Yeah, I know it’s the wrong season to get what I think is a prickly heat rash, but that’s what it seems to be. What happened is that for a lot of stupid and non-entertaining reasons, I ended up shoveling snow for several hours with a nearly sodden thermal undershirt underneath a tight waterproof jacket.
I was plenty warm from the exercise, so I didn’t think I was risking a cold or anything, so I didn’t bother to go in and change, but I’m really paying for it now. It appears that every place the undershirt got bunched up or twisted tight under the jacket the long rubbing/exposure created what looks almost like a whiplash welts on my torso. As in, narrow but long strips where the skin is hot and raised and an angry looking red/purple in color. This skin isn’t obviously broken or blistered, but it seems to ‘weep’ a bit, keeping the welts moist, and whatever I wear over them gets stuck to them and then pulled free over and over all day – VERY painful. Just touching the strips makes me yip.
So, don’t do this boys and girls! When some idiot drops huge slush ball down your jacket, go inside and change! (After you kill the perpetrator, of course.)
Anyway, what I’m trying to figure out is the best way to soothe these strips. I can come up with several perhaps lame reasons for different treatments. For instance:
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Put some sort of ordinary ‘dry skin’ lotion on them. They soothe chapped hands, so maybe they’d help? OTOH, I tried two different lotions on two of my stripes and they BURNED so hellaciously I had to wash the goo off.
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Put something like vaseline over them. The thinking being, you put vaseline on babies butts when they get diaper rash, to protect the rash from urine and all. OTOH, in the case of a diaper rash, the idea is to keep the skin ‘dry’ and protected from an outside source of wetness. Since the welts seem to be creating their own moisture, won’t I just be sealing that under the vaseline, and I"ll end up making the rash worse?
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Just gently wash the stripes several times a day (To remove the crusty/sticky ooze), blot dry, and apply lots of talcom. This should absord the extra moisture, and alleviate the clothes-sticking-to-the-rash part of the. Problem: I tried it, and the powder seemed to combine with the oozing to make an even worse gooey mess atop the welts.
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Put something like Calamine lotion on them? I didn’t have any on hand or I’d have tried this, though I fear ending up iwth a bunch of blouses ruined with pink splotches.
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Some sort of medicated ointment? If so, which I kind? I’ve got benedry, but I always think of that for ‘itching’ and that’s not really the problem. I’ve also got a hydrocortsone cream, would that be useful?
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Simply suffer for my stupidity until things heal up on their own?
Anyone had any experience with this type of problem?