How is that even possible? Wouldn’t you close your eyes automatically before you could get a sunburn on your eyeball?
Use of the “first, second…third-degree” classification has generally been abandoned for categorization into superficial, partial and full-thickness burns for description of burns limited mostly to the skin layers. (Of course any burn can go much deeper, and so a subdermal burn could go all the way to the bone.)
Burns that blister, especially when the blisters bubble up with an intact roof, are typically partial-thickness burns. There is enough damage to the superficial layer of skin to create the blister, and the deeper layers are intact enough to produce the fluid making the bubble.
You will find absolutely contradictory advice about whether or not to leave the blisters intact. It will range from “NEVER POP THE BLISTERS!” to “Completely debride all the blisters.” (Debride means to remove any non-viable tissue; in this case the skin roofing the bubble.) You should infer from this that there is no good really definitive science on either side, and make a further inference that you’ll do fine either way–this is why the evidence is so soft in the first place. It’s hard to show with a partial thickness burn that it makes much difference.
As a rule of thumb, burn specialists unroof blisters. Here’s an example cite for that from a burn specialist answering a layman’s question: Burn treatment - Burns - MedHelp
My own practice (hundreds of burns in the ED over the years; no formal follow-up data; not going to the wall for my opinion…) is as follows:
Leave smaller blisters intact. I generally tend to trust what the body has figured out over the eons. An intact small blister (small = not tense; not painful from pressure; nickel-sizish) given a few days will keep the tender new skin underneath a little more protected.
If the blister is tense, or large, at the bare minimum “pop” it (let out the fluid) or have it removed (by a specialist). Of course, I can’t see your burn wound, so I can’t say what I’d do with that exact one. The reasons mentioned by the burn specialist I cited above are good:
- "*Reasons to remove the blister: **
-the blistered skin is not normal
-the fluid in the blister has chemicals that increase inflammation
-the blister prevents your from placing topical antibiotics directly on the wound bed
-blisters decrease the range of motion "
And I think there’s one more: tense blisters hurt and are clumsy to keep intact.
It seems sort of foolish to me to apply anti-bacterial preparations to intact skin, so the idea of using Silvadene or other preparations to intact burns and blisters does not appeal to me. Burn specialists–especially for hand burns–don’t like us to use it for the ED because it makes their follow-up evaluation difficult since it’s a thick, white, obscuring paste.
All burns that lose at least the outer part of the skin are, by definition, infected. The anti-infection game is a complicated technical argument, but basically unless the infection gets into the surrounding soft tissue, it should be seen as part of the healing process and arguments about what to put on a partial thickness burn are often closer to medical mental masturbation than useful discourse. Honey seems a bit primitive, but I wouldn’t fall over in surprise if the next poster didn’t swear by Auntie Em’s pig lard. The fact that the body does well whether we use ancient or modern remedies is a testament to nature, and not a reason for recommendation.
For hand burns in particular, the main consideration is scarring, particularly if a finger is involved. Scarring limits range of motion. This should not be a major consideration with a partial thickness burn which, by definition, will have an excellent chance of forming a new layer of completely normal skin. Some deeper partial thickness burns do leave residual problems (sunburn tendency, e.g.) but shouldn’t scar.
Baking Soda on a grease fire = Effective on small flames.
Flour on a grease fire = more stupid then using water.
Also, Salt on a grease fire = waste of salt.
I’d keep it bandaged. You can go to the doctor and see what he thinks the best course of action is (to burst or not to burst). He can also give you something for the pain.
My husband burned both his forearms. He had blisters that stood a good two inchses off his arms. He kept them both bandaged to avoid infection, which is your biggest concern. Good luck.
It also attracts bears.
A tube of bacitracin goo costs two bucks. And no bears.
I had a similar thing happen to me back when I was in college (25 years ago 
). I was on painkillers for a month, and I had to do physical therapy (debridement) on the hand/wrist to keep down the scarring. This consisted of putting my hand/wrist into a hot jacuzzi with betadine thrown in for good measure, then scraping the forming scar tissue away with gauze. This was so painful, they shot me up with Demerol beforehand (probably to keep me calm rather than kill the pain), yet it still felt as though my hand was in a constant state of being slammed in a car door.
Hope this helps. 
I don’t know if its technically a sunburned eyeball, but something got irritated, blistered, and just pissed off as all get out.
All day on a ski slope at 9000 feet in the desert with a clear blue sky surrounded mostly by snow and no ski googles :smack:
And its as bad as it sounds, if not worse. NEVER go sking without eye protection. Trust me, I never will again, and I hate wearing things over my eyes (which is partly why it happened in the first place).
Gosh. That’s scary. I’ll try to avoid that!
OT, but what you got was ultraviolet-triggered punctate keratitis, aka “snowblindness.” Similar in presentation to a welder’s burn from not wearing eye protection. It’s reasonable to call it “sunburned eyeball” I guess.
Very painful. Usually benign and self-healing, but miserable. Ultraviolet Keratitis: Background, Pathophysiology, Epidemiology
And you are giving excellent advice about eye protection on the slopes, particularly at altitude.
Yeah tell me about it.
My limited reading of “snow blindness” in days of yore seemed to indicate it was something like a blindness you get from say, like getting a camera flash in your face. You cant really see, for a long period of time, but other than that, no big deal.
Wrong… big deal… damn painful and scary big deal IMO and experience.
PSA message concluded.