Back in residency, one of my patients has a pressure ulcer on his bottom that was keeping him in bed. He came up with the following solution: "Why don't you just duct tape it up??"
"What?" I said.
"Just put a piece of duct tape over it. Then it'll be fine."
I know men think they can duct tape everything to fix it, but it's probably not the best pressure ulcer dressing.
After we talked him out of the duct tape, he gave it a little more thought and then suggested that we put cow balm on it.
What's cow balm, you ask? It's some sort of balm that they apparently use to heal wounds on cows. I'm not kidding. He claimed that stuff is a miracle and that it works just as well on people as it does on cows. He also said that instead of the expensive IV Zosyn (a type of penicillin) we're giving him, he could just get a huge bottle of penicillin for cows that will cost like ten bucks.
"Don't tell me it's not the same medication!" he said.
I wonder if he was talking about Bag Balm? that stuff is actually pretty amazing. (i grew up on a farm, and we slapped it on everything.) if it works on cow udders, how could it not work on human decubitus ulcers? :)
ReplyDeleteBag Balm is good stuff.
ReplyDeleteI've known lots of people to use Bag Balm on wounds before and Udderly Smooth Udder Cream for normal moisturizing... But then again I grew up in a fairly agrarian area.
ReplyDeleteAt least he is trying to save healthcare dollars?
ReplyDeleteMy wife uses Bag Balm on her hands. I think that's what he meant.
ReplyDeleteThe cow balm stuff, both Bag Balm and the Udder Cream really are amazing. The Udder Cream is the best moisturizer ever. You should try it some time, if you ever suffer some stubbornly dry skin.
ReplyDeleteYes I grew up in a rural, farm area too.
yeah we used udder cream for diaper rash on my son since he was sensitive to zinc oxide and petroleum jelly didn't do anything. worked like a charm! hyper-rural area.
ReplyDeleteI'm totally going to look for Bag Balm now...especially if it's recommended by 9/10 yak herders.
ReplyDeleteSorry, not a medical person, so this may sound like a really dumb question... Is it not the same medicine?
ReplyDeleteBag Balm, green tin. Most pharmacies have it, cheaper at your local Cenex/rural farm store.
ReplyDeleteFarmers and rural populations have learned how to care for themselves because they had to.
Another vote for the udder cream. Great stuff for overwashed hands in the winter.
ReplyDeleteHyperion: Zosyn and penicillin are in the same family, but zosyn has a broader spectrum of activity. Many things that sneer in the face of penicillin (quite a bit in this resistant day and age) are still sensitive to zosyn, inclusing a few you'd worry about with skin infections. Also, though I don't remember jack about their respective pharmacokinetics, I strongly suspect that zosyn, being IV, is far more reliably able to achieve a good blood concentration than IM penicillin, to say nothing of the oral kind.
If you can't find it in the pharmacy area, check in pets!!
ReplyDeleteOMGosh Doctor Psychobabble, it's YOU! I knew I would always recognize you. Sorry for being such a stalker right now, but I have been following you faithfully when you were a Ross student. I got sick and fell off track. OMGosh I am in tears right now running into you again. Thank you for inspiring me to continue. I have even gone to several Ross informational sessions. OMGosh this is so cool you don't even know. I do apologize Fizzy, I just can never forget her face! I see you're not rocking your multicolored Mohawk anymore. I hope all is well with you. Again sorry people, I'm kind of a fan of hers :)
ReplyDeleteIt really seems that pet medicine is cheaper than people medicine for some things, but for my pets - it's always the opposite. My vets cost for pet "flagyl" or erythromycin is not on the $4 menu at Target that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteOk, I stumbled upon this post doing a search. Why? I've had a 1.25cm circular pressure wound in the 3cm x 10cm scar bed of a previous (8 years ago) pressure wound. Over the past 10 weeks I used the prescribed ointment, took two rounds of antibiotics and the thing was getting deeper and more painful. After a boondoggle trying to see a wound care specialist and while waiting also to see a surgeon to have the whole scar revised, in sheer frustration I put Bag Balm on the wound and covered it with Op-Site. Since I was seeing a surgeon anyway, I figured it wouldn't be such a big deal if that made it worse. Took the bandage off for my husband to check on it and to my surprise ~ nice new skin. Weird. Should I have used duct tape over the wound instead of Op-Site?
ReplyDelete