Piles - Hemorrhoids

Categories: ADMINISTRATION OF REMEDIES.
Sources: An Epitome Of Homeopathic Healing Art

One important matter in all cases of habitual piles, is, to keep the

bowels regular. Much can be done for this purpose by diet and regimen.

On rising from bed in the morning drink freely, from a gill to half a

pint of cold water, at least half an hour before breakfast; use such

diet as is easily digested, and drink no alcoholic beverages. To relieve

the bowels when costive, take a dose of _Nux Vomica_ at night, and

_Po ophyllin_ in the morning. This may be repeated from day to day until

the proper effect is produced.



To relieve from a severe attack of Piles, use _Bell._ and _Podophyllin_

in alternation every four hours, and apply to the tumors when inflamed,

cloths wrung out of hot water, or sit in hot water for a time.



A poultice made of fine-cut _Tobacco_ wet in hot water and crowded

firmly up against the pile-tumors, secured by a T bandage, will relieve

the most desperate cases for the time, and is attended with no danger or

disagreeable symptoms except in rare cases, when it produces sickness at

the stomach, which soon subsides on the poultice being removed. _Oil of

Arnica_ is an excellent application for inflamed Piles.



A most important point in the management of Piles, and one often

neglected, is to replace the prolapsed tumors. The tumors will be

protruded from within the anus by the act of evacuating, and if left in

that condition, will be pressed upon by the external parts, chafed and

inflamed. In all such cases, the patient should take particular pains to

return the tumors into the rectum; and to aid in that process a little

oil may be applied when they will be easily pushed back, and the

sphincter of the bowel will close below them, preventing any chafing,

and the consequent inflammation.



For _Bleeding Piles_, _Ipecac_ and _Bell_. are very efficient remedies.

They may be alternated every half hour, or oftener if the bleeding is

severe, or at longer intervals when it is only slight.



_Hamamelis V._, (Witch Hazel,) will in nearly all cases arrest the

bleeding at once. It should be applied to the parts and taken internally

at the same time. Drop doses to be put on the tongue once in fifteen or

twenty minutes.



An infusion of the _Hamamelis_ may be taken internally in doses of half

a teaspoonful, and the same injected into the bowel with excellent

effect.



The most effectual way, and the best for obtaining permanent relief from

Piles when the tumors have become hard, and remain all the time so as to

pass out of the anus at every evacuation, being constantly more or less

tender and painful, and often becoming inflamed, is to have them taken

off. But never let that be done with a knife. The bleeding would, in

such a case, be very excessive, and most likely fatal. The history of

knife operations for the excision of Pile tumors is written in blood,

and the tombstone stands as a monument of condemnation of the practice.

No trustworthy surgeon will at this day attempt it.



But however dangerous may be the knife operation, there is no danger at

all to be apprehended from removing the tumors by a _ligature_. To

accomplish this, take a soft cork about three-fourths of an inch in

diameter, and one inch long--make a hole through the center from end to

end, about one-eighth of an inch in diameter--cut crucial grooves in the

top of the cork about an eighth of an inch deep, bevel down the lower

end nearly to an edge, make a cord of saddler's silk, three fold twisted

together and waxed, about eight or ten inches long, double this in the

middle and pass the loop down through the cork out at the sharp end, the

two loose ends of the string being out at the grooved end. Make a strong

hickory stick about three-sixteenths of an inch in diameter, and just

long enough to pass across the square end of the cork. Now have the

patient protrude the Pile tumors as far out as possible, being placed on

his knees with the head bent to the floor, pressing out firmly as if to

evacuate the bowels. Let the tumors be dried as much as possible by

gently pressing a soft, dry cloth to them; then let the loop of the

string projecting from the flattened end of the cork, be pushed on over

the largest tumor, and held down at its base, while an assistant places

the stick in one of the grooves, ties the two ends of the cord firmly

down over the stick, or _toggle_, by a square bow knot; then turn the

stick round once, twice, or more, until the pressure upon the tumor is

sufficient to strangulate it perfectly, and prevent the string from

slipping off. Care should be taken to keep the cord down to the base of

the tumor while it is being tied and tightened, as in many cases the

base is much the larger part of the tumor, and the cord tends to slip

up. After the ligature is applied and tightened, apply arnicated water

to the parts, and a large, warm poultice of superfine slippery elm bark,

wet so as not to be too soft and slippery, on the face of which Arnica

may be put. Keep it on with a T bandage. The patient must be put to bed

and kept quiet until the ligature and tumor come off, which will be in

about six or seven days, sometimes sooner. Once a day the "toggle" must

be turned part, or the whole of a circle or more, to tighten the cord as

the patient can bear. This will be very painful from beginning to end of

the ligating, but any, even the most sensitive, patient can bear it. The

patient must have quite warm hip baths two, three, or more, times a day,

or as often as the pain is severe, the poultice being replaced after

each bath, and kept constantly on.



If there are several tumors protruding, apply ligatures to two of the

largest, when these are removed, the others will disappear.



Injections of mucillage of slippery elm should be carefully used to move

the bowels daily, or at least once in two days. Let the diet be of corn

or oat meal mush, or rice. As the tumor gradually sloughs off, the

surface heals, so that, though the base where the ligature was applied,

may have been an inch or more across it, there will not be a raw surface

of over an eighth of an inch in diameter, to which _Calendula Cerate_

should be applied. The patient must keep quiet for a few days longer.

Though this is a painful operation, it is not in the slightest degree

dangerous. I have effected complete and permanent cures by this mode in

numerous instances.