[Granville-Hough] 31 Dec 2009 - Hemorrhoids - The Old Soldier's Disease

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Thu, 31 Dec 2009 09:07:06 -0800
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: The Old Soldier's Disease - 31 Dec 2009

     It started for me when we moved to Fullerton, now 40 years ago.  The
doctors just cut off the balls of blood in the burst blood veins and
allowed you to heal naturally.  It was a very mechanical procedure, very
easy but painful for those on the surface, but quite difficult and more
painful for those which formed at the interior entrance of the anus.
The doctors inserted a pipe which he rotated until the postule of
clotted blood appeared in an opening, then he inserted his scissors and
cut them off.  You did not feel too good for a day or two and walking or
sitting were painful.
     I began to think there was a better way.  First, keep the stool soft
and do not develop the problem.  Second, take steps every day for
applying lubricant to ease the passage of hard stool.  Third, use
cortisone cream to help with healing, something the doctors never
suggested.
     So, diet and fiber and liquid help with the first part.  I will not
go into that any further as I believe you understand it.
     Second, use inserts last thing at night, or any time there is a hard
bowel movement.  They are all basicly hard lard, and whatever kind works
best for you is the right kind.  Some I find tend to break in half, so I
learned to put cortisone cream on the end and sides before inserting
them.  It eases the problem of insertion and reduces the breaking.
     Third, is using cortisone cream to help with the healing of bleeding
places.
What you need to have for applying cortisone cream to a particular spot
is a gross of medium finger cots.  Any good drug store has them.
Cortisone is an external medicine, not to be used internally; however
the anus is a transition zone.  Anything you place in this zone will
become external in a few hours.  I have had much success using cortisone
on finger cots.
     Now, when I was at UCLA 14 years ago, I of course came home
constipated with a new set of blood clots.  My doctor looked at the
internal ones and said he would normally remove them mechanically; but,
as I was on coumadin, he would not touch them for fear he could not stop
the bleeding.  So, I went into self-treatment with finger cots and
cortisone.  It worked.  So, I can explain my routine for working on
those affected places and any extruded flesh.  I will omit those
details, but the whole process can be done without soiling any hands or
fingers.
       Now, why do I belabor what may seem obvious to you?  I can tell
you.  It is quite hard to do this sort of procedure for someone else.
But you can learn to do it very well for yourself.  And you should, for
you face the rest of your years having it (Old Soldier's Disease)
periodically.  The old
soldiers of the Union Army almost all had it, with the added aggravation
of much extruded flesh, which is called piles.  Their medical records are
replete with page after page descriptions of the disease, which, by the
way, was so
debilitating or disabling that it could gain an increase in pension
benefits.   I studied over a thousand of those records in doing
genealogical research.  So, this disease of the bowel movement came to
be known as the "Old Soldier's Disease."
     	When I was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer in November, 2006,
and went on Vidaza, I
had severe constipation.  None of my old remedies worked.  I asked the
most experienced nurse I knew in the doctor's office what to do.  She
said "Try MiraLAX," an over-the-counter version of Polyethylene Glycol
3350 in a soluble powder.  I have been using it ever since.  It
dissolves in milk or any other liquid and has no taste.  I have had no
more problems.
	Unless I have repeated myself, this is the 365th message of the year.
For some of you, the subject matter of this message is something you
would not talk about.  However, for those of you who have had bouts with
hemorrhoids it may be the most important message of the year.
     With love to all.  An Old Soldier with Afflictions and Experience.