Carbuncles, boils and boils Oh my God!
DO NOT SQUEEZE A BOIL. Yeah, it looks like a giant pimple and it’s red and hot and it has a head. Don’t squeeze it. It is a transmissible staph infection that you do not want to carry into your bloodstream. A Carbuncle is a boil with two or more heads and a Furuncle is a boil with one head. They will all be treated here as just FUNCOS. A boil is NOT an acne pimple. DO NOT treat it like an acne pimple.
Whenever you deal with the boil, wear disposable rubber gloves. Wash some rags with hot water and bleach. Use them or paper towels, toilet paper, gauze or cotton squares. Everything must be clean and cleaned after. Everything must be discarded.
With clean disposable rags, make warm compresses. Just put the rags in hot water and wring them out. Keep a compress on the boil until the cloth cools. Do this several times a day until the boil comes to a head. You will see a green or yellow dot in the middle. The boil will be hot and painful. It can turn the skin red, yellow, gray, or even green. DO NOT select the head or the point in the middle.
Apply OTC Ichthammol 20% to the boiling point. If your pharmacy doesn’t have it, you can order it online. The price is about $6. It is also called Black Ointment or Black Drawing Salve. Use a disposable implement to apply it: a tongue depressor, the back of a plastic spoon, a plastic knife, or a gloved finger. Apply fairly thick in the center and then bandage to keep the black off your clothing. Discard tools and gloves.
Some doctors recommend leaving the boil open to air to dry. I prefer to cover it with a bandage or gauze pad taped on. If you pop the boil, the pus will not stain your clothes or other people. A good gauze pad can cushion the boil against discomfort from clothing or just everyday life. If the boil oozes, it will stick to the bandage. This is good. When you tear the bandage, the head of the boil will stick to the bandage. This will open the boil so you can clean it out.
When you are ready to clean the boil, wear disposable gloves and have plenty of disposable rags or tissues, etc. Have plastic bags to dispose of all contaminated material. You are dealing with something highly contagious. Look at the boil and how it builds up. Go to the edge of the boil where the skin is still flat. With a tissue over your fingers, press down and OUT, away from the center of the boil. This is different from how a pimple is treated. DO NOT press IN. Pressing could push the infection deeper into your body. Squeeze. If nothing happens, leave him alone. Put on a warm compress; delete it; and then sell.
Eventually when you press down and out the head will split open and pus will come out. Clean it with toilet paper or tissue. Look at the pus. What you’re looking for is a hard tissue core. It can be white, red or green. It may look flat at the top and taper to a point like a cone. It may not come out the first time you clean the boil. After pressing on one side of the boil, move your fingers perpendicular to the position they were in and press down and out again. This will be very painful for the “victim”, so be gentle. Eventually no more pus will come out. Clean the area and the bandage. Place all contaminated paper and gloves in a plastic bag to tie up and dispose of.
The next day, do the same. You may have more pus than the day before. When the hard tissue core comes out, you’ll feel rewarded knowing you’re on the road to recovery. The boil will drain more easily after the core comes out.
Each day continues with hot compresses, pressing OUT, and bandaging. Any time the pus comes in contact with something that is not disposable, clean the area or item with Clorox. Some people advocate putting a drop of Clorox on the bandage to kill germs. I don’t usually do this because it can sting.
Eventually no more pus will come out. Keep the area bandaged until all the crying is over and the boil heals.
Towels, cloths, sheets, pajamas, etc. used by the patient should not be shared and should be changed and washed daily in hot water with Clorox. It is better to take a shower than a bath. If the boil burst in the tub, the pus would go into the water. With a shower, the pus would be washed away with the flow of the water. After a shower, the shower floor should be sprayed with Clorox. Rubber shower mats can be machine washed with hot water and Clorox. Strict hygiene measures must be followed to prevent the spread of boils to other areas of the body and to family members.
Boosting your immune system with additional vitamin C can help prevent and cure a boil. Some people believe that Echinacea and Golden Seal supplements act as natural antibiotics. Pregnant or lactating women should not take Golden Seal, nor should people with high blood pressure, kidney or liver problems.
