burnt my finger with hot oil--scarring question added - Page 2

[**guest**]

Originally Posted by pixiesmommy

How about trying to put the gauze on it where it won't stick to the burn.....
Like maybe putting gauze in really thick layers AROUND the burn and then layering a piece on top of it so it is still protecting it, but there is an air pocket in between?

Like _ ______ _ if that makes any sense??
....._ burn _

ooooooooooh, that's a good one! i should have thoughg of that. it would have worked. thanks!

we are in a small community in the arctic, we don't have a walmart. i am worried our pharmacy might not even have decen gauze

now we woke up at 6AM, ds throwing up and feverish... that will be one nice trip to the pharmacy, i tell you. i have to go, i'm out of the shitty gauze pads as well, only one left. and DD was talking about her mother's helper coming with her to play...we might need to cancel, that would be awful for her, as dh just left for a week, and she has been talking non-stop about that girl coming over to play with her....:

[stacyann21]

Why not go into the doctor? This kind of thing is what they are good for

[polyhymnia]

I had a really bad burn once from a lawn mower manifold. I really, really, really recommend the burn bandages. Even a not-well-stocked drug store should have them. THe one in my town did.

It's sort of like this: http://www.spenco.com/product/704-mo...sp12nbspxnbsp2

Although the ones I got were kind of blue and prettier

Anyway, they don't stick to the wound, and you leave them on for longer. You don't have to take it off to reapply cream because it has creamy stuff in it, and it's a kind of protective bandage so the cream doesn't dry out as quickly.

After the initial healing period it is best to keep the burn exposed, or very loosely covered.

Good luck. My burn was very painful on days 3, 4, 5 as it was healing because I couldn't help but move my hand, which stretched out the newly healing skin and hurt

[kittynurse]

Honestly, if it were me, I would do whatever I could to get that burn looked at. Really bad burns can turn quite serious and get you into a whole lot more trouble.

Is there anyone at all that can help you with the kids? How old is the mother's helper? What about the mother's helper's parents? Tell them you're desperate. Or could the mother's helper go with you to the hospital?

At the very least you could show the burn to the pharmacist and get their opinion. Our pharmacist is quite helpful for stuff like that.

Sorry to be alarmist but I've seen some bad burns in my day that have taken a lot to heal, even *with* medical care.

[Jane]

I'm concerned with all the advice to put "stuff" into the burn. I can't tell from her description, but this could be a very very serious burn. It could be that the muscle is the only healthy layer left under the peeling skin, and she's to put yogurt onto the muscle? That's crazy, IMO. It needs to be examined by someone in person to figure out how deep.
Can you call the 24 hour nurse line?
This is your hand - if it heels slowly your life will be affected for too long. If it heals with a contracted scar, you could loose function.

[Kirsten]

I'd leave the kids with someone and go to the doctor. It is a bad burn on your hand! I'm sorry your dh is out of town, and ds is sick.... Rotten timing.

[momto l&a]

Originally Posted by Apricot

I'm concerned with all the advice to put "stuff" into the burn.
...
This is your hand - if it heels slowly your life will be affected for too long. If it heals with a contracted scar, you could loose function.

Honey is fine to put on open burn wounds. Studies have shown that burns treated with honey heal faster.
http://www.burnsurvivorsttw.org/honey1.html
http://www.jr2.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/bo...at/honey2.html

[Meiri]

For future reference, the FIRST thing you needed to do when the burn happened was to get the hand immersed in cold water. That would have started the cooling process and it might not have gotten quite so deep. I've been known to spend most of an evening with a burned finger in a cup of very cold water.

At this point, what are you seeing? What do you feel if you touch the spot? If it's painful, then it might not be so bad--second degree instead of third or more. If the exact area doesn't have feeling, then there's nerve damage right there and you really must see a doc. Those peripheral nerves can grow back over time.

I suggest, given that this is on your hand and we Need our hands, that you see a doc if at all possible. He/she will most likely prescribe Silvadene Cream (which does indeed contain silver) to prevent infection and help it to heal. You keep the Silvadene in the refrigerator, out of light!, and cover the wound once you've applied it. Besides working well, it feels heavenly going on cold.

Otherwise, I've had good result with Aloe vera for serious sunburns.

[**guest**]

thank you, everyone. a friend just brought non-stick gauze, it was the only thing she found in the pharmacy; they didn't have stuff for burns.

i don't think it is a very bad burn, as it is not very painful now. it is paiful when i peel the gause off, but after that it is fine. i AM worried about an infection, and i would have gone to the hospital or to the pharmacy to check it out just in case, but i have no one to leave the kids with, and besides DS is sick. there is no nurse line in our community.

ironically, my friend who brought the gauze is a pharmacist, but she had no time to look at it. her husband is an ER doctor. they stopped by, saw my screaming baby, dropped the gauze and promptly left. : they don't like being asked medical questions while they are off. it is a very small community, and this is understandable...

okay, off to peel this dressing off and put the new luxirious ones on.

oh, and if the pain is very minor, is it a good indication that the burn is not very serious? i hope so.

ania

[kittynurse]

Originally Posted by annabanana

ironically, my friend who brought the gauze is a pharmacist, but she had no time to look at it. her husband is an ER doctor. they stopped by, saw my screaming baby, dropped the gauze and promptly left. : they don't like being asked medical questions while they are off. it is a very small community, and this is understandable...

Wow, these are your friends? I'm so sorry, that really sucks. I wish I was closer so I could watch your kids for you. I can't believe that even in a tiny community a doctor wouldn't feel some sort of moral and professional obligation to at least look at your burn and say "go to the hospital". Heck, I'm only a veterinary technician but if one of my friends were injured I would never refuse to look at it.

I hope that the new gauze pads give you some relief. When I've treated wounds in the past I have given them a good soaking by holding them under a running tap with moderate spray. If you have one of those sprayers on your sink, that is even better.

[**guest**]

Originally Posted by kittynurse

Wow, these are your friends? I'm so sorry, that really sucks. I wish I was closer so I could watch your kids for you. I can't believe that even in a tiny community a doctor wouldn't feel some sort of moral and professional obligation to at least look at your burn and say "go to the hospital". Heck, I'm only a veterinary technician but if one of my friends were injured I would never refuse to look at it.

I hope that the new gauze pads give you some relief. When I've treated wounds in the past I have given them a good soaking by holding them under a running tap with moderate spray. If you have one of those sprayers on your sink, that is even better.

thanks for your kind words. i soaked and soaked, under a pretty strong stream, and still had to sort of pull it off, slowly. OUCH!!! the new gauze seems so smooth and shiny, no way it would stick! i am so relieved. i had to pull the old gauze off 3 times, and i was on the verge of blacking out -- not that much from the pain, though it was bad too, but mostly from the tension and the stress...

i think doctors in this community really try not to maintain social ties with the patients, and i was friends with his wife, so we are sort of friends, but new friends. they did ask MY dh for legal advice, and he spoke to them right away, and reassured and offered more help if needed. then i joked and said that now i could ask HER dh about my foot--which wasn't even a 'treat me' question, but a general question about post-surgery damage, and she said i could make an appointment with them. so different standards, i guess. which IS kind of sad...but she went to the pharmacy for me when i could not do it, and i had no one else to ask, so i appreciate it.

ania

[Meiri]

From what little I've gleaned from a new book that's out now about medical errors, one of the problems doctors can have is being Too Close to their patients. It's difficult to have to give bad news to a Friend, no? It's even more difficult I would guess to have to look for such bad news, so I can sort of see where your friends are coming from.

That's not how I'd handle it, not how a friend of mine who's a PA handles it, but, I can sort of understand. When you've got an intense job, you pretty much don't want to be continuing to do that job off the clock.

That said, if I were to have handled things that way back when I was medical, I surely wouldn't turn around and expect a lawyer to give advice off-the-clock.

If there's pain, then there're nerves, so that probably means the burn isn't horridly bad. That's the killer of those, the truly bad ones mostly don't hurt, while the relatively minor ones can hurt all out of proportion to their true seriousness.

[**guest**]

thanks. i'm more assured now that this is not terribly bad. i am lucky that it is all below the joint, i am sure it would have felt worse on the joint.

i do understand where he is coming from, not wanting to deal with anything medical when he is not working. but i do feel sad too, kind of abandoned, as he knew that with no one to leave the kids with and with one of them sick, and with the waiting time in the hospital likely to be hours, it would have been extraordinary difficult for me to go to see him or anyone else in the hospital, even if the burn was worse...oh well. thanks goodness the burn isn't worse, and now with the proper gauze i have a feeling it will start healing.

ania

[my3peanuts]

Originally Posted by annabanana

oh, and if the pain is very minor, is it a good indication that the burn is not very serious? i hope so.

It doesn't necessarily mean the burn is not bad. A lot of the worst kinds of burns don't hurt at all because the nerves have been damaged.

[**guest**]

ugh. the non sticky gauze is sooooo sliperry. the burn is just above my nuckle, on my index finger. the pad rides up. i've tried everything. except masking tape. i will try masking tape now. and it IS starting to hurt. someone said above it hurts the most on day 3 and 4. it also looks much redder than before.

polysporin says to apply it 1-3 day. is it bad to apply more? i skipped one application, used only breastmilk.

oh, should i wash it? or bm is enough?

ania

[SleepyMamaBear]

i say get yourself to a DR immediately.
take your kids with you. Drs do understand that situation.
aslo if you have a mothers helper that comes over to play with your DD, why cant she babysit?! do you have neighbors? friends? your husband???
you need to be seen by a medical professional.
often if you can see the burn and it doesnt look good, but cant feel it it means its BAD.
go.
dont wait.
go.

[**guest**]

Originally Posted by AddysMama

i say get yourself to a DR immediately.
take your kids with you. Drs do understand that situation.
aslo if you have a mothers helper that comes over to play with your DD, why cant she babysit?! do you have neighbors? friends? your husband???
you need to be seen by a medical professional.
often if you can see the burn and it doesnt look good, but cant feel it it means its BAD.
go.
dont wait.
go.

but it is really small though. like the size of a penny. and i do feel throbbing sometimes, and this is when i change the dressings.

my mother's helper is 11. she won't handle two kids. we are new to this town, and my best friend here, the one who is the pharmacist and whose dh is an md, tossed the gauze to me and ran. everyone is so busy. dh is away on business, coming back friday or saturday. if i were more convinced that it was BAD, i'd go with the kids. but i'd feel silly going through all of this, and putting the kids through this, just to be told that it is a minor thing to go home and put polysporin on it...

it is not oozing or anything. it doesn't seem to be deep.it is angry red, but i have been abusing it for 3 days with the sticky gauze. and it is sensitive to touch, it is not like i lost all the sensations there.

gosh, i wish it were easier. thank you so much for your concern. so appreciated.

ania

[Anastasiya]

Originally Posted by annabanana

ugh. the non sticky gauze is sooooo sliperry. the burn is just above my nuckle, on my index finger. the pad rides up. i've tried everything. except masking tape. i will try masking tape now. and it IS starting to hurt. someone said above it hurts the most on day 3 and 4. it also looks much redder than before.

polysporin says to apply it 1-3 day. is it bad to apply more? i skipped one application, used only breastmilk.

oh, should i wash it? or bm is enough?

ania

Can you get yourself some Telfa or a dressing pad - rather than gauze? You should apply the Telfa to the wound (it's a non stick pad) and then cover the Telfa with gauze and tape it in place if it slides around.

Hope you heal quickly! I had a second degree 4 by 2 inch burn on my forearm (arm touched the over door when reaching inside) and it healed quickly with Lansinoh lanolin. You know, the kind meant for breastfeeding mother's nipples? I didn't apply it till the next day so the lanolin wouldn't trap in the heat of the burn, but it worked well.

[**guest**]

Originally Posted by Sancta

Can you get yourself some Telfa or a dressing pad - rather than gauze? You should apply the Telfa to the wound (it's a non stick pad) and then cover the Telfa with gauze and tape it in place if it slides around.

Hope you heal quickly! I had a second degree 4 by 2 inch burn on my forearm (arm touched the over door when reaching inside) and it healed quickly with Lansinoh lanolin. You know, the kind meant for breastfeeding mother's nipples? I didn't apply it till the next day so the lanolin wouldn't trap in the heat of the burn, but it worked well.

this is what i got today, telfa. i guess i kept calling it non stick gauze.

i do have lanolin. it is long expired, but we still use it for dd's lips sometimes, and recently on my itchy nipples. i wonder if it go bad?

ouch, you had such a huge burn, compared to mine.

i find that in order to keep the pad from moving the gauze around it has to be pretty tight, and this is aggrevating too. right now ds woke up (3AM!! i wnet to bed at midnight.) and i feel it is throbing, despite being only 3h since i dressed it. i will try to keep it open tomorrow...sigh. such a little thing, seemingly, and so much trouble.

[Lady Lilya]

I got a bad burn on my arm a few months ago. I put it in cold water for a while right away. Then, I patted it dry and put on aloe and put on a bandage. Well, the next day, when I went to change the bandage, it was stuck. There was no way I was getting it off that wound. So, I took scissors and cut around it, leaving the stuck layer of gauze just where the wound was. I took away as much as I could without pulling it out of the wound. Then, I just put on more aloe and another bandage on top. Eventually, it healed from underneath and scabbed up and finally the scab (with layers of gauze embedded in it) fell off all at once.