How to Deal with Slowly Healing Flesh Wounds in Tropical Climates

As usual I try to avoid all synthetic chemicals anywhere near my body and started to experiment with all suggestions possible, short of antibiotically blasting my body (that batch remains safely in my drawer for emergencies). I also researched on the internet and found that wounds generally heal slower in such humid and tropical climates. Especially now in low tide season, where you swim in shallow ocean bath water heated up by the sun and teaming with bacterial life. The bay can even include sewerage runoff. Dip an open wound into that and you could be suffering for weeks. Or the bacteria in the warm, wet air will land on your open wound and begin to fester. Or a fly, which has come from who knows where, will land on the smallest mosquito bite and start a puss volcano more than a centimeter across. Locals seem more resilient to the bacteria, then again children can die from it and it has been a weeding out process over the millennia.

This is about a day after I started the pee treatment. It ate up almost all the puss and started sealing things up nicely.

I also learned that slow healing skin wounds relate to a weak immunity, for which reason I started pounding myself with vitamin C, zinc, raw veggies and fruits, or when I go out for red curry chicken soup, I'll fill it to the brim with my handy garlic, ginger and turmeric, sliced with always my handy pocket knife. It is also good to cut down on alcohol consumption, which generally weakens the immune system.

I tried teatree oil, aloe vera (so far only what pharma sells but apparently the real stuff, dripping from leaves on this island, works great), hydrogen peroxide, and every suggestion I came across. For a while the immune-building strategy seemed to be working, the wounds healing somewhat faster, and I found it was best to keep squeezing out the puss from under the scab, leaving the scab as a sort of bandaid, and sprinkle the wound with the yellow Banocin disinfectant powder.

All these wounds started from a small accident on the motorbike as I was driving 0km an hour. A few beers and I simply fell over, but the bumpy dirt driveway down to the beach can look entrancing in the dark. This small wound on my face grew to a puss bed I simply had to hide, puss oozing from it unbenkownts to me as I casually talked to someone in the bar.

That seemed to work somewhat, speeding up the healing a little, but then the weather turned to warmer and wetter and it seemed that my wounds started to grow. No matter what I did they grew incrementally larger, while a small scratch on my inside ankle cracked open as I walked until it was filled to the root with sweltering puss, growing larger, until one night I could barely walk, my foot was slightly swollen and a dark tinge was creeping up my leg veins. I used the hydrogen peroxide and iodine, layering with the antiseptic powder in intensive intervals, and managed to avoid going to a doctor, the swelling subsiding by morning.

But this was rather worrying me, when someone had suggested what others had mentioned to me a few times previously. Seemed a bit odd, experimented with it a bit but no serious consideration. But now with this situation getting increasingly out of control, I thought I'd give it another shot. And I have to say it has worked, by far, the best. The gaping crack on the inside of my ankle half-healed and sealed up within a mere 24 hours, while all other wounds shrinked to half their size during the same period. Using this natural ointment I found it was better to simply scrape off the scabs, once they got moist and soft, and attack the puss directly. I could see how the puss had taken root in the deeper skin under the scabs, and the ointment got rid of most roots by the next day. And what is this fantastic, absolutely green, free and readily available ointment? So readily available you don't even have to get off your seat to produce it? (Girls go ewwww!). Did I say green? Perhaps I should say yellow as, yes folks, your PEE. That stuff that many people claim is healthy to drink. What soldiers used to leak into their boots to disinfect and stop their feet from swelling into cankerous ligaments which may require amputation.

Yet another day after the shot above and it has healed substantially. Go pee go!

I won't try drinking it but I was desperate enough to try it on my skin and I'm glad I did. Just pee into a bowl and dabble onto wound with a moistened, folded up bit of toilet paper square. If it looks like the bacteria has taken deep and extensive root into your lower skin, you can wet a piece and tape it down with bandaid or electrical tape, keep it there all day or overnight, and replace it with more moisture when needed. Constantly soaked in your acidic juice the bacteria doesn't stand much of a chance. With a good veggie/fruit diet and vitamin supplements (try my delicious salad dressing!) a stronger immune system will definitely help fight from the inside, and might even make your pee stronger, as it fights from the outside.

But my learning did not stop there. I was winning the battle but in some places the fungus took good root in my flesh. Be aware of the water you drink as well. It can be a scarce commodity on this island and not very well treated. One Thai suggested Nestle's. Some of the local brands, especially the large white, 20 baht refillable ones, are apparently reverse osmosis with lots of bacteria in it. This comment forum has fantastic tips how to get rid of the rooted fungus. In short: calcium and hot peppers reduce your body's alkaline levels (site shows foods with different levels, from lemons and watermelon the lowest alkaline to coffee and beer the highest. Also a special note on how you can help regulate your ph as a professionally managed alcoholic!), to help it fight off bacteria and fungus. Vitamin D is supposed to help. The big pharmacy across from the main night market 711 in Thongsala didn't have chlorine dioxide or boric acid, but it did recommend Glycerin of Borax, which is supposed to be used "for the treatment of ulcerated and inflamed conditions of the mouth and throat". They also have apple cider vinegar, which is supposed to be a good fungus killer, and coconut oil. Unfortunately no oregano oil, which a slight amount put under your tongue will greatly help your system fight it from the inside out.

A minor shoulder wound kept growing until it developed a stretch of rooted fungus (pic below). The pee was taking too long to kill it so I taped a slice of garlic to it and turned it to soft and easily removable puss in only two hours.

As is the same with Colloidal Silver (put on wound and drink a little), which I also could not find on the island. Others suggested garlic and onion. I electrical taped a slice of garlic on a 1cm long fungus growth in my shoulder and in only two hours it was sizzled right down to wet and soft puss I could easily remove with a dry square of toilet paper. It revealed a deep and sore layer of dermis, so I immediately soothed that with a fresh, warm batch of pee and topped it off with some Noni oil (below). This wound was now on fast track to recovery. Or you can crush the garlic and onion and add pee, the glycerin of borax and whatever else suits your fancy to make a little powerful paste to kill those little buggers. With this approach it is important to take off scabs (once you've softened them up with your pee, for example) if you see yellow puss brewing underneath. You want to make your body's immune system strong, so that it can fight foreign bacteria from the inside, focus on your body's alkaline balance, while attacking the fungus from the outside. Don't let it fester in shelter under a scab later, otherwise it may take over you until you become a walking ball of puss. A local also highly suggested turmeric, which is supposed to have highly powerful healing qualities overall. Crush/grind it down and add it to your killer paste.

Lastly, once you get rid of the puss and fungus you can help your skin heal faster. The skin actually heals slower when puss or fungus is present because it is busy fighting off that foreign invasion. If it takes a long time to heal it could leave a darker mark, which may take time to disappear, but you can help the skin heal along the way, applying all the evil stuff directly to the fungus and the nice, helpful stuff to surrounding and possibly inflamed skin. Aloe Vera directly from the leaf was mentioned above (the pharma stuff is not so effective), or I was suggested Noni Massage Oil, which you can buy at the Ananda Wellness Resort a few kilometers south of Srithanu along the water. Seemed to heal weak skin at least twice as fast. Coconut oil is also good, and one even suggested olive oil, which can combat the fungus as coconut and the Noni oil does.

Details of the above suggestions are available on suggested olive oil, which can combat the fungus as coconut and the Noni oil does.

Details of the above suggestions are available on suggested olive oil, which can combat the fungus as coconut and the Noni oil does.

Details of the above suggestions are available on this page.