November 14, 2011

• Feeling the burn…

  I’ve had some pretty serious injuries in my life. Broken bones, torn muscles and other tissues, getting beaten up by pipes, bad knee, etc. I always thought I had a high tolerance for pain. Maybe a bit masochist, but I would wonder from time to time if I could survive torture.

  A few weeks ago, something happened to me and I realized that I wouldn’t be able to. While pouring boiling water from the kettle to another container, I accidentally poured some (a lot) on my other hand. It caught the first two fingers and thumb. It didn’t hurt too much right away, so I quickly let cold water run over it while I finished pouring the water. Usually, after any kind of burn, I would put toothpaste over it. The mint would keep it cool and sort of sooth the pain away. I usually use the Crest Mint toothpastes, but we ran out so I had to use the Sensodyne that was there. Not only was there no cooling affect, it hurt like hell, so I rinsed it off with the running cold water and asked Mrs. jigg to look up remedies online.

  It felt great with the cold water, but within 30 seconds of stopping this treatment, my fingers felt like they were on fire. I didn’t shower yet, so that was a real struggle. I knew any drop of hot water on it would shoot pain down my arm, so I had to be careful. After what felt like the longest shower I have ever taken, I put some aloe on it, as Mrs. jigg read off WebMD. Aloe worked only if I blew on it to cool it. After about 5 mind when it sort of dried, the burning pain came back.

  We had to catch our flight to San Francisco early in the morning, which meant we would only have a few hours of sleep. The pain was just too great. I began looking up home remedies. It suggested everything from toothpaste to honey, to sliced vegetables, to dripping hot wax! I took some Motrin and tried to sleep. After laying in pain for an hour, I took Mrs. jigg’s suggestion and made an ice water pack. I read somewhere not to use ice, so I filled up a ziplock bag with a combination of ice and water, put some Aquafor ointment (the medicated ointment I used for my tattoos) on it to keep it moist and just let the ice water pack sit on top of my hand as I tried to sleep. It worked and I knocked out–only to wake up about an hour later when the ice melted and the water was warming up.  I just tried to ignore it as much as possible and was thankful that the pain was now tolerable–almost like how a fresh tattoo feels like.

  Throughout the weekend, I just kept on putting on Aquafor and by the end of the trip, there was virtually no pain left.  The skin turned black and after a week or two, began peeling off.  It pretty much looks as good as new now.  I have been burned so many times cooking, but nothing can prepare you for this.  I wondered if there was going to be scarring or something.

  Anyway, have you ever had a serious burn?  If so, was there anything else that happened in your life that hurt more?

  • 9:05 am
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