Sunday, May 15, 2011

Wet Cupping- Post 2

Today I performed something called wet cupping. I had a patient come in complaining of a blister he had on his back. I looked at it and immediately knew it was infected. I told him that I was going to perform wet cupping. Wet cupping is when you place a cup with a burning piece of wood over broken skin. The burning wood uses up all the oxygen creating a vacuum effect, drawing out all of the infected blood and pus in the blister. It worked quite well and the man left very happily.

8 comments:

  1. Request Accepted: thats really gross and detailed and as a poorly educated slave I respect that and was wondering if you could treat my blisters from rowing the triremes.Thanks your officially my BFF. No free man has ever bothered to care for me until now.

    Oracle Think Quest. Roman Society,http://library.thinkquest.org/26602/republic.htm, 15 May 2011

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  2. That sounds like it would be very effective, although I don't exactly know a bunch about medical stuff. But I was wondering if you knew anything about treating broken bones, since this is a common injury in the arena and it would be useful to know. How would you treat broken bones?

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  3. Citation for the above post:
    Kuhl, Jackson. “A Gladiator’s Graveyard.” Rome’s Gladiators, http://cobblestoneonline.net/display_article.asp, 2 May 2011.

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  4. First I would reset the bones. If it is a fracture it will heal up just fine, however if it is a big break, the reseting may hurt a bit. Then I would make a temporary and flexible splint out of some pliable wood. This would hold the bones in place until they healed again. If the bones are completely shattered, amputation may need to take place. I hope this helped and I would be glad to come over and help with this any time.

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  5. You seem well trained for your job, but you should try to find less painful ways of helping people. To have a burning piece of wood on your back for such a thing like a blister seems harsh. I'm sure if you work at it, you and your fellow doctors will find a way to helping others in less painful ways. Afterall, a fault I find in doctors is that they see everything as so simple yet to their patients it might seem complex, and as seeing it as so simple, they overlook the fact of how the patients will react to such treatments. If you need my help, please just ask!

    Shelton, Jo-Ann. As the Romans Did. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1988.

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  6. Dear Gaius Plinius Secundus, you are obviously very confused and don't know what you are talking about. In wet cupping, the wood is at the base of the cup and never touches the skin. I always explain what I am going to do for my patients before and actually do explain the simplicity of the procedure until they understand the simplicity as well. And an infected blister is very serious, as it is an opening for major diseases. The plague could easily set in, for example. Thank you for your suggestions, but please do not tell me that my ways are incorrect before you actually try them yourself or see the results. Thank you.

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  7. I think that your ways of helping people are great Andronicus Fructosis. You are helping many Romans, which are some of my people I love, with your procedures. You are helping save many people. I admire you for all you do to help the Romans.

    No Author. "History of Cleopatra." History World,http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=aa25, 18 May 2011.

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  8. This means very much to me, especially coming from you. Thank you very much, as I value your opinion a great deal.

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