Patients' "home remedies"? What have you seen

[flyingchange]

Had a family come in to the ER last night. Their little boy (~3yo) got ahold of the pot of boiling water on the stove. Clear 2nd degree burns to (I'd say) at least 30% of the inside of his arm. Little guy had dark skin, but the burn basically sloughed down to reveal bright pink flesh.

The family put sugar (!) on the burn at home. When they brought him in, the RN had to clean the wound and basically the sugar just debrided the fresh burn even more. I've been racking my brain trying to figure out the logic behind putting sugar on a burn I even Googled it and the only thing I can tell is people sometimes put it on a burned tongue. Then I was thinking that sugar on a burn probably makes an awesome growth medium for bacteria. I told the family very firmly that they must leave the dressing intact until the burn unit followed up with them - all I could imagine was them taking the dressing off and putting some other mystery substance on it. Then they refused 1/2 the kid's pain meds, but I digress.

Have you guys heard of this, or other wonky "home remedies" that you've seen come through the doors?

[J-NO]

I would stay away from mercury (Hg)

Have you ever heard of the term "mad as a hatter"?

well people that used to make hats used Hg and it drove them mad

[AngelfireRN, MSN, RN, APRN]

J

This was when I was very small, Granny's been dead for 16 years. I don't even think they make that stuff anymore, and I certainly would not use it! Makes me shudder to think!

[Purple_Scrubs, BSN, RN]

There are a number of people I know who manage their bladders with catheterization [indwelling and intermittent] using instillations of a wound-care product called Microcyn to prevent urinary tract colonization and infection. Several dozen people with indwelling caths [urethral and suprapubic] have remained free from even colonization, verified through C&S, for over a year by instilling up to 60ccs of the product for 20-30 minutes q24 hours or BID.

I'm having similar off-label success treating chronic bronchiectasis-related lung infections by nebulizing the more affordable and more potent veterinary version of the product, available under the brand name Vetericyn VF. [same formula and quality production standards as Microcyn.]

And while it's an FDA-approved use and therefore not a home remedy, Microcyn/Vetericyn/Puracyn is far and away the best wound care product on the market. Works ten times better and faster than any OTC triple antibiotic cream available, and better than several prescription topical ABX, too.

There's an insanely long thread about using Microcyn/Vetericyn to prevent/treat UTIs and bladder colonization at the CareCure site if anyone's interested.

Now that you mention it, I use Vetricyn on my horses' wounds, and whenever I scrape myself while out working in the barn I squirt a bit on my wound. It is quite effective. Horse people are a little bit different...it is not uncommon to use the horsey products on ourselves :) Linament, poultices...I have even known a few cowboys to take pain meds intended for horses, not that I endorse that kind of use. There is an epsom salt poultice that I have used on my own injuries that works very well.

[Christy1019, ASN, RN]

Grandma brings 2y/o to ED with c/o bee sting to her eye, states "i put turpentine in her eye at home but she keeps crying!"

pt c/o "severe heartburn", states "i drank hot vinegar earlier but it still hurts!"

Have heard that drinking bath salts helps with constipation... patient and fellow nurse swear by it

[J-NO]

Epsom salts are supposed to have laxitive properties. But I would drink MY bath water )

[miss_anneRN]

we had an a/o pt who used lysol to clean her peri area, she'd come in completely excoriated! also her colostomy was being held in place for weeks with duct tape, and she used butter in her nostrils to soften boogies! she lived to be 82!

[Akeos]

Had a patient come in with chronic venous stasis ulcers on her BLE. They had been weeping for quite some time, and the pt was supposed to be following up with the wound care clinic. Instead she decided to try to dry them out by first applying bleach, and then some sort of horse product that is normally used on hooves. Needless to say, she ended up having both legs amputated midthigh due to the necrosis from her home remedies.

I was discussing this with a nurse I was training, and she seriously kept trying to convince me that there was no problem with using bleach to clean a wound or rash because it would disinfect the area ...needless to say she's not with us anymore

[miss_anneRN]

Dakin's solution is a bleach, maybe there is some logic...

[bagladyrn, RN]

we had an a/o pt who used lysol to clean her peri area, she'd come in completely excoriated! also her colostomy was being held in place for weeks with duct tape, and she used butter in her nostrils to soften boogies! she lived to be 82!

Actually, many years ago Lysol was advertised as a douche solution for feminine hygiene! I'm not tech savvy but I'm sure someone can find one of the old ads on the internet and link to it!

[roser13, ASN, RN]

from wikipedia:

"in the late 1920s lysol disinfectant began being marketed by maker lysol, incorporated and distributor lehn & fink, inc. as a feminine hygiene product. they intimated that lady partsl [color=#0645ad]douching with a lysol solution prevented infections and lady partsl odor, and thereby preserved marital bliss[color=#0645ad][7]. this lysol solution was also used as a [color=#0645ad]birth control agent, as post-coital douching was a popular method of preventing pregnancy at that time. the use of lysol was later discouraged by the medical community as it tended to eliminate the bacteria normal to the healthy lady parts, thus allowing more robust, health-threatening bacteria to thrive, and may have masked more serious problems that certain odors indicated in the first place.[color=#0645ad][8] all the same, joseph de lee, a prominent american obstetrician who held great sway over american obstetric practice through his writings, encouraged the use of lysol during labor. "...[j]ust before introducing the hand, the lady parts is liberally flushed with 1 per cent lysol solution squeezed from pledgets of cotton, the idea being to reduce the amount of infections matter unavoidably carried into the puerperal wounds and up into the uterus by the manipulations." [color=#0645ad][9]"

[elthia]

I have had several older gentlemen tell me they used WD40 for arthritis.

I had a pt try to cure his chest pains with home accupuncture...he later came to the hospital and needed an emergent bypass.

[CapeCodMermaid, RN]

Dakin's solution is a bleach, maybe there is some logic...

Probably the reason the CMS disallowed it's use in skilled facilities. I've had many patients (all with schizophrenia) who cleaned themselves with bleach on a regular basis.