I always hated that rediculous bit of wisdom from science teachers. Its not like Glass is unique in that regard. Unless you are talking about temperatures over 650 degrees many things look the exact same cold as hot. Steel, Iron, Copper, Brick, Stone, ceramic etc… And due to the heat transfer properties of metal, grabbing a hot steel rod is worse than grabbing a glass rod.
Or hot glue your fingers together…
The skin came off both fingers.
I’ve only had a serious burn once on my life, when I accidentally pressed my forearm up against a gas lamp. The skin turned dark purple and blistered pretty impressively over about two or three square inches. I treated it (with medical advice) by keeping it under a bandage with various aloe vera-related ointments for about a month. There was a noticeable scar for a few years, which has completely faded now.
The darndest thing, though, was that it didn’t hurt at all. Well, okay, it hurt like the dickens for a few seconds afterwards, but I ran it under cold water for a bit and there was pretty much no pain at all. My pain tolerance otherwise is pretty average, so I’ve always wondered if I zapped a few nerves while I was at it. The feeling is completely normal–no numbness or anything.
Microwaving a cup of coffee. Some of my cups stay cool while the liquid gets hot. Some of them heat up to about 15000 degrees.
Once one that I thought was cool wasn’t. I already had the cup halfway to the counter and the orderly part of my brain wouldn’t let me drop or throw the cup. I quickly put the cup on the counter without spilling anything. Lovely hard patches of skin on my fingers that eventually came off.
I did the exact same thing once. Grabbed a cast iron skillet by the handle after it had been in the oven.
So, after that I tried the put a pot holder on it trick. I took one of those oven mitts and put the mitt on the handle. Know what happened? It melted the inside of the oven mitt (not designed to be heat proof since it’s the inside).
After that I learned that the best thing to do is slightly dampen a dish towell and wrap that around the handle the minute you take it out of the oven. Saved me more than once, I’m sure.
Lately my thing has been burns with a hot flattening iron while doing my hair. I’ve burned myself so many times that my husband is beginning to think I’m doing it on purpose and that I have a psychological problem. Did it again just this morning. I only brushed the thing with my fore arm. :mad:
Good luck with your healing.
My particular brainfart occurred when I was baking a lasagna. I pulled the rack out a little and took off the aluminum foil I was using to cover the lasagna. Random distraction occurs and thinking the foil in my hand was a potholder I pushed the rack back in. Yeowww! Big blister on my finger. It felt better as long as I kept some pressure on it.
I use my pizza stone all the time and I forget not that the stone is hot, but that the rest of the inside of the oven is 500 degrees hot metal as well. I’m always bumping my hands on other parts of the oven when I put the stone in or take it out. Last time my mom was visiting she took one look at my hands and went out to Target to get me some oven mittens. So now I’m safe.
Until I used my curling iron yesterday and pressed my thumb into the hot metal. I had to go to the freezer and squeeze a pork loin. Fuck.
So now I’m a FUCKING MORON?
You’re not the only one…
Joe
My old boss when I was working in a kitchen had his own theory about fixing burns and cuts. He would immediately run the burn or cut under HOT NEAR BOILING FUCKING WATER to “kill the nerves.” Then he’d take a bout four shots of tequila, wrap it up and get back to work.
People where I work (c-store) microwave their burritos for like 3 minutes, in a VERY powerful microwave. They’re always amazed that I can just pick them up and scan them through the register. I think it embarrasses some of the more macho guys - “I have to daintily hold it by the corner of the wrapper, but this fat bastard just grabs it by the balls and handles it!” The secret is knowing how hot is too hot - will it burn me, or just hurt if I keep holding it? If just hurt, than keep holding it, because pain is just pain. If it will burn me, drop it.
Joe
Yikes!
I have done the exact same thing before. (Must be a South Carolina thing.)
For me, the pain was compounded by knowing that I was a total idiot for letting that happen.
It’s the same sort of autopilot thing as when the electricity’s gone out and yet you still flip light switches periodically.
Sorry you hurt yourself, but that part sounded dirty and made me giggle. Evidently I’m ten years old.
Re: burns are the worst.
Does anyone else ever think of Joan of Arc when you’re about to knock yourself unconscious with an anvil just to get some reprieve from the pain of a minor one degree burn over a 3 inch area of skin?
I always do.
Does it still hurt? I’d imagine that the physical pain goes away, but burned skin often looks so stretched and uncomfortable. Is it?
Joe
I took a hotdog off of a METAL hotdog roasting stick with my FINGERS once. I grasped the metal to slide the hotdog off and onto the bun. Unfortunately, the metal was red friggin lava hot, and I had two perfectly uniform blisters on my thumb and forefinger for a week or so. That sucked.
I have to repeat this and it has been mentioned up thread, aloe. I have a big plump aloe plant and the gel is near miraculous in the way it reduces minor kitchen burns and scalds to nothing. My two kids have started to cook, getting quite comfortable with the gas range and oven, but no way will I let them cook unattended, the kitchen is a dangerous place to have fun!
sorry 'bout the burn.
Well, I was waiting for my man to show up and take me to the ER, and no way in hell was I going to to back in there to finish dinner first. Might as well sit down with my bowl of cold water and bitch about it, right?
I let Himself patch me up and pour everything from Walgreens that said “burn” on it on me, and this morning it was much better. Very stiff and somewhat painful if touched, but the blisters didn’t rise (I believe the skin there is detached, but no fluid) and everything looks much, much better. No Johnny Tremain action, in other words. I believe I’ve lost my pinky fingerprint, though, and some sensation in that fingertip.
It’s just incredibly annoying now - I’ve got those gel bandages on my finger and then they’re gauzed up and then gauzed together, mostly so I don’t forget and try to use them, and it’s like having half of my hand replaced with a flipper. I went running this morning and really thought I was going to have to have Himself come get me out of my sports bra afterwards - I almost strangled myself. Everything is just twenty times more irritating. Didn’t think last night and clapped my hands to get my deaf dog to come in - oh JESUS I thought I was going to die right then and there. Won’t be doing that again.
But dinner was FANTASTIC. I don’t even like pork, but I found this recipe that looked really good, and it was indeed awesome, even kind of cold. We kept wondering if that delicious pork smell was it or me, though.
Not many, many times. But a few.
And the glass looks like honey, and it takes screaming “DO NOT TOUCH in my head over and over again” to stop from just reaching out and budging it a smidge when it starts to not quite do what you want it to do. I managed to avoid the glass. But sometimes I forgot that the rod was hot too.
That hurt.
Um, glad this works for you, but what a terrible idea. I worked in a kitchen for four years, and we always used kitchen hand towels as potholders. You learned very quickly that nothing is more painful than picking up a hot pan with a wet towel. The towel basically becomes solid boiling water. The worst burn I ever got in the kitchen was from going to pull something out of the oven and mistaking my ‘wet’ towel for my ‘dry’ one.
so, while I realize you say you only “slightly” dampen, the risk of overwetting seems too high to me. Buy a silicon potholder and call it a day. FWIW, i found that putting the pan handle facing away from me on the stove forces me to think about why I would do something that stupid, triggering the “oh, yeah, cause it’s hot as holy fuck” lightbulb.
It was caramel on top, and charcoal on the bottom.