I am an idiot. I went for a long walk with my little one the other day (her in the jogging stroller) and I wore the wrong shoes. So, naturally I got HUGE blisters on my heels. HUGE. They are basically the entire back of my heel.
The problem is, I can’t stop playing with them. They feel so mushy and gross but I can’t stop! I just know I am going to pick these suckers and regret it, but it is just so tempting.
Stupid blisters. NO!
I will ignore your siren song.
For now.
I may need help, some sort of twelve step program.
I’ve never NOT been able to pop a blister. What happens if you don’t pop them? Does the fluid get absorbed?
The worst foot blisters I ever had – hiking a path at Mount Rainier. It was June and sunny, but there was still snow. My feet were hot so I took off my shoes and walked barefoot in the snow. Then my feet were cold so I walked barefoot for awhile on the asphalt. :smack:
Yeah, if you leave them intact (in my experience) the fluid will just disappear in the long run*, leaving you with large areas of dead skin which are very satisfying to peel off. If you try and pick them before then, though, you’ll get a big area of red, raw skin. No touchy!
*Absorbed or slow leakage? Medi-dopers, enlighten us!
Last blister was one on top of an old, dried-up one on the bottom of the ball of my left foot. That’s what I get for playing pickup basketball.
Pick at it? Meh. You’ve got to poke it, that’s for sure. Eventually, you’ll expose a weakness and REALLY have to fight the urge to just peel it off and leak its mysterious oozy-goodness. They’re like external versions of the scratch that’s on the roof of your mouth, or the tooth that was loose that had to be constantly molested by your tongue when you were younger.
She still posts on this board, right? She did the recent Internet perversion thread, if I remember correctly.
mysterious oozy goodness = Amazon Floozy Goddess, if you’re wondering
I’ve only been able to manage this a couple of times, but what happened to me was that I ended up with a marvellous thick callous on the spot. Most effective in preventing blisters again. Sometimes, as Happy Clam noted, you get lovely bits of nerveless skin that you can pull off in (for you) gleeful fashion. Not quite so happy for any chance bystander, though.
Pick the scabs! Poke the blisters! Open the stitches… er… I mean…
Every now and then I gotta break in a new pair of boots, and depending on how I break 'em in, the end result is blisters.
I’ve found that if I pop 'em, then sterilize the inside with rubbing alcohol, yeah it stings a little at first, but it heals up much nicer. In a pinch, I’ll rub some table salt on it to chemically cauterize “the wound”. Plus, the salt helps dry out the skin faster, hastening healing.
And if you believe any of that, I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul (because your feet will be in such pain, you’d wish you was dead).
Honestly, I pop mine, then put a band-aid over 'em to contain the pus. If it’s a really bad one, I’ll pop it, gauze it up (as best I can), put some athletic tape on it and get back to walking.
Tripler
This helpful tip brought to you by the Manly-Man School of Hard Knocks.
Gross alert: I once noticed a huge burn blister on the side of a friends hand. I grabbed her hand, looked at it and remarked “You really should pop that.” She reached over and squeezed.
Have you ever had someone else’s blister fluid fly onto your face?
I do pop blisters–a very small puncture that I cover with Neosporin and a bandage. It relieves the pain by letting the blister drain, and since it doesn’t hurt or wobble, I’m less likely to play with it or pick at it.
After a couple of days, it’s completely dry–THEN you can peel off the layer of dead skin, to find shiny new not-tender skin underneath it. Just don’t pick at the edges of the dead skin.
I puncture mine (not pop, there is no “pop”), let the fluid drain, then leave the skin intact to help cover the sore area. Natural plaster. If it’s on my heel, I cover it with sticky plaster, just to prevent further damage and so I can walk faster than just a limping hobble.
Weeks later, I wonder what that piece of dry, dead skin is, and remove. All done.
I usually get called upon to treat my students blisters when they have o run around debate tournaments in dress shoes. Lance, drain, collapse, bandage, back to debating. I’m getting kind of good at it by now.
I get blisters all the time (I’m a dancer. it comes with the territory.)
If they’re fluid-filled, I puncture them way off to the side, right where they meet intact skin and then drain them and put a blister band-aid on them (they’re expensive, but they’re really worth it when you have to just slap a band-aid on and get back to class)
I read in a dance magazine that that’s the right way to do it. Puncturing them at the top of the bubble lets more bacteria in or makes it heal not as fast or something. I don’t know if it’s actually true or remember the actual reason why, but I do it anyway.
I’m pretty good about leaving blisters once I’ve taken care of them. Scabs, on the other hand…
