If you don't have any, run out and get some today

Action came home from school on Monday complaining that his fingers hurt.



Huh? Your fingers? Did you slam them in the door? Someone step on them on the bus? Tweek them on the playground?

None of those things?!



I looked at his thumb and first two fingers on his left hand. They were swollen, red and fevery between the first and second joint. I poked, jabbed and twisted his fingers, queried him about when they first started bothering him (Saturday night), and finally decided he had been bitten by something, probably a spider.


I decided to go to my "cure all".....the black magic........Ichthammol.


Dabbed a little black magic on a bandaid and wrapped each finger before he went to bed.


The voodoo did it's job and "pulled out" the fever and reduced the swelling by the next morning. His fingers are almost all healed.


You have to ask for it at the pharmacy counter. Some people call it draw-out salve. You don't need a prescription for it. I use it for infected cuts, splinters and insect bites. With summer upon us, I just restocked, at a whopping $2.50 per tube. I used a half-a-pea-sized amount, so one tube lasts a long time.


There are a couple of drawbacks......it will stain sheets, clothes and skin (Action's fingers looked bruised the first day after the bandaid came off, but it was just the ichthammol residue) so always use a bandaid. It smells like tar, but it's not strong.



Black magic, draw out salve........






......because who can say "Ichthammol" all the time?