Its The Pitts: Suture Self

DeepseekerADS

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It's The Pitts: Suture Self

A carpenter friend recently showed me a gruesome scar on his arm that was the result of some surgery he performed on himself with a sewing needle without any form of anesthetic! He said he played doctor and sewed up the nasty cut himself because he had no insurance and felt qualified because he’d once sewn some sails. From the looks of his arm I can only assume the sailboat subsequently capsized or ran aground.

It’s only in the last 100 years that people, like my friend, haven’t had to be their own doctor. If a cowboy in the 1800’s was seriously sick, kicked by a horse, wounded by an Indian or run over by a stampede he was simply out of luck. And out of time.

Early in our nation’s history doctors were as scarce as tuba players in a submarine, and even if one could be found the sawbones performed most operations without any anesthetic. If you don’t count the whiskey, that is. Now days when people go to the doctor for an ingrown toenail it’s hard to imagine that women had their babies at home and the only provision for pain was a stick they could bite down on. You couldn’t have found a log big enough for me to chomp on! And you think you have it bad because you have to read old magazines and wait awhile to see a doctor?

In the days of old there were no urgent care facilities or emergency rooms and if the doctor came at all it wasn’t until you were nearly ready to be cultivated under. In this day of Dr. Oz and Viagra, when there seems to be a pill for every inconvenience and a TV telethon or walkathon for every ailment, it’s hard to imagine that the best the pioneers could do was apply a poultice of fresh cow manure. If they sprained an ankle they wrapped the joint in brown paper, soaked it in vinegar and slept with their head pointed north. Often times the people used the same treatments they used on their livestock. Cowboys got the same cure as the horse they were riding. If you were wormy you took a thimble full of sheep wormer and if you ached all over you applied a little Sloan’s Liniment for Livestock. It contained turpentine and “sassafrassy” and was said to cure bruises, kicks, flatulent colic and bumblefoot. I’ve been tempted to try it once or twice myself.

Just like my buddy who sewed himself up, the pioneers improvised a lot. They were practicing holistic medicine long before anyone ever heard the phrase. In an era when doctors with tiny cameras boldly go where no man has gone before, it’s hard to imagine that people once bled, purged and puked themselves to better health.

The doctors of the nineteenth century seemed to believe that a person could not get well without a sufficient amount of pain being suffered first. And maybe they were right.

You may hate the dentist but at least you have one. If the old-timers had a toothache they jumped up and down so the blood would go to their feet and then pulled a tooth or two with a pair of horse nippers or hog ringers. If a limb needed to be amputated the only anesthetic was to have a fat man sit on the patient. Allergies and cosmetic surgery? Forget it. If you broke a leg you had a lifelong limp; a broken rib and you suffered every time you breathed for the rest of your life. If you had an excess of sagging body parts you lived with them. Hypochondriacs didn’t stand a chance.

Some things never change though. In a letter to his family in 1849 a California miner wrote, “Have now paid all my gold to the Doctors and they leave me worse in health.” See what I mean? Who knows, maybe a lot of lives were saved back when folks didn’t have access to all the over-doctoring that goes on now days.

By the time our leaders in Washington get through messing up our healthcare system, the way things are headed we’ll have to anesthetize our cattle to brand them but you and I won’t be able to get in to see a doctor. We could find ourselves living once again in a society where the rule of thumb will be, “Cowboy, heal thyself.”
 

The rule of thumb: A man was allowed to beat his wife with a stick as long as the width was no longer then his thumb.

"Doctor, heal thyself."

Well said DeepSeeker,

Crispin
 

Well, I go to the doctor when I have a problem that my body can't take care of itself like my last visit about 25 years ago when I had my last disc operation. That thought of an operation puts fear in to close a view. I know, I have been putting off a cataract operation for some time for the thought of me laying there awake while someone shoves needles and knives in my eye is almost more than I can bare. Frank...

111-1 profile.jpg
 

Well, I go to the doctor when I have a problem that my body can't take care of itself like my last visit about 25 years ago when I had my last disc operation. That thought of an operation puts fear in to close a view. I know, I have been putting off a cataract operation for some time for the thought of me laying there awake while someone shoves needles and knives in my eye is almost more than I can bare. Frank...

You didn't have to say that!!!

I need to have that myself :(
 

deepseeker, your buddy is more of a man than I.

ever read about the old timey mountain men? one was mauled by a griz, his friend sewed his scalp and ear back on. happy to live in dr oz pill time
 

This old cowboy has used a lot of horse products, like Sloan's, Cut n Heal, Breaze Eze, DMSO, and the list goes on. It's on hand, and already paid for, and if it's strong enough for a horse, well that's what I would need.

Homar
 

are you neil young?
 

The absorbine I use is the same formula I used to use on my horses MANY years ago...

Sent from my VS920 4G using Tapatalk 4 Beta
 

Ive set broken fingers,mine.Plus broken ankle,mine.:laughing7:Never gave myself stitches unless you want to count super glue:laughing7:
 

My grandmother raised pigs for as long as I can remember. As a child, when you visited or stayed with her,
the LAST thing you wanted was to get hurt. Especially a cut or scrape.
She'd wash your booboo off, then spray that purple pig medicine on you, tell you, "it works on the pigs, it'll work on you too".

Made you long for that burning Merthiolate! LOL!
When you'd run in to your cousins, you all knew who been at grandma's! :laughing7:
 

You didn't have to say that!!!

I need to have that myself :(

Here's the rest of it. I read up on it. The operation takes about 15 min. You are given 2 medications. A shot or drops in the eye to numb it, and a shot to calm you. A microwave needle is inserted into the eye and the microwaves desolve the clouded lens. That needle is replaced with a vacuum needle which vacuums out the remains of the lens. A small slot is cut in the eye, the new lense is folded and inserted and aligned. NOTE: for regular cost there two lenses, near and far sited. For a higher fee, there is an adjustable lens. It's a short operation, but the thought bears heavily! Frank...

111-1 profileRED.jpgAny thoughts on this from the doctors here?
 

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