Last night, I had a small grease fire on the stove and in a panic, I decided to try and get the flaming frying pan out of the house. In the process of carrying the pan to the door, the flames were licking at my hand and I got a nasty third degree burn along the side of my index finger.
I went to the emergency room and got a tetanus shot and they gave me some silver sulfadiazine cream and put a bandage on it. They told me to expect it to hurt like hell for a day or two and that it would blister and eventually the skin will come off. The doctor didn’t seem concerned that I’d need any kind of surgery or skin grafts, although there was a small chance of that happening and a small chance of infection.
Now, I have this gigantic blister along most of the length of my finger.
How long should I expect this blister to last before it opens up? It’s huge and preventing me from bending my finger and it hurts if I try to do anything with my hand that involves bending my finger.
Anyone have any experience with this type of burn? What should I expect?
The blister will probably pop within a couple of days, if you’re using that hand regularly. That’s okay, but you shouldn’t try to pop it yourself. If it does pop, use the silvadene and gauze and keep it covered and moist until it heals, which should be within 2 weeks. Signs of infection are increasing pain, swelling, and warmth to th touch.
That sure doesn’t sound like a third degree burn to me. A third degree burn is “Hard, leather-like eschar, purple fluid, no sensation (insensate)”. What you have there is a second degree burn “Blisters, clear fluid, and pain”. Which is a good thing. In a third degree burn you will have burned through the skin and started to damage the muscle, bone and other underlying structures.
I’ve had second degree burns several times. You should expect 3-5 days with much the same symptoms as you have now. Try and keep the blister from popping. And if it does pop, try and keep the skin flap from the blister in place. Although it will probably slough off eventually, it is a nice natural bandage. Use a burn ointment to encourage healing and keep it wrapped in gauze. This will protect the burn and absorb any weeping. The direct pain should mostly subside within 5 days. But it will likely continue to be sensitive for a couple of weeks.
I scalded the heck out of my right hand and arm about two months ago (much worse than yours in terms of area.) Wasn’t a third-degree burn, but some pretty nasty second-degree ones. I got away with no need for grafts and perhaps only a small infection that was knocked down right away with Keflex. Anyway, expect it eventually pop. Wash it carefully in the shower with antibacterial soap unless your doctor directed otherwise. Keep the silvadene and a dressing on it at all times. My experience was that when the wounds were undressed (especially once the blisters popped) and started drying out that it really, really hurt on exposure to air. Reapplying the silvadene and the dressing helped. That said, I found that once the blisters on my hand had popped that switching to a non-stick gauze pad helped a lot with drying the wound out without pain. Expect it to hurt a lot during dressing changes if the gauze sticks at all.
Actually, you don’t want to dry the wound out. Wounds heal better, faster, and with less infection and scarring if kept covered and moist, instead of dry and scabby. The silvadene should keep the gauze moist and non-stick, but you can always use Vaseline or Aquaphor, as well. And wash it, changing the dressing, twice a day.
I should have mentioned that this was several weeks in after the blisters had popped and was on the advice of my doctor. It wasn’t really an intentional effect (she did want me to leave the area open for a while when sitting quietly) but one that just happened. It dried up like that even with silvadene applied liberally.
Actually, it was a nurse that described it as third degree, and now that I’ve researched it, I get the feeling he wasn’t 100% sure of what he was talking about.
I’m supposed to keep it wrapped in gauze and coated with the ointment, changing it twice a day (as Alice The Goon seems to agree with.
I was just concerned because the blister is now almost as big as my finger…like the finger’s doubled in size. As of the last cleaning/changing of the gauze, it didn’t seem to be under pressure or in danger of bursting violently. But it seems to be stretching the skin on the unburned side of the finger which is causing more “discomfort”.
It’s possible that a small part of it is third degree. Charring isn’t necessarily required (IIRC) but it would have damaged the nerves there - so if there’s a part of that burn that doesn’t hurt (which can be hard to tell with the rest of it hurting), that might be third.
If the blister doesn’t pop, the fluid inside (lymph, mostly, IIRC) will be reabsorbed back into your body.
I did a similiar thing. Thank God I didnt SPILL that large pot of burning oil, probably woulda burned down the house.
Its gonna keep hurting pretty good for awhile. And the blister is gonna get HUGE. The longer you can baby that blister before it eventually burst the better it will be. Thats because the skin layer under that is healing. When the blister burst, you’ll have something besides nice fluid rubbing up against that raw layer. The less raw it is the better. I’d just splint the finger and not use that hand if at all possible.
The good news is, after over 20 years, I recently finally found out something worse than such a burn. Sunburned eyeballs. That was BAD.
Actually, a little oil did splash out of the pan (away from me thank God) and set the carpet on fire, but it flared up and went out immediately leaving a nasty hole in the carpet. It was an extra piece of carpet that I had laid out at the entrance to the laundry room, so it’s no big loss, but it could’ve been a lot worse if I’d panicked and dropped the whole thing.
After the blister bursts and the skin layer sloughs off, try coating the burn area with a honey-impregnated bandage, honey is inherently antibacterial, contains 0.1% Hydrogen Peroxide, and has been used for ages as a natural first-aid ointment
Four days ago, I gave myself a pretty nasty cut with my razor-sharp Spyderco Manix pocketknife while whittling a stick, thanks to the extreme sharpness of the blade, the cut was surgically clean, pain was minimal, I initially held the edges of the cut closed with dermabond (surgical superglue) and bandaged the cut to protect the dermabond, the next day, I cleaned the cut, and applied honey (raw local honey) to another bandage, and applied the bandage to the cut
It’s been about four days, the cut has healed up at least 50% already, and there are so far no signs of scarring, if there is to be scarring, it’ll be minimal at worst
Yes, this would be nice if he was in the Middle ages or out in the middle of no-where, where honey could be an adequate substitute if there was nothing better. :rolleyes:
There’s better stuff here now. He should use it.
And before we get someone suggesting aloe, that’s not bad for 1st degree burns, not here.
Hijack: next time you have a grease fire, instead of carrying the flaming pan around and run the risk of spilling, I’d recomment simply putting a lid on it, which will cut off the oxygen quickly.
But I highly congratulate you for suppressing the instinctive urge to fight fire with water - which would have made for a nice explosion and fire ball. Then you would have a lot more burns, and need a new kitchen, so good thinking.
Its easy to panic when you see the flames and think DO SOMETHING NOW. I know
Carrying the thing around is NOT the thing to do. Like you said, cover it with something. And you actually have some time to find something to do that with. Lid, a bigger pot or lid, a cookie sheet or pan…don’t panic yet, find something to cover it first.
Also, besides water, be DARN careful with a fire extinquisher. Its easy for that blasting exhaust to just spray the burning oil all over the place, which is about as bad spilling it or throwing water on it.
IMO, if your gonna use the extinquisher, you should have tried the cover thing first. If it hasnt worked, its probably at least greatly reduced the flames, and will reduce the chance of you blowing burning oil all over the place.
I also seem to recall from my middle school days that you can smother grease fires with baking soda, as well as a lid or cover. Is this still good advice?
A good idea is to have something next to the stove for grease fires… besides a fire extinguisher. I suggest a fire blanket, but a box of baking soda with the top torn off is fine too.
