If you can put a baggie or plastic wrap (gently!) over the blister that should provide protection.
If showering makes it burst it was likely to do so soon anyway, and there are certainly worse places than a shower for that to happen.
As noted, the best thing to do is to keep it dry and covered with a bandage, but given that it is on your hand and you’ll need to wash your hand sooner or later keep the water tepid, do not scrub, prod, poke, or otherwise [del]taunt happy fun ball[/del] annoy Mr. Blister, VERY gently pat dry if you can’t allow it to air dry.
If the blister is large, or extends over a joint, most definitely do see a doctor as soon as possible. If there are signs of infection, if the pain gets worse, or anything of the sort see a doctor. When it does finally burst, which it will, sooner or later, apply antibiotic ointment and cover with gauze/bandage. Keep it clean.
Blister means 2nd degree burn, those usually heal on their own just fine (although, as noted, if extensive or over a joint see a doctor). If there are areas around/near the blister that are grey or numb then DO see a doctor. Redness along with pain/soreness around a blister is normal for the circumstance, grey and/or numb is not and requires immediate medical attention.
I am not a doctor or nurse. If one of our trained medical types comes along with different advice follow their words, not mine.
I found the Saran suggestion very helpful, thanks for the input! I put it on carefully and showered gently, emerging with giant blister intact! Yay!
But through the course of the day, due to the blister extending across the entire back of my hand, I found whenever I made a fist or squeezed anything, the mighty blister would weep clear liquid! It never burst or split however. So I covered it with gauze as recommended and loosely wrapped a piece of paper towel round. Even went to sleep that way, it seemed to work really well!
But I awoke early this morning with a stinging hand with no covering and the skin shed, leaving tender and raw skin covering about half of the back of my hand! Yikes!
Time for polysporin and more gauze. When I undressed it to show hubby, a couple of hours later, I was very impressed at how much less angry it looked! Managing to keep the blister intact for almost a day, no doubt helped!
It ain’t pretty but I think it will be okay and heal up well from here on! Yay! Thanks for caring?
Wow, that’s a pretty extensive blister. Me, I’d go see a doctor about that, especially with it burst and such a large expanse of exposed, raw skin. VERY IMPORTANT that if you see ANY sign of infection whatsoever you see a doctor. Burned skin like that has lost its first line of protection against infection. Skin infections can be extremely serious, don’t take chances with one.
Meanwhile, keep it covered and protected. I wish you good luck and uneventful healing.
While I can’t speak to your particular situation, I would say that in general, larger blisters almost always tear on their own, so I think it’s better to make a small opening and let them drain. To some extent the fluid inside is filled with inflammatory debris, so it may even be preferable. I have not seen a consensus on this. When there is a lot of obviously damaged blister skin, it’s almost always debrided to minimize an infection nidus. For smaller blisters I don’t think it matters. If you can leave the blister skin mostly intact it will provide some protection, although many times it’s so thin it just won’t stay intact anyway.
A typical partial thickness burn that blisters is by default “infected” once the blister is no longer intact, and you will almost see redness and/or inflammatory drainage/fluid superficially along with red skin underneath. This redness should not extend beyond the margin and swelling should not extend deeply into the soft tissue beneath. Those signs would be cause for visiting a physician for advice.
Showering and soap are fine for any superficial skin injury. Re-dressing by covering with antibiotic ointment or cream is fine (many people are allergic to neomycin) along with a dry gauze dressing. I don’t like the idea of occlusive dressings like plastic films.
Burns heal well and almost always look crappy while they are healing. Deeper burns can stay sun-sensitive for a long time.
While general info on blisters is a factual questions, the OP also asks for experience, and since this is medically related anyway, it’s better suited to IMHO.
Moving thread from General Questions to In My Humble Opinion.
I knew when I rose today the dressing was going to be well and truly stuck to the wound, yikes. So I did most of my morning stuff and took a Tylenol before removing it. Ouch, ouch, ouch!
Called into the telenurse seeking better evening dressing suggestions. She recommended urgent care or emerg.
But hubby’s gone to work and the Dr is closer so I drop in and see a nurse. (Dr’s all off today!) again, seeking some advice on how to dress it. I should mention that it’s not pretty, and clearly as much skin again is going to come off in the near future, yikes!
She sent me upstairs to the walk in clinic to see a nurse practitioner. (So points to everyone who suggested a doctor!) She dressed it and gave me some no stick sterile gauzes. 16! Seemed a lot to me, but she said to change it often.
Because it on the back of my hand, nearly any movement of my fingers, thumb or fist causes it to crack and weep a little. With more ouch, of course.
So she said, go home and take it easy, try not to use it for a day, it might help with that. So while my hand is still a little ouchy, it’s sufficiently bandaged as to evoke plenty of sympathy, I get to layabout all day, and we’ll probably order in, for dinner. I think I’ll live.
