help!!!

[lalecl]

what is best and fastest to ease the pain of a burn? was cooking dinner and noticed a bowl when i went to move it the hard plastic had melted and needless to say stuck to my finger. i wiped but to late, it stuck.

i am so groggy from pain. finished cooking dinner with finger in ice water ate with my finger in ice water. typing with one hand. i am getting sick. not bad enough to go to doctor but my mind has literally drawn a blank, no aloe available. any ideas please... feels like my entire arm is in pain up to my shoulder

[JennLM]

I have had two bad burns from the kitchen. Both times I kept it in ice water, had ice packs for all night and the next morning. No scars n nothing and FAST healing. I was told ice really helps burns so keep it in ice water or ice on it as long as possible. Even very chilly cold water if ice is too much to deal with. The bubbles dissapeared on my hand and it went back to normal skin with white blister bubbles.

[Barbwire]

I wind fine to be a very effective kain piller.

[ASB.Immortality]

I wind fine to be a very effective kain piller.

Wind fine... I do believe it is doing you some serious good Barb. ;-)

[motorgypsy]

keep it on ice. Hope it's better soon. Burns are painful. You could spray it with solarcaine or some other topical pain killer also but I'd at least ask the pharmacist about what to use because some burns they don't want you to put anything on other than ice. I assume you got the plastic off it.

[lalecl]

I WISH I COULD SAY YES BUT ELLIS TOLD MEW TO LEAVE IT ALONE AT THE TIME oops sorry for the caps
he says keep it on ice and i have tried removing the plastic but skin comes too

[motorgypsy]

That is very likely why it hurt so badly. Overheated plastic produces toxic gases and it has cooked itself to your skin. Time to go to the doctor so he can deaden it and get the plastic off of it unless you want to try it yourself which if it hurts so much already doesn't seem like a good idea!!! But you need to get it off. You may have some concentrated lidocaine or a similar topical pain killer if you've ever had a really bad sorethroat. It's a clear gel and you mix a teaspoon in water and gargle with it. It totally numbs your throat. You might be able to use it to deaden the pain until you get the plastic off but be sure you boil the water and cool it covered so you don't introduce bacteria into the burn. You could surely go into one of the walkin clinics and get them to get the plastic off. Normal plastic isn't a problem but cooked into your flesh plastic is. So bite the bullet and get it fixed!!

[Linda Y]

Ice, ice ice.
If you have it, try Oragel or Chloraseptic for the pain. It doesn't last long but may help.
I think if the plastic is still stuck to it, you need to see a doctor. That sounds like a BAD burn and you sure don't want any infection setting in!

[lalecl]

hey ellis was right keeping it in the ice is causing it ti harden anc crack off in pieces

[motorgypsy]

That's good to hear but just be sure you get it all off. Your skin produces oils and fluids that should push it off but not necessarily. It depends on just how cooked the skin is.

[Ginger]

Chilled honey. NOTHING with an emollient (oil-based, be it corn oil, mineral oil, silicone, animal-shortening-based, etc. that feels "greasy" or does not mix with water. Old-timers used to put bacon or vaseline on burns- it smothers the tissue and inhibits unsavory anaerobic growth.)

Don't worry so much about removing the plastic just yet- when new tissue develops, the dermal cells which are attached to the plastic will slough away, carrying with it the plastic.

[motorgypsy]

Time to ask the doc about the plastic but it truly does go toxic at a certain temp and sounds like it was there. I have a neighbor who burns the stuff and I can't even breath out in the yard when she does. And at our demos held by the fire department they always stress just how toxic burning plastic and synthetics are. This is the reason they no longer make vinyl car seats. It gives off toxic fumes especially in the hot cars.

Don't know about the chilled honey. Sugardine is great for many wounds. I do know honey has some type of fungus, yeast, whatever, in it because they tell you now not to give it to babies - to use sugar or corn syrup or something similar instead for medicines and things if you have to give something sweet.

Ice is good though. If the water is sterile.

[pasofantasy]

I know, that for a while, people were being told to put ice on burns. More recently, I've been reading not to put ice on one, just cool running water or cool compresses.

One of my books, which is by an MD, says, that if it starts to become infected, apply honey in addition to other treatment, so Ginger's advice sounds good!

[Blair]

If the burn goes all of the way around a finger or limb then it is urgent to have it evaluated. Full thickness burns (through all layers of the skin)destroy the elasticity of the tissue and the resulting swelling will then be constricted in the limb or digit. If this happens it is an emergency - the pressure will constrict the blood flow and the treatment is an escharotomy (cutting open the damaged tissue to relieve the pressure). It takes a professional to know if the burn is full thickness. The fact that the plastic adhered to your finger means that the heat was held against your tissue longer and it may now be a full thickness burn (most contact burns are partial thickness because we do withdraw quickly).

If the finger hurts when you touch the burned area that may be a good sign (means the nerve cells were not destroyed and the burn may only be partial-thickness). However, the swelling is frequently the bigger pain cause. Elevate the hand and let the swelling be pulled out of the finger by gravity.

Unfortunately most of the home cures are not the best unless you know exactly what you are doing. Only one specific type of honey has been found to be effective (can't remember which at the moment). Many others (peroxide, betadine/iodine/etc are all damaging to the new tissue and the cells the body brings to the wound to get rid of the dead tissue). Sterile saline is fine and actually, we generally are ok with tap water washes and gentle soaps then bandaging with a dressing that maintains moisture and does not allow the wound to dry out. We do not generally use antibacterial soaps or topical antibiotics unless it is a high risk person (diabetes, etc) or unless the wound has too much bacteria. Local small burns are pretty clean. The only caveat is that the topical antibiotics do work well on fingers where it is hard to get other things to stick!

You may need to have some debridement (removal of the burned plastic and skin) but we frequently don't rush this. If a blister is intact then we may leave it until it pops then remove the dead skin.

Of course I must say that none of this should be construed as medical advice - see your doctor. However, I am the director of a wound and burn center and a wound specialist so I couldn't help chiming in on this one!

Good luck! Also, if you need a referral and PM me, I can look up your area and try to find you a wound specialist.

Blair

[Ginger]

Why were some of these messages between lalecl and pasofantasy deleted? Last night there was more information that might have helped others, this morning, it's gone.

[pasofantasy]

I don't see anything deleted from the board. I read a lot in chat, which disappeared as normal. There was another thread in which she thanked me. Maybe, you're thinking of it. Obviously, everyone isn't going to read a thread of gratitude and post to keep it at the top.

http://americanpasofinos.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8603

[Moniece Dickerson]

Hope your burn is feeling lots better real soon sweetie!Your friend,Moniece

[baileyholc]

kerosene also help with relieving burn pains. It drows the pain out of the burn. My mom uses mustard on her cooking burns. she just daps a little on the burn and it draws the pain away.