How I Treated My Burn (UPDATED)

After drooling off all the delicious pins on pinterest, I decided I will try to make this great recipe for churros. While cooking (about a week ago), the oil on the stove began to bubble far too much than I was used to. So in an attempt to get it off the heat and move it aside it began to bubble even more and splashed all over the place including my poor hand. I was in a confused/shocked state, but when I finally breathed in and calmed down I placed my hand under cool water and remembered I had a first aid book upstairs. So I ran up to read how to treat a burn. Since I knew it was probably a 1st or 2nd degree burn I wasn't too worried about calling anyone, but I just wanted to treat it and stop the pain. Obviously if you get a burn make sure you seek professional help as I am not a doctor but this is how I treated my own burn.

As I type up this update months later, if I have one piece of advice it would be do NOT pop your blister, I have had burn scars from years ago and they are still visible, but leaving the chemicals in the blister to heal the skin caused it to have almost no scarring. I will post a picture at the bottom to show off  my back to normal hand.

Day1, only the 1st blister has formed.

How the first aid book said to treat the burn:
  • Place the burn under cool (not cold) water for 10 to 20 minutes. The water actually stopped the pain completely in my case, but after I took it out from under the water it would begin to hurt again.
  • It then said after cooling the skin to cover it loosely with a dry, sterile non-stick guaze. Since I did not have any gauze I remembered I had some lidocaine gel for a sunburn I had the summer before. I  read the instructions and applied that to the area. This only temporarily helped ease the pain, so I placed it under water again.
  • I then added aloe vera gel and that helped as long as it was cool.
  • Since I was heading to bed soon, and the pain had not stopped yet, I dropped by the pharmacy where I was given the lidocaine spray which I was told only helped numb the pain. I sprayed a light layer of this on and after about 10 minutes the pain was gone.

The next day all I was left with was blisters. The blisters formed and luckily they went without being popped and deflated all by themselves. The dead skin is now beginning to peel, and the real treatment for the skin to repair begins. I apply aloe vera right when I wake up, and then before bed I apply vitamin E oil. After only two days I can really see my skin healing much faster. Hopefully in a month or two it will be back to normal.
2 weeks  after the burn. Blisters have dried up and beginning to peel. This picture makes it look worse than it is. Vitamin E & aloe vera really helping with the healing.

4 weeks after the burn. The scabs have all fallen off, and all I was left with was a fully healed pink layer of skin that is leaving minimal scars due to not popping the blister and all the vitamin E it is getting.
My biggest advice is that if you have a burn that caused a blister to grow, try not to pop the blister. Let it dry up and fall off as the wounded skin underneath will be much easier to heal.

My hand a couple months after
As you can see from the picture above it completely healed and left no scar. However, I put my hand under warm water before taking this picture because that is the only time I will ever see a color difference, and even then it is very minimal. The damaged skin will get a bit more red than the rest. But if you were to look at my hand right now you wouldn't be able to spot any sign of scarring from this burn.

Incase you are wondering, I never made the churros!

Lulu :)

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