Burn Blister Care

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Buffalo

Buffalo

Awesome Friend
Neighbor
Joined
Oct 25, 2022
Messages
293
Location
Central Nebraska/Northwest Kansas
Good Morning HCL family. Spent yesterday down at the homestead working with my wife and youngest son. It was quite the day. Turns out the fridge died since our last visit and with almost three weeks of constant 90 degree heat and several days of over 100+ heat, it was none too appetizing! My dear wife volunteered for the job of cleaning that mess up, while my youngest helped her haul bags of rotten meat and spoiled condiments out in trash bags. While they were doing that, I worked on getting the tractor started and running again. Installed the freshly rebuilt carb, put a new voltage regulator on, only to find that the old battery was a goner. We had it plugged into a maintainer, but I have a feeling that a power surge must have taken both the maintainer/battery and fridge out.
So the youngest and I hopped into the truck, dropped the trailer and made a mad dash to Colby, 45 miles away to get a new battery, then a 45 minute drive back. Installed new battery and presto, tractor fired up.

Took the tractor with the 8 foot shredder out to the orchard that was severely overgrown (4 and 5 foot tall weeds at this point in time), shredded for about 30 minutes or so and then the tractor started acting up, stumbling and such. Barely got it into the yard and she died. Went to checking connections, foolishly reached to check the generator connections and touched my hand against the exhaust manifold! I immediately said, "That's going to be a bad burn." Rinsed the burn with cool water, but it still blistered like crazy.

So now I have a blister the size of a quarter on my right hand, which of course is my dominant hand. I've got to try and protect and heal it as quickly as possible, so family, what are your tried and true burn blister care regimens? (And the blister is even bigger this morning, the picture was taken last night when I got home form the farm).
ouch!.jpg
 
I am not a doctor so take/use my advice at your own discretion. If that were on my hand I would poke a small hole on one end and let it drain, (I use a needle, use alchohol or the flame from a bic lighter to sterilize the point of the needle).......... then I would cover the area with some gauze and a dab of Neosporin (antibiotic ointment) over the injury. that will serve as a protective dressing hopefully to keeping you from hitting it on something and tearing it open. Burns are susceptible to infection, using the Neosporin will help guard against that and will promote healing. Change dressing and apply more ointment as needed.

Just my two cents.
 
Curmudgeon said:
I am not a doctor so take/use my advice at your own discretion. If that were on my hand I would poke a small hole on one end (I use a needle) and let it drain, then I would cover the area with some gauze and a dab of Neosporin over the injury. that will serve as a protective dressing hopefully to keeping you from hitting it on something and tearing it open. Burns are susceptible to infection, using the Neosporin will help guard against that and will promote healing. Change dressing and apply more ointment as needed.

Just my two cents.
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It's already started to weep from one end, so I am guessing that by the end of the day, it will be mostly drained on it's own accord. Thanks for your input and would never hold anyone on the internet responsible for health decisions I make for myself!

Now I just need to figure out the best way to bandage this so I can still work today and not get it dirty!
 
Buffalo said:
Now I just need to figure out the best way to bandage this so I can still work today and not get it dirty!
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Gauze pad over the wound. Tape it on running the tape between your thumb and fingers, then a strip around the hand across the top and over the gauze pad, wear a loose fitting glove over it.
 
Buffalo said:
It's already started to weep from one end, so I am guessing that by the end of the day, it will be mostly drained on it's own accord.
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Most likely, especially if you do some work and use the hand. At that point(once it's drained, just keep it clean and properly dressed for a few days to stave off infection.
 
Once it open to the air I'd use Neosporin or other antibiotic. I leave my skin inlace as long as possible but eventually I cut the dead skin away with small sharp scissors.
 
Aloe Vera is great for burns, might wanna put some of that on there before you put any antibiotic ointment on it... you can use both, no problem, but I'd go with the Aloe first and let it work into the burned area, then apply the ointment. Back in Coronado, we had several Aloe plants in the yard, and I'd routinely cut a "leaf" or "arm" off the succulent before treating a bad burn. I need to buy some Aloe Vera plants to put in my yard here, that stuff comes in handy... also works great for any kind of sunburn. You can buy Aloe Vera products in the store, I'd recommend the purest you can find. :cool:
 
Buffalo said:
Have kept it wrapped up with no stick dressing and whatever this self adhering athletic wrap is called. View attachment 114566
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Sorry I'm a little late: We have a metal fab. shop so deal with burns on a semiregular basis. This stuff soaks the sting out.
Also, on a side note: when my son was little he sorta caught the cat between the screen door and real door so the cat got him. Of course that was Fri. evening and couldn't get him in to dr. until Monday. I soaked it w/ epsom salt water then put iodex on it. Dr. said whatever I was doing to keep doing it because it looked better than most cat scratch (claw) injuries. Good stuff.

https://www.amazon.com/IODEX-Methyl-Salicylate-Ointment-Ounce/dp/B0011Z649Y
 
Drain it.
Soak brown paper in apple cider vinegar. (IT MUST be brown paper!"
Drape it over the wound.
Put a patch of gauze over it.
Wrap it like you got it.
change daily. it toughens and desensitizes the skin under the boil.
 
Years ago I received a severe burn from a small fire explosion in a smoker. Just keep it clean, dry and covered. What you did looks good. With my burn, they advised against any ointments.
 

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It hurt like hell. The night it happened, I couldn’t take my hands out of a bowl of ice water for more than a few seconds. The next day, the skin peeled off and I saw it was much worse than I thought. Hubby took me to urgent care. I got some silver infused bandages and they wrapped it real good. We had to change dressings twice a day. I couldn’t get them wet so Hubby had to help me shower and wash my hair. It was hard to cook without getting the bandages dirty. This went on for about 4-5 weeks. Going out in public was difficult. People would wonder what happened. The burn happened a day before I had a job interview so I had to delay the interview. When I did go in a few days later I kept getting asked if I was looking for the “outpatient wound care” unit. I’d tell them I was there for an interview. 🤣 I worked in the hospital lab and they wouldn’t let me tour the microbiology dept. I did eventually get the job and they held the position open for me until I healed. That was about 6 years ago. Now, the only reminder I have is that part of my hand does not tan.

Oops, duplicate post. I din’t see where to delete the first one, only edit it.
 

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Keep an eye out for infections. Skin keeps nasty bacteria out of our bodies. Now there's a big hole in your skin.... Infection risk is why they imbed silver in burn bandages, silver kills bacteria. If you have colloidal silver, just soak a regular bandage with it. Presto, silver embedded bandages!
 
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