319. In piles, the patient ought to live on a plain, nourishing, simple diet, but should avoid all stimulants; any food or beverage that will inflame the blood will likewise inflame the piles.
320. Piles in pregnancy are frequently troublesome, and sometimes resist all treatment until the patient is confined, when they generally get well of themselves; but still the remedies recommended above will usually afford great relief, even if they do not effect a cure.
321. Swollen legs from enlarged veins (varicose veins).—The veins are frequently much enlarged and distended, causing the legs to be greatly swollen and very painful, preventing the patient from taking proper walking exercise. Swollen legs are owing to the pressure of the womb upon the blood-vessels above. Women who have had large families are more liable to varicose veins than others. If a lady marry late in life, or if she be very heavy in her pregnancy—carrying the child low down—she is more likely to have the veins to distend.
322. The best plan will be for her to wear an elastic silk stocking,[[65]] which ought to be made on purpose for her, in order that it may properly fit the leg and foot. It will draw on like a common stocking. She ought to wear a gauze stocking next the skin, and the elastic stocking over it, as the gauze stocking can then, from time to time, be washed, as can likewise the foot and leg. Moreover, the gauze stocking will be more comfortable next the skin than the elastic stocking.
323. If the varicose veins should be very painful, she had better apply to a medical man, as it may be necessary, in such a case, to have them enveloped in mild plasters, and then rolled.
324. If the feet and legs be cold as well as swollen, a domette[[66]] bandage, two inches and a half wide and eight yards long, nicely applied to each leg, from the toes to the knee, will be found a great comfort. One great advantage that domette has over calico is that it will keep in its place for days, while calico will be loose in an hour or two.
325. Stretching of the skin of the belly is frequently, especially in a first pregnancy, distressing, from the soreness it causes. The best remedy is to rub the bowels, every night and morning, with warm camphorated oil, and to apply a broad flannel belt, which should be put on moderately but comfortably tight. The belt ought to be secured in its situation by means of properly adjusted tapes.
326. If the skin of the belly, from the violent stretching, be cracked, the patient had better dress the part affected, every night and morning, with equal parts of simple cerate and of lard—lard without salt—well mixed together, spread on lint; which ought to be kept in its place by means of a broad bandage, similar to the one used in confinements, and which is described in a subsequent paragraph (Bandage after Confinements).
321. Pendulous belly.—A lady sometimes, from being at these times unusually large, suffers severely; so much so, that she cannot, without experiencing great inconvenience, move about. This, where a patient is stout, and where she has had a large family of children, is more likely to occur, and especially if she has neglected proper bandaging after her previous confinements.
328. She ought in such a case to procure, from a surgical-instrument-maker, an elastic abdominal belt, made purposely for pendulous bellies, which will, without unduly pressing on the belly, be a support. It is a good plan to have the belt made either to lace behind or with straps and buckles, in order to accommodate the belly to its gradually increasing size.