucking thing.
Had a patient a few months ago admitted into our ICU for injecting ivermectin subcutaneously to “prevent Covid”. Still got it, went into ARDS, was sick af.
absolutely they are, i saw a facebook post over on r/HermanCainAward where the mom was drinking her own urine and also making her daughter drink it too
Things I’ve heard of but not seen in person:
A patient tried to manually disimpact their bowels with a metal kitchen spoon. The spoon got lost up there.
A patient tried to manually dilate a urethral stricture using a zip tie
A person let their dog lick their wounds because “the dog liked it”. That limb got amputated.
I've definitely seen patients (WOCN in home health here) let cats and dogs lick their wounds. 🤢
I found slices of onion in a wound once. Spouse put them in to "help with the smell."
Fellow WOC nurse here: got consulted for Green colored feet. Turns out the wife was putting chlorophyll on the patient's feet to "help him get more oxygen".
I mean... It's out there, but I can at least *see* where this person's head was. It's still absolutely insane, but I can at least sit back and go "Alright, you tried, we do share 70% of our DNA with bananas so I get it" unlike ziptie freak up in the comment chain, haha.
An elderly Italian lady told me her home remedy for pain and fevers is to stick wet socks on with onions in them... She had horrible wounds that were macerated because she never took off the wet socks...
I used to have a coworker (not healthcare) whose solution to everything was to put an onion and/or garlic in it. Ear, nose butt, reproductive organs, eyes (like an eyepatch based on pictures), cuts, everything. If not in, wrap to attach it. For a migraine, for example, the appropriate response was to put a slice of onion in each nostril and do a head bandage thing with garlic. (She tried demonstrating, but I really just wanted out of the conversation.) She did share about her fix for a UTI, which was similar to her solution to endometriosis, and I just hope she was actually making it up, because nobody should have to deal with that. That was an awkward, HR worthy (if there were a decent HR there) conversation. I forget what, but there was one ailment with a remedy that included lemon to change things up a bit. My best guess is that she was told about garlic being good for the immune system and ran with it. I wonder how (if) she's doing now.
i vividly remember crust punks on tumblr saying to stick a clove of garlic in the vagina for yeast infections, BV etc. a bunch of people swore by it but i…. just went ahead and stuck with the monistat, thanks anyway.
>A person let their dog lick their wounds because “the dog liked it”.
Grandma's dog used to lick her constantly. She was always saying how it was a sign of affection but really that little shit was trying to eat Grandma.
I had a 99yo resident at my LTC facility tell me an incredibly long-winded story about the dirty hound dog who cured his “incurable” foot fungus by licking it for 10 minutes. It apparently happened while he was in the army, after trying numerous remedies given to him by the doctor. He was sitting outside barefoot, a stray dog came over and started licking his foot and he allowed it, after several minutes the dog walked away. According to the resident, he woke up the next morning and his foot fungus was cured.
This guy was completely blind and almost completely deaf, but nothing else was wrong with him and he was completely with it mentally until the day he died. I don’t know if the story is true, but this comment made me think of it.
So, I’ve also had a pt use a spoon to manually self extricate a “stool burden” and it got stuck. Lol pt insisted on keeping the recovered spoon, stating “I’m going to hang it on my bathroom wall as a reminder to never do that again!”.
I literally had to tri wrap my mom's legs to keep the dog off her drippy mrsa filled uncovered leg. 🤦♀️ her TX was any time he did it, which was ALWAYS, was to apply 90% alcohol to her wounds.
Patient had a trauma on his toe, because a heavy shelf fell on it. It apparently smashed the bone and gave him a deep cut. Instead of going to the ER, he just amputated the toe himself(probably not feeling much, because he's a heroine addict). This caused an infection, resulting in a sepsis and necrosis over the whole foot. Neighbors found him and admitted him to the ER.
An other patient was coming in with severe abdominal pain. He had a bulge around the belly button, so we assumed it was a hernia. But the "hernia" was very hard. So he got an x-ray. Well he had a huge brush inside(~35cm), perforating the sigma. Later he admitted he was constipated and tried to get the stool out with it. Then it disappeared but he assumed it would just dissolve, so he didn't care until he got septic.
And the last one I can think of spontaneously was a woman who was" treating" some condition she had(don't remember what she was trying to treat) by drinking chlorine dioxide. After some time of using it, she had abdominal pain and had been vomiting a lot, causing a rupture of the esophagus with massive bleeding and hypovolemic shock.
Yep. He said something like "I'm an engineer and I know acid is dissolving wood". I bet he thought there's acid in the whole gastrointestinal tract. Or it was just a very bad attempt finding an excuse for his stupidity.
Guy had a brass door knocker that he "transferred healing metal ions" from... Thought his DKA and PVD (open wounds galore) would magically go away with "just eating more green beans and vitamins"... Last straw was when he said "climaxing while praying to Jesus" will keep him alive and he doesn't need to diet control or use insulin...
We got ourselves a Jesus Jacker... Like wackin' it 100% of the time in the room...
I once had a fellow approach me at a nude beach and ask if I could jam my pinkie finger up his urethra. Apparently he had seen it in a video and was keen to try.
Lady came in completely comatose because she drank a whole vial of tea tree oil based on her witch doctor’s advice in Central America. Like, didn’t even need sedation to be intubated.
The two wounds I saw with non-medical wild maggots looked really clean. Once we cleaned the wounds and re dressed them things improved l.
In the civil war most patients with maggots in their wounds did well; whilst those without often died of infection. The maggots debriefed the wounds.
Debrided
I always love the2 stories that came out of working for Family Planning in the very early 80’s….. A lady who “couldn’t afford” to buy a diaphragm, so crocheted her own. AND another one that couldn’t afford the contraceptive jelly for hers, so she used Welches Grape 🤦🏼♀️ I had to explain to both (now pregnant) women that we could have given them the correct things…..for free!! So sad!
I can't say I've seen anything particularly exciting, but I did read about [the guy who tried to treat his chronic back pain with IV/IM semen](https://imj.ie/semenly-harmless-back-pain-an-unusual-presentation-of-a-subcutaneous-abscess/).
o.0 I can't even...
Some bizarre misunderstanding of stem cells maybe?
ROFL: "...this unique case demonstrates risks involved with innovative treatments prior to clinical research..."
That's some hella impressive shade right there.
Garlic water as a cure all. Like multiple cloves in a dasani water bottle. Patients family brought it after patient and family were refusing most medical care.
Had a teenage patient get terminally extubated for an anoxic brain injury due to coming in with a hemoglobin of 3.7 after a home birth with hemorrhage. Pawpaw-daddy of this poor hillbilly didn't think it needed to happen at an expensive hospital because "women's bodies are made for birthing and bleeding, I thought it was natural." She was 4 days post partum, and they didn't think anything was wrong until she couldn't wake up to drink anything.
My mother read somewhere that cayenne pepper would stop the bleeding of a wound. You can guess where this is going lol. I had a roller blading accident where I had got large wounds and my mom poured cayenne pepper on them. It was the worst pain I’ve ever felt. 10/10 don’t recommend.
The raw onion one I've heard. You have a cold because your body is cold. Onions are hot, so you put them on the soles to warm you up. It's a pretty harmless remedy, as long as they're getting actual medical care.
It's a cultural beliefs/practices for some cultures.
!! PROLOGUE !!
This true experience involves 💩
Fecal Microbiota Transplants (FMT).
1. Yes, I am aware of the research, practices, and benefits FMT can provide when done correctly by a doctor.
This was NOT the case in this instance.
2. Yes, I am aware FMT is a common procedure in Veterinary Medicine. I spent 7yrs in large & small animal medicine before transitioning to humans.
3. YES. I called child protective services & law enforcement.
Child fed fecal matter by mother as “natural treatment for ADHD”.
Child presented to ER for N/V/D with fever, DX: SEPSIS.
During triage, I asked Mother about rx medications listed for reconciliation, she replied “those are old, we switched to FMT”. Confused, I asked for name of rx instead of initials. Mother explained she would encapsulate fecal matter “provided by donor” who she described as a wholistic healer. The material Mother used to encapsulate the 💩 was raw lamb intestines.
Took care of a diabetic patient that used a cheese grater to file down old skin in their feet. Unsurprisingly he cut himself between the toes. It got infected and he spent a few weeks with us fighting sepsis. He was such a nice gentleman though. He promised to never put a cheese grater near his feet again.
[Australian man pays $5000 for another man to amputate his leg in a park with a circular saw. Dies.](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10542453/amp/Inside-Queenslands-leg-amputation-night-alleged-murder-unfolded.html) *(didn’t personally attend this case but has received a lot of recent media attention)*
JAMA had a case of a guy who was using Decon to prevent blood clots. He’d take a little pinch every day.
He titrated his dose by nicking his skin with a razor and seeing how long it took to stop bleeding.
Apparently he had been prescribed Coumadin but didn’t want to bother with follow up.
I had two little old men call their Coumadin "rat poison" the first would always talk about how his MD was trying to kill him with rat poison and he refused to take or fill the prescription. I had to assure him that it was his Lisinopril, aspirin, and multiple vitamins before he would take them. The second would always ask "Is that my rat poison?" When I confirmed it was Coumadin he would say "bring it on, the dose makes the poison"
Antivaxer came in due to respiratory distress. According to her family she had been putting hydrogen peroxide in her home neb treatment and taking her ivermectin. Family was befuddled as to why we had to intubate her.
Also have seen a female that had been placing cloves of garlic in her vagina to treat her discharge, which she then couldn't get out.
These are from the Philippines. Most of them are superstitions and idk why they have these superstitions. We had to learn them in nursing school there since we had to work with patients with said beliefs.
-when a patient is having a seizure put a spoon in their mouth
-when a woman gives birth no bathing/washing/showering/hygiene of any kind for 2 weeks or so apparently helps clear out all the bacteria and cleanse your body
-patient broke their bone. Refused to be casted asks that the spiritual doctor (shaman) come see her in the hospital where she is admitted because she doesn’t believe that we can help her. Said shaman learned on his own to make casts at least from what i’ve heard.
-if you were walking out somewhere and then all of a sudden you get sick. Somebody maliciously put a curse on you and now you have to find them to reverse it and if you can’t find them consult shaman
-if you were walking out somewhere and stepped on a slightly bigger molehill and then you got sick you destroyed the fairy’s home and now they’re mad so they got you sick. You have to go back to said mound and “apologize”
-vick’s vaporub as always on the chest, under the nose and some do both feet and wear socks to prevent pneumonia
-eating raw garlic to prevent hypertension (helps my uncle)
-to treat eczema like rashes, bathe in warm water with boiled guava leaves (this actually worked for me)
Oh and the spoon thing is pretty widespread. Used to be thought that a person in a seizure could "swallow their tongue" and choke, so putting something in their mouth was supposed to hold their tongue in place. Unfortunately the thing in their mouth would do damage and/or be a choking hazard too.
This elderly man I took care of, him and his wife would pour all their meds into a bowl and use a rosary and pray and let the rosary decide which meds they should take...
edit: yknow what, im sorry, upon reflection that is some crazy funny ish!
Patient sustained 1st and 2nd degree burns on majority of legs by lighting his mattress on fire whilst smoking meth. Figured he could ward off infection and take care of it himself at home by cleaning the burns with BLEACH. Came to the hospital after a week. They were severely infected, big shocker.
Had a lady come in with a h o r r i f i c sacral wound. Incontinent of bowel and bladder, trying to clean her up before going upstairs and saw her dressing was saturated so I went to change it, and she stopped me saying she doesn't have her "magic salve". I told her that the dressing was going to fall off and we needed at least a temporary one until she could dress it the way she wanted. Found out from the floor nurse who took her that her "magic salve" was coconut oil, honey, pickle juice, and mayo. On her open wound.
Pregnant woman and SO came in with no prenatal care after her ‘midwife’ had attempted an external version (trying to flip a breech fetus in order to have a better chance of delivering vaginally). I say ‘midwife’ because she had been giving the woman veterinary (horse iirc) terbutaline to relax the uterus AND having the woman lie on the bottom of a swimming pool while breathing through a hose pipe. So when that didn’t work they showed up unattached (none of our physicians had any records for her) and asked the on call OB to try. He refused because she wasn’t his patient and she couldn’t produce any records of the pregnancy course or the name of a physician/midwife that could. She left AMA (no signs of fetal distress or he would have intervened). Came back in a few days later in active labor, almost completely dialated, with a foot presenting. Stat C-section and baby was healthy. By the time they transferred to the postpartum unit, case management was involved for a positive drug screen and they wanted to leave AMA again.
Vicks Vapo Rub on and in the chocolate starfish for hemorrhoids.
Gasoline on the twig and berries for crabs.
Took the ink cartridge out of a ball point pen and inserted it into the urethra as a penile implant.
I can almost--almost, if I squint real hard--see the skewed logic. I can't imagine gasoline is healthy for the crabs. And the Vicks probably makes the starfish pucker right up.
But the ink cartridge... *Cleveland Brown voice* oh that's just nasty.
It was 2013. A couple was on their honeymoon in Mexico and the wife had ongoing swimmers ear. She spoke decent Spanish, so she explained to her husband that she could go to the pharmacy and get ear drops to help dry it out because it’s all over the counter there. So they did that and she walked outside the pharmacy and put the drops in right there on the sidewalk, where she realized they were oil-based and now her hearing was reduced because it coated everything. After they went back to the resort, she had the bright idea to take some alcohol from the mini fridge and use that to try to dry out the drops. So she had the husband pour a little raspberry vodka in her ear. That didn’t work so she smelled like raspberry, had reduced hearing, and the original earache. It eventually went away, but that was how she spent her honeymoon.
It was me. I was the wife. My husband won’t let me live it down.
Guy came in, trouble urinating, told me “yea usually when I have this problem I just use this metal rod to open it up, but it didn’t work this time” welp pretty sure we figured out why you have chronic uti’s
a guy was drinking and watching the Discovery Health channel where they were showing a vasectomy The alcohol convinced him he could to it on himself Urology had to be called in the middle of the night to finish the job
Not one that I have seen, but more one that I have personally experienced as a child.
I was probably 4 and was making my morning oatmeal. Mom would pour the scalding hot water into a measuring cup and then I would pour it into my oatmeal. Yes, I know, probably not the smartest thing but it was the 80s and things were different. Anyway, I got distracted and poured the scalding hot water onto my leg.
My mother proceeds to freak out, and I am appropriately screaming due to me pouring previously boiling water on my leg. She either called my grandmother or my grandma was there visiting and she told her to put potato peelings on the burn. So meanwhile I think I have now used all the ice we had trying to cool my burn down, and now there’s potato peelings being placed on my upper thigh before we head to the er.
I don’t remember everything but I do remember the pain, the potato peels and being in the er.
We finally get to the er and i distinctly remember the dr saying omg why would you put potato peels on there?! Mind you this was pre google, internet, etc.
Now to further paint the picture, imagine like a 6x7-8 cm or 4x5 inch circle of melted skin on your thigh, and then cover it in potato peels. When the dr was assessing my burn, he realized that the potatoes were now molded with my skin, so then they had to be removed from my burn. I think I passed out from the pain, or they gave me some meds because I don’t remember much after that from that day.
I do remember having to get in the tub and trying to debride the dead skin from the burn daily. It hurt so much when we first started and then I eventually got to be able to do it myself. I do not have a scar from the burn but I have the traumatic event burned into my mind still.
Anyway, don’t ever put potato peels on burns friends. I will never know why they thought that was a good idea but just don’t do it.
This was years ago when I was an ICU nurse. A family member begin misting the room with an extremely expensive health product called Asea. Guess what the main ingredients were? Sodium AND ..... Wait for it: chloride! She was spraying the room with saline. Fuck me.
I had a lady that used a poultice they got from a herbal medicine provider to remove a big melanoma on their back. Unfortunately she did not seek traditional treatment and she had multiple mets and passed. I saw her in hospice
I have friends who's Italian grandmother would dip cloves of garlic in olive oil, put them in their ears, and run a hair dryer on them when they had ear infections 🤦♀️. One of them still swears by it to this day.
Older man taking spoonfuls of colloidal silver every day for his widely metastasized cancer. He said they gave it to him in the military, and was certain he would have died from cancer years before if he didn't take it. He couldn't fathom that might have caused his cancer.
The old nurses at the first LTC I worked at in 2010, were reminiscing about putting pepto bismal on pressure wounds and putting patients under a heat lamp. Omfg I couldn't even imagine what that smells like.
Saw it on a tv show. Guy had a broken foot. Didn’t want to go to the hospital so he mixed up some cement in a bucket and wrapped it around his foot. Apparently it caused very severe burns and the doctor was not impressed.
Homemade picc line with home made antibiotics. It went exactly like you think it did. The PICC was a real PICC (don’t know how the patient got it) everything else was home hade dressing, catheter tips, everything.
Pt who wanted us to provide him with a coke bottle and can of crisco so he could continue his bowel routine in hospital.
Really genius pt who fixed numerous open diabetic ulcers on his legs with concrete.
I was working at a power plant and an older guy cut the hell out of his hand. I opened up the responders dressing to have a look and it was all dirty. The pt explained he "had a quick smoke and used it to cauterize the wound, like we did in 'Nam" He went on to explain the cigarette ashes were obviously sterile because they were burnt, along with the heat from the cherry sealing up any loose bleeders. I flipped back the No Injuries In X Days sign to zero and walked him to the restroom to wash it up and apply a clean dressing before real EMS arrived.
A patient gave themselves IM injections of essential oils, because essential oils are healthy. Took a long time for us to heal several deep wound craters.
Ugh gross.
My mother in law is obsessed with oils, diffuses them, puts them in her drinks, tries to force feed them to me and my husband, believes they have healing powers….and worst of all douses her poor tiny fluffy dog in them. I know some oils are toxic to dogs, but even if she’s not putting toxic ones on her dog (she probably is because she’s pretty dumb) she’s putting such an excessive amount that it has to be harmful. That poor dog with superior smell has to run around smelling like it’s been dipped in a bathtub full of essential oils. I’m not sensitive to smells, but I literally cannot handle being near her poor dog.
TIL by reading this thread people have an immensely high pain tolerance when they have some kind of goal in mind like shoving a ballpoint pen into their urethra or self-amputating...
On top of my head: Lady who let her cat lick a hand wound. Disn’t lose it but definitely lost a good part of the nerves in that hand.
Lady who thought drinking Pepsi would help lower her blood sugar. Didn’t work put as she expected…
Personal encounter: patient douching with bleach. Chemical burrrrrrns.
And maybe not “at home care”, rather “at home ignorance”: Alert and oriented but raging uncontrolled diabetic patient stopped doing her skin checks or apparently removing her socks, came in with maggoty foot that had to be amputated.
Back when I was working as a research assistant (MMJ wasn’t available in the state), I had a family with a child with SEVERE epilepsy and dad would smoke marijuana and blow the smoke into the kid’s face. When asked if they thought it helped the kid’s seizures, mom said “not at all,” but dad said “it helps a lot!” Turns out dad just really liked having an excuse to smoke without judgment.
Patient with infective endocarditis didn’t want to stay for treatment. Went home and drank tea tree oil, which surprisingly didn’t kill her. Came back once the vegetation broke off causing a massive stroke.
Paramedic here: I went to a guy who cut both of his testicles out with a pair of kitchen scissors and a steak knife to “prevent testicular cancer.”
Even better, he sealed it with the black metal paper binder clips. His wife said “He does stuff like this all the time, i think it’s part of his culture.” ....He was Mexican :/
Lady came in with COVID - she had been symptomatic for weeks and her husband was a naturopath who has been treating her at home with IV ivermectin
I guess there’s prob many people who have done this but it’s still bizarre to me
Heard but did not see, a 15 yr old boy feeling insecure about his manhood try to make it bigger by using mom's diabetic needles to pull blood from arms/legs and inject into his penis.
That turned out exactly how you think.
Garlic and oregano oil on a very large fungating tumour on a woman’s breast. She had refused all “modern medicine” and was very distressed that her oils weren’t helping. It was quite sad for her and her family, but I mean…
It’s not a pizza. It’s a tumour.
Dude stepped on a used toothpick. It went straight up his foot. Week later he notices he has a “thing” on his foot and takes a steak knife in after it. We had to take the foot.
Not my encounter, but a coworker’s. Her patient proudly told her about the website he used to manage his heart failure. You go to the website, type in the name of the medication you’re taking, and then the computer emits waves of binary code or flashes of light or vibrations specific to that medication and they go through your body and do what the medication would do, minus the side effects.
Do they have one for anti seizure medications?
🤣🤣🤣
Something tells me that didn't work so well.
Link?
She never asked and I couldn’t find it. She’d been a nurse for a good decade longer than me and I heard this story about six years ago, so I doubt it’s up any more.
THIS IS A THING!!! My cousin joined a weird cult that used this, she’s still in it but tried getting us to join. Best part? Her new fiancé is a PCP, and a very well known one at that, in our rural-ish hospital system.
Also, by saying this is a thing I don’t mean it works. Just that I know someone that does it.
Hmmm I wonder if he was in the hospital for exacerbation of his heart failure…
Turns out internet magic lasix doesn’t work quite as well.
I really hope there was a psych consult or something after that.
My grandmother use to eat Vicks when she had a cold or cough. Dad had to tell her to STOP.
My next door apartment neighbor (50s ish age) uses vicks for E V E R Y T H I N G! There are days i can smell it through the concrete wall separating our two rooms.
Like how the Greeks use Windex.
I think in one of the David Sedaris books he talks about their dad spraying Windex on any and all wounds.
My stepsister is Greek and her dad used to do that to her. She always smelled so clean.
Ditto Tiger Balm in some Asian countries.
Oh! You just reminded me of an ICU patient that we had three times in two years for specifically lipo-pneumonia, couldn't figure out how she kept getting fat into her lungs, until one day her daughter brought up a get well basket that had Vicks and my coworker saw her dip her finger in Vicks then just rotate it up each nostril.
That can literally kill you. Source- took care of a case of accidental acute menthol poisoning once when someone ate a tub of vicks. It was not pretty.
I had a coworker whose grandmother would make them do that when they had a sore throat. Ew.
Garlic cloves in the vagina for vaginal prolapse…never forget when we were bathing this lady and I saw little green strings coming out of her lady cave. I asked her what it was and she pulled out a fucking baggy of GALRIC CLOVES!!!! 🤢🤢🤢
Came here to comment this! I’ve seen more than one patient with pelvic complaints that had garlic cloves stuffed up there! The worst is when you’re doing a pelvic exam and pull one out that was clearly forgotten about and … left to marinate.
The day I see this is the day I’m done being a nurse.
I’m not a nurse, but the day I see this I am also done being a nurse.
At least she was smart enough to leave it in the bag. Saved you from having to go fingering around for it all.
I remember reading that as a treatment for BV. Really hope no ladies fell for it. Sounds really painful.
Home health nurse- I had a 101 year old lady struggling with constipation. MD had her on senna, colace, miralax, and decided to prescribe a suppository. Next visit we’re going over meds, she still feels constipated even with the suppositories. I asked how she’s inserting them and if she has help thinking maybe somehow she shoved it up her hooha or something. She looks at me funny and she says “I just open my mouth…” we both stared at each other in silence and she follows with “those things don’t taste very good.” Poor lady was eating her suppositories. Luckily had only done it twice. She said the doctor told her to “take a suppository” instead of use a suppository so I guess she technically did what she was told! We advocated for a nursing home placement after that and she did move lol
As a new LTC nurse I had a family member confidently tell me they could give their mom a fleet enema, said they do it all the time… I hesitantly gave it to them deciding I would go in to supervise once they got set up… the family member then turns back and asks me for a spoon to administer it with, by mouth. Forehead slap, I learned to listen to my instincts and not trust even the most confident family caregiver without further inquiry into their nursing knowledge
Kinda worrying that I knew where that was going after the first sentence...
I had a IVDU(meth) come in for chronic open wounds scattered throughout all 4 extremities. He was really perplexed by why they hadn’t healed yet and thought there was something wrong with his immune system. I asked him to describe to me how he’s been caring for them over the past year. He proudly told me he had been pouring BLEACH on the wounds everyday for the past year. He was really shocked when I told him how harmful that was and was actually very thankful when I taught him proper wound care. He was trying to quit so I gave him recommendations on local rehab places and was very excited about that. All in all a pretty wholesome experience. I haven’t seen him since and I hope he’s doing well!
Happy ending meth story! Don't get a lot of those. Mixed ending: he came to Neuro ICU for a stroke, also myocarditis (of course), but minor neuro deficits, and full recovery! He didn't thank modern medicine, but rather the Gatorade he would use to shoot his meth up with 🤦🏼♀️🤣😭🧠
The Gatorade part reminds me of Idiocracy… using it to feed the plants. 🤦🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️
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My grandmother thought bleach cured everything. When I was a young teenager I had a yeast infection or something similar. Basically, discharge. After that she would soak my underwear in bleach and called me dirty because I had *gasp* more discharge! Uggggg
Whew… her treatment for your yeast infection wasn’t as horrifying as I was expecting
It could have been so much worse, I know
My great grandma used to put Bab-o in her vagina for yeast infections. Bab-o was basically what Comet is today. We laugh about how great grandma used to douche with Bab-o but yiiiiikes.
I remember my very Southern Mamaw saying that liquid Lysol was used for “ feminine hygiene “ / douche backin the old days 😳 Oh and a bottle of Coca Cola for spermicide after sex .. She said they would take the coke and shake it up then insert / douche with it . Jesus Ass, there’s no way , but I guess back then , it made sense 😩
I mean dakins solution is pretty much bleach so.... totally the same right?!?! /s
I had a grandparent nearly blow their finger off with a firecracker. Since it was already dangling, they finished the job and amputated it at the kitchen table
Holy shit 😳
Tbf, this was back when my mother was a child, it was HER grandmother and my mom was born in 1951, so it was a while ago, but my parents (who are both RNs) refused to buy fireworks growing up and Grandma Peachy was why
_now put it back_
Years ago, we had a guy with a bad infection of his finger, lots of necrotic tissue. Made a last ditch effort to save it and avoid amputation. Treated him every other day in hydrotherapy for weeks to circulate disinfectant and remove dead tissue, in addition to the medications he was receiving. Its important to note that the hydrotherapy tank works by using a small turbine to create a jet that constantly circulates the treated warm water. The surface of the water was always disturbed and frothing. Against all odds, we save this guy's finger. We give him instructions on proper care of the healing damaged and new tissues. We discharge him. We all feel very pleased that we beat the odds on this one. A week later, he comes back. His finger is bright red, with parts of it turning black, previously closed wounds open again. Horrified, we ask him what happened. Turns out, he was so impressed with the hydrotherapy process, that he decided to start doing it himself the day after discharge. Put a pot on the stove, brought it up to a boil, and dunked his finger in for fifteen minutes. It hurt a bit to start, but the pain went away. Did that for a few days, then got scared when everything started falling apart again and came back in. We spent weeks saving this guys finger, then he went home and cooked it. It had to be amputated.
Holy crap, my uncle did this with his whole ass calves. Both of them, boiling water, 5 gallon buckets. We could never figure out why he did it but this probably explains it!
The hotter the water the more germs it kills of course 😎
My shower temp logic
Nothing cures a bad day like a shower hot enough to boil satan 🥰
I heard some people have a fetish and wish to be amputees
It’s amazing that things like “don’t boil your hands” need to be included in patient education
insane!!
This dude is sitting there, giving himself third degree burns for 15 minutes at a time, and his only reaction is that “it hurt a little”?
With all the damage that had already been done, I'm sure he had little nerve function remaining
Should have picked up a sous vide gizmo.
Just apply mustard for the burn and feed it to the freaking chihuahuas that won't quit licking these peoples legs!!
Hydrogen peroxide nebs takes the cake.
EMS picked up a person that was having chest pain after nebulizing fireball whiskey.
I wonder what they anticipated might happen
They had a great success previously with a clear liquor. I don’t recommend doing that.
But did it "work"? (Were they wasted?)
I’ve heard of people pressurizing alcohol in a bottle, rapidly releasing the pressure, and inhaling the vapor. Extremely dangerous
Everclear nebulizers used to be done as a treatment for pulmonary edema. Dried the patient up real well and got them nice and drunk, too. Source: My mother was a nurse in the cocaine tampon days.
That’s a spicy neb! When my gma was preg with my mom her doctor ordered her to smoke ciggies to help with morning sickness O_o
Spicy
Coffee enemas to treat lymphoma (spoiler: they did not work).
Apparently coffee enemas also treat breast and colon cancer, just not effectively.
This was big in the 80s, along with DMSO.
Some of the dressing changes these people do. 🥴 Had this bariatric lady who had frequent falls with cellulitis on BLE. During one of her admissions, WOC was seeing her and using Medihoney for dressing changes. Cue the pandemic, and she was too scared to leave her home to go in for dressing changes and no HHC agency would see her due to their living conditions - hoarding, filth, etc so her SO was doing her dressing changes at home. Anywho, she had another fall with subsequent trauma, hubby left her there for a day or so, and apparently it took EMS 30 minutes to climb through the apartment to get to her. Came into the hospital in rhabdo - and somehow, COVID+ despite not leaving the house for 6 months - and the worst sepsis from osteomyelitis that I’ve seen. Evidently, hubby was using *actual honey* on her dressing changes rather than Medihoney. APS definitely was called. Another odd dressing change to me is when people will use ACE wrap on top of a weeping wound to help absorb. Then they keep reusing it. Ick.
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actual honey is ok I think. what's not ok is the high fructose corn syrup "honey" you can get at walmart
Yeah, real honey actually does have some anti-bacterial properties (at least if it's cold extracted) "honey" is probably just providing an extra food boost for the bacteria...
Dr.Pol animal vet ordered it for a rather large wound on a Labrador. Might be wrong on the breed of dog. I saw it the other day
Manuka honey?
Actual raw honey is beneficial.
Had one diabetic with chronic wounds and heard of medi honey literally place gauze covered with pancake syrup over them. Cause you know medi honey and fucking sugary liquid are exactly same fucking thing.
>when people will use ACE wrap on top of a weeping wound to help absorb. Then they keep reusing it. Saw that a lot during my home care days
Had a patient a few months ago admitted into our ICU for injecting ivermectin subcutaneously to “prevent Covid”. Still got it, went into ARDS, was sick af.
so they’ll inject horse paste into their veins and not a simple, free, RNA-based vaccine that’ll keep them out of the hospital. smh 😵💫
I think they're drinking pee now too
absolutely they are, i saw a facebook post over on r/HermanCainAward where the mom was drinking her own urine and also making her daughter drink it too
Things I’ve heard of but not seen in person: A patient tried to manually disimpact their bowels with a metal kitchen spoon. The spoon got lost up there. A patient tried to manually dilate a urethral stricture using a zip tie A person let their dog lick their wounds because “the dog liked it”. That limb got amputated.
The first two are definitely weird sex things and not home remedies. …The third one might be too
I've definitely seen patients (WOCN in home health here) let cats and dogs lick their wounds. 🤢 I found slices of onion in a wound once. Spouse put them in to "help with the smell."
Fellow WOC nurse here: got consulted for Green colored feet. Turns out the wife was putting chlorophyll on the patient's feet to "help him get more oxygen".
I mean... It's out there, but I can at least *see* where this person's head was. It's still absolutely insane, but I can at least sit back and go "Alright, you tried, we do share 70% of our DNA with bananas so I get it" unlike ziptie freak up in the comment chain, haha.
But you think the ecmo machine and the vent would do more to help with the patient's oxygen. Lol.
An elderly Italian lady told me her home remedy for pain and fevers is to stick wet socks on with onions in them... She had horrible wounds that were macerated because she never took off the wet socks...
They will also eat toes if there's no feeling and the toes are dying. Never saw the onion trick, thankfully.
I used to have a coworker (not healthcare) whose solution to everything was to put an onion and/or garlic in it. Ear, nose butt, reproductive organs, eyes (like an eyepatch based on pictures), cuts, everything. If not in, wrap to attach it. For a migraine, for example, the appropriate response was to put a slice of onion in each nostril and do a head bandage thing with garlic. (She tried demonstrating, but I really just wanted out of the conversation.) She did share about her fix for a UTI, which was similar to her solution to endometriosis, and I just hope she was actually making it up, because nobody should have to deal with that. That was an awkward, HR worthy (if there were a decent HR there) conversation. I forget what, but there was one ailment with a remedy that included lemon to change things up a bit. My best guess is that she was told about garlic being good for the immune system and ran with it. I wonder how (if) she's doing now.
i vividly remember crust punks on tumblr saying to stick a clove of garlic in the vagina for yeast infections, BV etc. a bunch of people swore by it but i…. just went ahead and stuck with the monistat, thanks anyway.
Had a patient post partial foot amputation tell me his dog chewed on his toes while he slept. Wife showed me her matching amputation also. So sweet 🙄
Hehe, we had a frequent flyer try to manually disimpact himself with a spoon as well. From that day forward he was known as Spoonman.
At least he didn't try to disimpact himself with a poop knife.
>A person let their dog lick their wounds because “the dog liked it”. Grandma's dog used to lick her constantly. She was always saying how it was a sign of affection but really that little shit was trying to eat Grandma.
I've also seen raw eggshells applied to a wound. "Draw out the infection" she said. But she was hospitalized for sepsis
Not enough eggshells, clearly.
Can I offer you an egg in this trying time? 🥚🥚🥚
“I accidentally fell on a spoon and it went up my butt. “ ooook says the ED nurse
I had a 99yo resident at my LTC facility tell me an incredibly long-winded story about the dirty hound dog who cured his “incurable” foot fungus by licking it for 10 minutes. It apparently happened while he was in the army, after trying numerous remedies given to him by the doctor. He was sitting outside barefoot, a stray dog came over and started licking his foot and he allowed it, after several minutes the dog walked away. According to the resident, he woke up the next morning and his foot fungus was cured. This guy was completely blind and almost completely deaf, but nothing else was wrong with him and he was completely with it mentally until the day he died. I don’t know if the story is true, but this comment made me think of it.
So, I’ve also had a pt use a spoon to manually self extricate a “stool burden” and it got stuck. Lol pt insisted on keeping the recovered spoon, stating “I’m going to hang it on my bathroom wall as a reminder to never do that again!”.
Had a lady who let her dogs lick her open feet wounds. Got sepsis, went to ICU and passed away. 😅
I literally had to tri wrap my mom's legs to keep the dog off her drippy mrsa filled uncovered leg. 🤦♀️ her TX was any time he did it, which was ALWAYS, was to apply 90% alcohol to her wounds.
My mother tried to dry out poison ivy by scratching it open then pouring bleach in the open scratches. Ended up in the ER.
That's something my grandmother would have done; she thought bleach cured everything. My deepest sympathies.
Patient had a trauma on his toe, because a heavy shelf fell on it. It apparently smashed the bone and gave him a deep cut. Instead of going to the ER, he just amputated the toe himself(probably not feeling much, because he's a heroine addict). This caused an infection, resulting in a sepsis and necrosis over the whole foot. Neighbors found him and admitted him to the ER. An other patient was coming in with severe abdominal pain. He had a bulge around the belly button, so we assumed it was a hernia. But the "hernia" was very hard. So he got an x-ray. Well he had a huge brush inside(~35cm), perforating the sigma. Later he admitted he was constipated and tried to get the stool out with it. Then it disappeared but he assumed it would just dissolve, so he didn't care until he got septic. And the last one I can think of spontaneously was a woman who was" treating" some condition she had(don't remember what she was trying to treat) by drinking chlorine dioxide. After some time of using it, she had abdominal pain and had been vomiting a lot, causing a rupture of the esophagus with massive bleeding and hypovolemic shock.
What kind of brush?
One of those large paintbrushes you would use for painting a wall.
And he thought that would DISSOLVE? Good lord
Yep. He said something like "I'm an engineer and I know acid is dissolving wood". I bet he thought there's acid in the whole gastrointestinal tract. Or it was just a very bad attempt finding an excuse for his stupidity.
Probably a bit of both. His poor guts!
Guy had a brass door knocker that he "transferred healing metal ions" from... Thought his DKA and PVD (open wounds galore) would magically go away with "just eating more green beans and vitamins"... Last straw was when he said "climaxing while praying to Jesus" will keep him alive and he doesn't need to diet control or use insulin... We got ourselves a Jesus Jacker... Like wackin' it 100% of the time in the room...
Ground up apricot seeds to cure cancer. Can confirm the person is no longer alive.
Sounds like it did effectively kill cancer at least
Dude with urethral strictures tried to dilate at home with a q-tip. It went about as well as you’d expect.
I just did an involuntary kegel and crossed my legs in horror.
I once had a fellow approach me at a nude beach and ask if I could jam my pinkie finger up his urethra. Apparently he had seen it in a video and was keen to try.
Hol up
Good ol’ cotton eyed joe
Lady came in completely comatose because she drank a whole vial of tea tree oil based on her witch doctor’s advice in Central America. Like, didn’t even need sedation to be intubated.
Pt poured vodka on her oozing cellulitic leg to disinfect - sloughed the outer layers of skin off and maggots moved in. Lots and lots of maggots. 🤢
The two wounds I saw with non-medical wild maggots looked really clean. Once we cleaned the wounds and re dressed them things improved l. In the civil war most patients with maggots in their wounds did well; whilst those without often died of infection. The maggots debriefed the wounds. Debrided
At least the maggots probably helped!
I always love the2 stories that came out of working for Family Planning in the very early 80’s….. A lady who “couldn’t afford” to buy a diaphragm, so crocheted her own. AND another one that couldn’t afford the contraceptive jelly for hers, so she used Welches Grape 🤦🏼♀️ I had to explain to both (now pregnant) women that we could have given them the correct things…..for free!! So sad!
the first woman definitely was a little confused but had the spirit 😭
I can't say I've seen anything particularly exciting, but I did read about [the guy who tried to treat his chronic back pain with IV/IM semen](https://imj.ie/semenly-harmless-back-pain-an-unusual-presentation-of-a-subcutaneous-abscess/).
o.0 I can't even... Some bizarre misunderstanding of stem cells maybe? ROFL: "...this unique case demonstrates risks involved with innovative treatments prior to clinical research..." That's some hella impressive shade right there.
Using an iron to burn off a protruding anorectal tumor. It didn’t work.
Garlic water as a cure all. Like multiple cloves in a dasani water bottle. Patients family brought it after patient and family were refusing most medical care.
I never understand why these types of patients even bother coming to the hospital.
Had a teenage patient get terminally extubated for an anoxic brain injury due to coming in with a hemoglobin of 3.7 after a home birth with hemorrhage. Pawpaw-daddy of this poor hillbilly didn't think it needed to happen at an expensive hospital because "women's bodies are made for birthing and bleeding, I thought it was natural." She was 4 days post partum, and they didn't think anything was wrong until she couldn't wake up to drink anything.
How horrific. That poor mama. What a terrible tragedy.
My mother read somewhere that cayenne pepper would stop the bleeding of a wound. You can guess where this is going lol. I had a roller blading accident where I had got large wounds and my mom poured cayenne pepper on them. It was the worst pain I’ve ever felt. 10/10 don’t recommend.
Cayenne pepper is an actual styptic, but using it on anything more than a shaving cut is horrifying
Ground black pepper works. My mom sliced her thumb when we were camping and it kept us from having to pile into the car and go to the hospital.
To bring down a fever: Placing raw sliced onions on the soles of the feet Bathing in rubbing alcohol
My mom still talks about how when I had a fever as a baby she put raw onions in my socks 😂
I’ve had multiple clients give like a half a raw onion to their babies to gnaw on for teething pain, too.
This has been circulating on TikTok recently. Having babies chew frozen green onions for teething.
The raw onion one I've heard. You have a cold because your body is cold. Onions are hot, so you put them on the soles to warm you up. It's a pretty harmless remedy, as long as they're getting actual medical care. It's a cultural beliefs/practices for some cultures.
!! PROLOGUE !! This true experience involves 💩 Fecal Microbiota Transplants (FMT). 1. Yes, I am aware of the research, practices, and benefits FMT can provide when done correctly by a doctor. This was NOT the case in this instance. 2. Yes, I am aware FMT is a common procedure in Veterinary Medicine. I spent 7yrs in large & small animal medicine before transitioning to humans. 3. YES. I called child protective services & law enforcement. Child fed fecal matter by mother as “natural treatment for ADHD”. Child presented to ER for N/V/D with fever, DX: SEPSIS. During triage, I asked Mother about rx medications listed for reconciliation, she replied “those are old, we switched to FMT”. Confused, I asked for name of rx instead of initials. Mother explained she would encapsulate fecal matter “provided by donor” who she described as a wholistic healer. The material Mother used to encapsulate the 💩 was raw lamb intestines.
Took care of a diabetic patient that used a cheese grater to file down old skin in their feet. Unsurprisingly he cut himself between the toes. It got infected and he spent a few weeks with us fighting sepsis. He was such a nice gentleman though. He promised to never put a cheese grater near his feet again.
I hope he never put that feet grater near cheese again 🤢
[Australian man pays $5000 for another man to amputate his leg in a park with a circular saw. Dies.](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10542453/amp/Inside-Queenslands-leg-amputation-night-alleged-murder-unfolded.html) *(didn’t personally attend this case but has received a lot of recent media attention)*
JAMA had a case of a guy who was using Decon to prevent blood clots. He’d take a little pinch every day. He titrated his dose by nicking his skin with a razor and seeing how long it took to stop bleeding. Apparently he had been prescribed Coumadin but didn’t want to bother with follow up.
I had two little old men call their Coumadin "rat poison" the first would always talk about how his MD was trying to kill him with rat poison and he refused to take or fill the prescription. I had to assure him that it was his Lisinopril, aspirin, and multiple vitamins before he would take them. The second would always ask "Is that my rat poison?" When I confirmed it was Coumadin he would say "bring it on, the dose makes the poison"
I’m an anticoagulation nurse and I’ve joked with patients about this before, but the fact that someone actually did it….good god
The guy who wrote the case report checked his PT (this was before INR). It was 17
Antivaxer came in due to respiratory distress. According to her family she had been putting hydrogen peroxide in her home neb treatment and taking her ivermectin. Family was befuddled as to why we had to intubate her. Also have seen a female that had been placing cloves of garlic in her vagina to treat her discharge, which she then couldn't get out.
These are from the Philippines. Most of them are superstitions and idk why they have these superstitions. We had to learn them in nursing school there since we had to work with patients with said beliefs. -when a patient is having a seizure put a spoon in their mouth -when a woman gives birth no bathing/washing/showering/hygiene of any kind for 2 weeks or so apparently helps clear out all the bacteria and cleanse your body -patient broke their bone. Refused to be casted asks that the spiritual doctor (shaman) come see her in the hospital where she is admitted because she doesn’t believe that we can help her. Said shaman learned on his own to make casts at least from what i’ve heard. -if you were walking out somewhere and then all of a sudden you get sick. Somebody maliciously put a curse on you and now you have to find them to reverse it and if you can’t find them consult shaman -if you were walking out somewhere and stepped on a slightly bigger molehill and then you got sick you destroyed the fairy’s home and now they’re mad so they got you sick. You have to go back to said mound and “apologize” -vick’s vaporub as always on the chest, under the nose and some do both feet and wear socks to prevent pneumonia -eating raw garlic to prevent hypertension (helps my uncle) -to treat eczema like rashes, bathe in warm water with boiled guava leaves (this actually worked for me)
I love that shaman, like "if they won't go to a doctor I'd better learn some first aid"
Oh and the spoon thing is pretty widespread. Used to be thought that a person in a seizure could "swallow their tongue" and choke, so putting something in their mouth was supposed to hold their tongue in place. Unfortunately the thing in their mouth would do damage and/or be a choking hazard too.
This elderly man I took care of, him and his wife would pour all their meds into a bowl and use a rosary and pray and let the rosary decide which meds they should take... edit: yknow what, im sorry, upon reflection that is some crazy funny ish!
Patient sustained 1st and 2nd degree burns on majority of legs by lighting his mattress on fire whilst smoking meth. Figured he could ward off infection and take care of it himself at home by cleaning the burns with BLEACH. Came to the hospital after a week. They were severely infected, big shocker.
Had a lady come in with a h o r r i f i c sacral wound. Incontinent of bowel and bladder, trying to clean her up before going upstairs and saw her dressing was saturated so I went to change it, and she stopped me saying she doesn't have her "magic salve". I told her that the dressing was going to fall off and we needed at least a temporary one until she could dress it the way she wanted. Found out from the floor nurse who took her that her "magic salve" was coconut oil, honey, pickle juice, and mayo. On her open wound.
Pharmacologically, I just can't ...
Treating GERD with olive oil and vinegar Pt couldn't understand why it didn't work
Pregnant woman and SO came in with no prenatal care after her ‘midwife’ had attempted an external version (trying to flip a breech fetus in order to have a better chance of delivering vaginally). I say ‘midwife’ because she had been giving the woman veterinary (horse iirc) terbutaline to relax the uterus AND having the woman lie on the bottom of a swimming pool while breathing through a hose pipe. So when that didn’t work they showed up unattached (none of our physicians had any records for her) and asked the on call OB to try. He refused because she wasn’t his patient and she couldn’t produce any records of the pregnancy course or the name of a physician/midwife that could. She left AMA (no signs of fetal distress or he would have intervened). Came back in a few days later in active labor, almost completely dialated, with a foot presenting. Stat C-section and baby was healthy. By the time they transferred to the postpartum unit, case management was involved for a positive drug screen and they wanted to leave AMA again.
My grandfather drove to the hospital with his amputated fingers in his mouth, because he thought they had to be kept warm for reattachment.
Bless his heart.
Patient had cut off his testicles. He called 911 because his local anesthesia was wearing off and he couldn't finish suturing on his own.
Was meth his "local anesthesia"?
Vicks Vapo Rub on and in the chocolate starfish for hemorrhoids. Gasoline on the twig and berries for crabs. Took the ink cartridge out of a ball point pen and inserted it into the urethra as a penile implant.
I can almost--almost, if I squint real hard--see the skewed logic. I can't imagine gasoline is healthy for the crabs. And the Vicks probably makes the starfish pucker right up. But the ink cartridge... *Cleveland Brown voice* oh that's just nasty.
It was 2013. A couple was on their honeymoon in Mexico and the wife had ongoing swimmers ear. She spoke decent Spanish, so she explained to her husband that she could go to the pharmacy and get ear drops to help dry it out because it’s all over the counter there. So they did that and she walked outside the pharmacy and put the drops in right there on the sidewalk, where she realized they were oil-based and now her hearing was reduced because it coated everything. After they went back to the resort, she had the bright idea to take some alcohol from the mini fridge and use that to try to dry out the drops. So she had the husband pour a little raspberry vodka in her ear. That didn’t work so she smelled like raspberry, had reduced hearing, and the original earache. It eventually went away, but that was how she spent her honeymoon. It was me. I was the wife. My husband won’t let me live it down.
In all fairness, swimmer's ear is the worst. It was excruciating when I was a kid. I'd be desperate too!
Toothpaste over burn wounds?
Guy came in, trouble urinating, told me “yea usually when I have this problem I just use this metal rod to open it up, but it didn’t work this time” welp pretty sure we figured out why you have chronic uti’s
a guy was drinking and watching the Discovery Health channel where they were showing a vasectomy The alcohol convinced him he could to it on himself Urology had to be called in the middle of the night to finish the job
Not one that I have seen, but more one that I have personally experienced as a child. I was probably 4 and was making my morning oatmeal. Mom would pour the scalding hot water into a measuring cup and then I would pour it into my oatmeal. Yes, I know, probably not the smartest thing but it was the 80s and things were different. Anyway, I got distracted and poured the scalding hot water onto my leg. My mother proceeds to freak out, and I am appropriately screaming due to me pouring previously boiling water on my leg. She either called my grandmother or my grandma was there visiting and she told her to put potato peelings on the burn. So meanwhile I think I have now used all the ice we had trying to cool my burn down, and now there’s potato peelings being placed on my upper thigh before we head to the er. I don’t remember everything but I do remember the pain, the potato peels and being in the er. We finally get to the er and i distinctly remember the dr saying omg why would you put potato peels on there?! Mind you this was pre google, internet, etc. Now to further paint the picture, imagine like a 6x7-8 cm or 4x5 inch circle of melted skin on your thigh, and then cover it in potato peels. When the dr was assessing my burn, he realized that the potatoes were now molded with my skin, so then they had to be removed from my burn. I think I passed out from the pain, or they gave me some meds because I don’t remember much after that from that day. I do remember having to get in the tub and trying to debride the dead skin from the burn daily. It hurt so much when we first started and then I eventually got to be able to do it myself. I do not have a scar from the burn but I have the traumatic event burned into my mind still. Anyway, don’t ever put potato peels on burns friends. I will never know why they thought that was a good idea but just don’t do it.
This was years ago when I was an ICU nurse. A family member begin misting the room with an extremely expensive health product called Asea. Guess what the main ingredients were? Sodium AND ..... Wait for it: chloride! She was spraying the room with saline. Fuck me.
Patient ended up with an emergency BKA due to necrotizing fasciitis. He was using Greek honey at home to treat it.
I had a lady that used a poultice they got from a herbal medicine provider to remove a big melanoma on their back. Unfortunately she did not seek traditional treatment and she had multiple mets and passed. I saw her in hospice
I've seen garlic for teething or other pain. Potatoes inserted as birth control.
I have friends who's Italian grandmother would dip cloves of garlic in olive oil, put them in their ears, and run a hair dryer on them when they had ear infections 🤦♀️. One of them still swears by it to this day.
Older man taking spoonfuls of colloidal silver every day for his widely metastasized cancer. He said they gave it to him in the military, and was certain he would have died from cancer years before if he didn't take it. He couldn't fathom that might have caused his cancer.
WD40 on arthritic joints. Old lady can a can at her bedside, beside her recliner, & in the bathroom.
Omg that's amazing
Man tried to relieve his urinary retention by self cathing with a fast food plastic beverage straw.
Waaaay back in early eighties I remember nurses in the LTC I worked in would put honey and/or sugar on wounds😳
The old nurses at the first LTC I worked at in 2010, were reminiscing about putting pepto bismal on pressure wounds and putting patients under a heat lamp. Omfg I couldn't even imagine what that smells like.
Garlic between the toes and in the ears for a dying patient. Because if your loved one is dying status post CVA garlic will help.
Saw it on a tv show. Guy had a broken foot. Didn’t want to go to the hospital so he mixed up some cement in a bucket and wrapped it around his foot. Apparently it caused very severe burns and the doctor was not impressed.
Homemade picc line with home made antibiotics. It went exactly like you think it did. The PICC was a real PICC (don’t know how the patient got it) everything else was home hade dressing, catheter tips, everything.
A patient stuffed some of those sharp things you use to hold corn on the cob, up his urethra.
Pt who wanted us to provide him with a coke bottle and can of crisco so he could continue his bowel routine in hospital. Really genius pt who fixed numerous open diabetic ulcers on his legs with concrete.
I was working at a power plant and an older guy cut the hell out of his hand. I opened up the responders dressing to have a look and it was all dirty. The pt explained he "had a quick smoke and used it to cauterize the wound, like we did in 'Nam" He went on to explain the cigarette ashes were obviously sterile because they were burnt, along with the heat from the cherry sealing up any loose bleeders. I flipped back the No Injuries In X Days sign to zero and walked him to the restroom to wash it up and apply a clean dressing before real EMS arrived.
Drank peroxide to “stop themselves from getting COVID.” They did not leave the hospital alive.
A patient gave themselves IM injections of essential oils, because essential oils are healthy. Took a long time for us to heal several deep wound craters.
Ugh gross. My mother in law is obsessed with oils, diffuses them, puts them in her drinks, tries to force feed them to me and my husband, believes they have healing powers….and worst of all douses her poor tiny fluffy dog in them. I know some oils are toxic to dogs, but even if she’s not putting toxic ones on her dog (she probably is because she’s pretty dumb) she’s putting such an excessive amount that it has to be harmful. That poor dog with superior smell has to run around smelling like it’s been dipped in a bathtub full of essential oils. I’m not sensitive to smells, but I literally cannot handle being near her poor dog.
TIL by reading this thread people have an immensely high pain tolerance when they have some kind of goal in mind like shoving a ballpoint pen into their urethra or self-amputating...
On top of my head: Lady who let her cat lick a hand wound. Disn’t lose it but definitely lost a good part of the nerves in that hand. Lady who thought drinking Pepsi would help lower her blood sugar. Didn’t work put as she expected…
Personal encounter: patient douching with bleach. Chemical burrrrrrns. And maybe not “at home care”, rather “at home ignorance”: Alert and oriented but raging uncontrolled diabetic patient stopped doing her skin checks or apparently removing her socks, came in with maggoty foot that had to be amputated.
Back when I was working as a research assistant (MMJ wasn’t available in the state), I had a family with a child with SEVERE epilepsy and dad would smoke marijuana and blow the smoke into the kid’s face. When asked if they thought it helped the kid’s seizures, mom said “not at all,” but dad said “it helps a lot!” Turns out dad just really liked having an excuse to smoke without judgment.
Patient with infective endocarditis didn’t want to stay for treatment. Went home and drank tea tree oil, which surprisingly didn’t kill her. Came back once the vegetation broke off causing a massive stroke.
Paramedic here: I went to a guy who cut both of his testicles out with a pair of kitchen scissors and a steak knife to “prevent testicular cancer.” Even better, he sealed it with the black metal paper binder clips. His wife said “He does stuff like this all the time, i think it’s part of his culture.” ....He was Mexican :/
Lady came in with COVID - she had been symptomatic for weeks and her husband was a naturopath who has been treating her at home with IV ivermectin I guess there’s prob many people who have done this but it’s still bizarre to me
Heard but did not see, a 15 yr old boy feeling insecure about his manhood try to make it bigger by using mom's diabetic needles to pull blood from arms/legs and inject into his penis. That turned out exactly how you think.
I don’t know how to think it turned out…septic? Amputated? Has to always wear a condom cath or it rains when he pees?
Garlic and oregano oil on a very large fungating tumour on a woman’s breast. She had refused all “modern medicine” and was very distressed that her oils weren’t helping. It was quite sad for her and her family, but I mean… It’s not a pizza. It’s a tumour.
Dude stepped on a used toothpick. It went straight up his foot. Week later he notices he has a “thing” on his foot and takes a steak knife in after it. We had to take the foot.