So yesterday i locked myself out of my car and it was 10 below zero. I had a coat, hat, gloves, etc. However to reach my hidden spare key i had to take off one glove and feel around for a while. It took awhile but i eventually found it, got in my car and took off.
My hand was completely numb, then it started to hurt really bad. Today i woke up and my hand has felt like I burnt it, it’s also red and swollen.
Seems like a dumb question, but i have never had frostbite before (im assuming thats what it is), so will this subside, or should i seek medical help?
My degree of frostbite is nothing like those depicted on the Wiki article, I don’t have blisters, but i believe i do have some nerve damage in the tips of my fingers.
You may have a mild case, or perhaps you just sustained a bad case of ‘freezer burn’. The blisters may take awhile to develop, if it’s frostbite. I did it to both ears years ago. The treatment was to wait until the blisters went away, basically. That was at -60F. If it IS frostbite, your hands will be sensitive to cold and wind for many years to come. Nerve damage? Hard to believe from the exposure you described.
To me it sounds more like frostnip, which only damages the outermost layers of the skin. It generally causes a tender, tingling sensation on the skin, but there’s no actual danger and it subsides in a day or so. Frankly, the mere fact that you were able to sleep through the night suggests to me that it has to be a fairly mild case, as I’ve heard people say they were unable to even get any rest because of the pain involved in deeper frostbite.
I would guess a case of frostnip as well. When you have frostbite, touching the affected skin is like like touching a piece of frozen meat. That’s what if feels like because that’s what it is. If you had true frostbite you would not be able to type in your message. You would have dead skin, extreme pain, and loss of dexterity.
There’s really not much treatment after the fact for frostnip - if blisters develop keep them clean and protected. One thing you’ll possibly have to deal with is that the affected areas will be more susceptible to cold injuries in the future. You’ll need to take extra care next time.
About a million years ago, I was out playing golf. It was cool, not cold, and windy. The next day my hands hurt and I wondered if it was frostbite but nah…they were windburned. Have you tried some good moisturizer?
Windburn is a condition caused by exposure to strong and frequently cold winds for extended periods of time. Wind can remove the oils from the top oil layers of skin, creating chapped dry skin that feels hot or burned, and may appear red or swollen. Windburn can be confused with sunburn, and people may attribute “burned” skin on overcast days to wind rather than to sun.
I had “frostnip” on my feet many many years ago. In addition to swelling, redness, and enough pain to have me crying and moaning in a great deal of pain for several days, the skin split in several areas and most of the bottom of my toes and feet peeled off and were somewhere between tender and bloody.
If all you have is redness and tingling you had a close call - learn from it and wear gloves in the future. If blisters develop, or you get deep cracks, bleeding, or any other symptoms (in other words, if it doesn’t improve in a day or two) go see a doctor. You don’t want skin infections from this.
It feels like a burn because it is, in a way - both cold and heat can cause similar (though not identical) damage to tissues.
