Burn Care

[Civet]

Since you guys were so helpful in the ear infection thread figured I'd start another one for my burn..

On Friday afternoon last week I believe I burned my hand, I was squeezing out a wash cloth and very hot water poured down the back of my hand. Unfortunately I was spazzed out on cold meds and ibuprofen and didn't really notice it was actually burned until Sat. evening, at which point I tried to put some hand lotion on it because I thought it was just dry and realized that it was quite red. I put some burn salve my roommate had on it and that seemed to help but then I read I shouldn't put stuff on it before seeing a doctor so I cleaned it off. The burn is from just above most of my knuckles down to my wrist, covering about 1/3 of the back of the hand (and unfortunately in between a couple of fingers, ugh).

When I went to the clinic on Sun. morning I showed them the hand, which they said was just a first degree burn and should be fine. They put some Bacitracin antibiotic on it with gauze and wrapped it and told me to do the same the next day, too.

So I did so, and this morning I'm finding there are some tiny bumps on my hand that weren't there before, and that the pain and itching is worse. I am wondering if this is the burn progressing or if this is more like a reaction to the antibiotic. Or perhaps it's just a reaction to getting rubbed with the gauze on it all the time?

I'm not sure if I should just leave it be or try to reapply that ointment again or keep it covered or what. The doctor said to keep it covered with antibiotic so it doesn't get infected but obviously if this is making it worse I don't want to continue to do this. I just put some of the ointment on but then thought the better of it and washed it off again because if it is an allergic reaction it's probably better not to put anything on it at all, right?

What do you guys think?

[adhocisadirtyword]

Oh gosh. The only thing I've ever found that has truly worked for a burn is white distilled vinegar. And I've had a lot of burns and tried a lot of remedies. This includes 2nd degree sunburns and plenty of cooking burns.

With that said, though, I would think the doctor would know better. It may be just the gauze, if it is rubbing against your skin. What if you put the Bacitracin on it and just didn't wrap it?

Does it still physically burn? As far as I know, that means the burn is getting worse - your skin is still "cooking." Again - the only thing that I've ever had stop that feeling is vinegar.

Never use lotion - that seals in the heat making it worse. Aloe is also not that great for it either - despite what most people believe.

[Sophist]

As long as you can keep it clean and out of harm's way, maybe keeping the gauze off it might help. If you're at all like me, my skin doesn't like "dark and damp"-- probably from buildup of bacterial growth, which then ends up irritating my skin (same reason I can't wear watches anymore, because the damp conditions the watch causes ends up giving me something akin to an allergic skin reaction: bumps, rash, and itching).

S'my two cents.

[ruth]

http://uuhsc.utah.edu/burncenter/treatment.html

I checked a couple of burn sites and this one is the most informative.

Hope your hand feels better soon.

[Civet]

Thanks for the responses, guys.

I've left it open to the air most of today without anything at all on it. I just put on some gauze a bit ago to see if it would be ok to use it for the night and only ten minutes later my skin started itching and flaring up again. So I guess the gauze rubbing on it is causing problems. I'm not sure if I should try putting the bacitracin back on just yet. I may just do a small area and see how it reacts but I don't want to leave it overnight if it's going to cause a problem so I may end up waiting until tomorrow to do so. Hopefully it'll be ok without anything until then.

[Sophist]

I hope it heals quickly now that you've figured out the gauze was causing problems.

[Civet]

Thanks, Sophist. I applied some of the Bacitracin earlier to see if it was also causing problems.. and while it made my skin feel better at first by getting rid of some of the dryness those little bumps started to return (and some still remain, ugh). Looks like my skin is just really sensitive in general right now.

[adhocisadirtyword]

I hope it starts getting better soon. Take care, Civet.

[Civet]

Thanks, adhoc, it is starting to look a bit better thankfully, despite my experimentations, heh.

[Aspen]

Thanks, Sophist. I applied some of the Bacitracin earlier to see if it was also causing problems.. and while it made my skin feel better at first by getting rid of some of the dryness those little bumps started to return (and some still remain, ugh). Looks like my skin is just really sensitive in general right now.

I wonder if you are allergic to the Bacitracin. I think Neosporin is similar to it, and I knew someone who was allergic to Neosporin.

[goddessoflubbock]

I've burned myself alot in the past, especially around my hands, due to lack of feeling. Most of mine were 2nd or 3rd degree but I've had a share of 1st degree, especially washing my hands.

I put burn cream on them but don't cover them. Sometimes I get the little raised bumps as it heals, along with itching. As long as the burning feeling is gone and there is no pus or bad smell you are on the path to healing. It's a real hassle because it's your hands...everything you do makes it hurt again!

You've had a tough week - I hope you get this all resolved and feel better soon!!!

[Sophist]

Thanks, Sophist. I applied some of the Bacitracin earlier to see if it was also causing problems.. and while it made my skin feel better at first by getting rid of some of the dryness those little bumps started to return (and some still remain, ugh). Looks like my skin is just really sensitive in general right now.

I wonder if you are allergic to the Bacitracin. I think Neosporin is similar to it, and I knew someone who was allergic to Neosporin.

Yeah, agree.

[Civet]

To the Bacitracin allergy- It's possible. The doctor told me she was giving me bacitracin rather than neosporin because I am allergic to sulfa (I'm really not sure what this is or what my reaction to it is, only that my parents always told me to tell them I'm allergic to that and penicillin). Apparently neosporin has a little bit of sulfa in it. I wonder if that is what your friend who is allergic to Neosporin is actually allergic to, Aspen. In any case I've always used Neosporin without problems, even with that small amount of sulfa in it.

When I got bitten by a tick this past summer, though, I had a bandaid over the spot to protect it. A few days later I developed a very odd shaped "rash" near the spot that was not the traditional target mark, but was painful and bothersome enough to question the doctor about. Apparently my skin had reacted to the chemicals in the bandaid's glue because it was made sensitive in that area from the tick bite. Never have I had this problem with bandaids before, nor has it happened again since then. They basically told me not to wear anything on the spot at all anymore and to give it warm soaks to get the redness, itching, and pain to go away, which eventually did indeed help. I kind of figured a similar thing was happening here with my hand, since the "rash" looked very similar.

Goddess- I understand very much what you're saying about the problem with lack of feeling because the reason I didn't attend to my burn was probably because 1. I wasn't quite in my "right mind" and 2. I was on prescription strength ibuprofen so I didn't really notice any pain at all until some time later. Sorry you have to deal with such things all the time . I tend to get overly panicked about things having to do with my hands because I'm an artist, especially since I've had hand and wrist problems in the past that still flare up off and on.

[Aspen]

I am also allergic to sulfa drugs, but I have not had any problems with Neosporin.

I have also had similar reactions to the adhesives in some Band-aids, with a rash where the adhesive touched my skin.

Was the gauze stretchy gauze with latex in it, or was it just plain cotton?

[Civet]

I think it was just cotton, I don't think it was an allergy to the gauze, just that the rubbing on the dry irritated skin was causing it to become more irritated.

I think I burned myself again : / . I need to be more careful with these washcloths I'm heating for my eyelids, I guess I should try using a heating pad instead. Now I have a red spot along my thumb this time! I saw that it got a little red before but only now hours later do I realize the mark is still there. Ugh. I'm a mess... I was cleaning snow and ice off my car earlier today and as I was spraying the deicer I was a little worried some of the fluid blew back into my right eye, so I rinsed it out thoroughly. My eye already irritated (the eyelid) and now there's a little white bump on the underside of the lid, too . I'm hoping this was already there and was just irritated and swelled or something by the rinsing, and not something more serious caused by the deicer fluid or something.