How to Relieve Pain

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Feb 18, 1904

How to Relieve Pain

To relieve pain nothing equals ordinary applications of heat and moisture by means of fomentations to the painful area. The articles required for a fomentation are very few and simple. Any old flannel cloth, wrung out of hot water, and folded in a dry flannel or towel, will do, if nothing else is at hand.

But every home should be supplied with a set of fomentation cloths. Get two single blankets, one all wool, and the other half wool. Each blanket will make four fomentation cloths. The half-wool absorbs water readily, while the all-wool does not; so the half-wool blanket should be used to make the cloths to be wet, and the all-wool one for those that are to be used dry, in which the wet ones are to be folded.

The cloths should be folded to suit the part to be treated. For the spine, fold to six or eight inches in width; for the chest or for the stomach and bowels, fold once in each direction; for the stomach and liver, fold to three thicknesses in one direction, and one in the other.

The most convenient method of heating the fomentation in the home is by wringing the cloth out of either hot or cold water, and laying it on a hot cook stove, or in a steamer over a kettle of boiling water, until it is heated through. The fomentations can be prepared more quickly in this way than by any other method. The hot cloth should be folded in the dry one in such a manner that there will be one thickness of dry cloth between it and the patient's body when applied.

The fomentation should be replaced by one newly heated at intervals of three

to five minutes for a stimulating effect. The application should be very hot, frequently renewed, and continued not more than ten or fifteen minutes. Each application may be alternated with a short cold compress, or a piece of ice quickly rubbed over the surface, always ending with the cold. For a sedative effect, or the relief of pain, the application may be continued half an hour or more with benefit.—Australasian Good Health.