Got a small penny sized burn on my hand from a hot pot lid. Blister appeared the next morning. Still there three days later.
Should I drain it with a needle? I’d Clean the needle and skin first in alcohol.
Or will the blister go down on its own? Seems like they always pop and drain no matter what. I’ve always wondered if they would disappear without popping.
All my entire life I’ve heard “DO NOT POP the blister, it will reabsorb and go away by itself”. I would wrap it loosely in gauze so as to resist that overpowering urge to prick it.
Nope, if you don’t pop that fucker it’ll stay on your hand forever. You’ll be stuck with it. That’ll be it.
Mine have always gone down. They’ve either gone down or burst (and I’ve had bad experiences with burst ones…I’m pretty sure I’ve posted pics of my super-duper swollen ankle after a burst blister got infected once).
Just swab it with rubbing alcohol and wrap it in something. Should be fine.
Even if the needle is clean, you’re still opening it up to a chance of infection. So at least wash it twice a day and keep it covered- put a dab of Polysporin or Vaseline on the bandaid or whatever to keep it from sticking and help it heal better, whether you pop it yourself or it pops on its own.
I don’t think I’ve ever not popped a blister. None of my appendages have gone gangrenous yet.
I’ve never popped a blister on purpose. I’ve gotten dozens throughout the years from things like sharpening pencils, cooking burns, walking in shoes that didn’t fit, etc. They’ve always gone down after a couple of days and then reabsorb, you can never tell there’s been a blister in any of the spots.
Echoing what other people have said, I’ve been told to never pop a blister. I never wanted to, because I heard it would hurt. The only time I ever (accidentally) popped a blister was after some rounds of laser tag where I was shooting the trigger so much the friction created a blister. I didn’t even mean to, it was a blonde moment of “What is this bump on my finger? pick pick POP OWWwwwwww! :(”
Get some of this stuff(or similar). Make a donut with the hole the size of the blister.
If at all possible, do not pop, you’re inviting infection.
The skin protects the raw flesh underneath.
Eventually the skin under the blister heals and the skin over the blister itself peals away like a sunburn after that.
I’ll see how things progress. The burn is on the pinkie side of my hand near the wrist. That area doesn’t get bumped very often. May be the first blister I’ve had that doesn’t pop open on its own. 
I’ve had one blister in my life that I didn’t pop. And when the skin under the blister healed, the old skin did indeed peel off over the course of a couple of days.
The risk of popping on its own is the main reason to consider “popping” a blister. It is better to do it yourself than to have it rupture on its own. You can do it in a more sanitary way with less damage to the protecting skin.
Or so I was always taught.
I have never had the patients to wait on a blister. The blister is always in a critical area that will continue to be stressed so I need a proactive plan. I use alcohol on the needle and pop it in several places and drain it. Then I put tape over it and continue to put the stress back on it. After the area has settled down for a couple days or sooner, I cut that skin off. That raised skin is not coming back anyway.
I’ve always drained it if there’s any chance that spot is going to get a lot of friction during the healing process and the blister is very raised. I clean the surface of the skin and a needle, then go in at the margin of the blister near where it meets the skin, and gently push the blister towards the newly-created hole to try to drain out most of the fluid. If there’s a pocket left that doesn’t seem to want to drain, I poke another hole at the margin near that area, and repeat with trying to drain it. Then more cleaning around the holes, and a bandaid over top for a day or so, to keep it protected while the skin is still vulnerable there. Eventually you end up removing the skin on top as it fully heals.
I wore a pair of shoes a couple of weeks ago that I hadn’t worn in a while and promptly got blisters on both heels.
One of them tore open and the other did not. I covered both with those blister pads for a few days.
Now, two weeks later, the one that didn’t pop is totally healed, doesn’t hurt at all. The one that tore open is still ouchy.
So, I suspect that leaving it alone will actually allow it to heal better.
Not finding a definitive answer here or anywhere else over a week ago, I decided to find out for myself.
On Friday, December 18, 2015, I reached into the microwave oven for a ceramic mug filled with boiling water. Although I’ve done so hundreds of times in the past at home without incident, there was something strange about the glaze on this particular Chinese-made “Starbucks” mug a a friend’s house, as it instantly caused a second-degree burn on the side of my right hand ring finger where it had pressed against the handle loop. It startled me so badly that I jerked my arm back, which caused boiling water to splash onto my hand, causing additional first degree burns. Within an hour, a large, painful blister had formed on the finger. 
I did consider draining the blister after three or four days, but then thought, if I were careful and kept it wrapped with an adhesive bandage and change the bandage every other day, there was a chance I could keep the blister intact. I succeeded in doing so, and today, December 28, 2015, I’ve removed the bandage and the blister has shrunk to the point of being essentially gone. There is clearly a layer of dead skin that will need to wear away, or that I may need to trim away with scissors once it tears, but the tenderness in the area is pretty much gone, telling me that the skin under the blister has fully regenerated.
So, the answer is, “yes”, blisters do go away on their own, and it takes about ten days if they’re protected against damage. 