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So as most of y'all have probably seen in the 4th of July thread I crispied my hand after cutting open and. lighting a commercial firework on the 5th. I've lit black powder on fire before and it typically just fizzles pretty fast. This stuff went off like rifle powder in a flash. For some reason my ding dong brain never thought about what else could be in it, like magnesium to make it white. 
. Fast burning magnesium powder = HAWT.
When I got burned I immediately poured my kool-aid on it to kill the heat. Naturally, cold water is best, but hey you use what you have. I stopped at the local gas station and got a plastic Ziploc with ice and water from the fella behind the counter. They say you should never apply ice to burn due to the risk of promoting swelling, my opinion is those fuckers who say that have never had severe burns. Ice is the only damn thing that will keep you somewhat comfortable. And even then it only works for a while and you have to take it off because it starts to throb, then you let the lain ratchet back up and reapply the ice, and the cycle repeats. Eventually, you'll have to make the move to get rid of the ice or child compress, it'll suck and you just gotta take it for a few hours until it subsides.
I went home and dropped the family off and went up to the urgent care where an old air medic Vietnam Vet called me a dumbass and prescribed silver sulfadiazine cream and Vicodin. He didn't have enough cream to treat it there and asked if I had ever had to do burn care before. I told him I burned the same hand about 23 years ago and he responded. "Why am I not surprised, so you know what to do, and know how bad it's gonna suck. If it gets infected come back immediately." That's it, no asking about a recent tetanus shot or antibiotics. Just an old combat vet that made me feel like a stupid private again at age 40.
.
Here's what it looked like when I got to urgent care.
Night 1 sucked. Even with the Vicodin. I just slathered the wound with the silvadine and wrapped it. The next morning I gently cleaned the wound, reapplied the silvadine, and changed the dressing.
The end of that day is when the fun began. Debridement day. Docs are 50/50 on leaving the blisters and dead skin or removing it. Some say the skin helps prevent infection, others say it promotes it. My opinion is dead flesh is dead flesh and the medicine needs to contact the wound. So I sterilized my tools with alcohol and debried it.
This was the end of night 1 after debridement.
Wash with sterile gauze and unscented antibacterial soap. Pat dry with sterile gauze. Apply cream and a nonstick absorbent sterile pad to absorb seepage. Wrap with a sterile bandage.
You only have to soap scrub it once a day but you have to change the dressings twice a day.
Here was the end of day 2 (Wednesday)
End of day 3 (Thursday)
Today (Friday) is the first day that it doesn't hurt to move it and I can really start doing more range of motion exercises. As the new skin grows it's important to flex the area so the skin doesn't grow back too tight. I had to debrie some more dead first degree burn skin last night towards my wrist as it was dead and my body couldn't save it.
Tonight end of day 4.
If it looks red and angry like it's infected in this pic, its not I just got done scrubbing it with antibacterial soap and cleaning the wound so it's angry. There is no easy way around that, you just gotta grit your teeth, clench your toes and keep going until the job is done. As the wound heals and new cells regrow the wound will take on a pink or reddish color. That will last all the way through the scaring phase which will be pink for a while. For infection, you're watching for redness that extends beyond the wound, especially around the edges of healthy skin, red streaks that go up the arm or down fingers, and the age-old method, smell. The burn will do a good bit of leaking and it will look kinda brown and nasty on the gauze. Smell it. If it smells clean and odorless that's good. If it smells and has a tinge, worry.
Burns have a super high danger of infection. Always always always sanitize tools, wear surgical gloves on your working hand, and keep all of your wrapping and gauze sterile. It's gonna burn like hell when you clean it but for God's sakes don't blow on it..
To help in healing take Vitamin C to help prevent infection, zinc and iron for cellular development, biotin for hair follicle and skin development, and eat lots of protein.
Burns that aren't allowed to scab heal from the outside edges in. From the least severe areas to the worst. This pic was from day 2 and today (day 4) of the same area along my finger. You can see the new skin forming along the edge of the wound.
I'll keep y'all updated over the next couple weeks. Burn are the gift that keep on giving in the pain department.
. Fast burning magnesium powder = HAWT.When I got burned I immediately poured my kool-aid on it to kill the heat. Naturally, cold water is best, but hey you use what you have. I stopped at the local gas station and got a plastic Ziploc with ice and water from the fella behind the counter. They say you should never apply ice to burn due to the risk of promoting swelling, my opinion is those fuckers who say that have never had severe burns. Ice is the only damn thing that will keep you somewhat comfortable. And even then it only works for a while and you have to take it off because it starts to throb, then you let the lain ratchet back up and reapply the ice, and the cycle repeats. Eventually, you'll have to make the move to get rid of the ice or child compress, it'll suck and you just gotta take it for a few hours until it subsides.
I went home and dropped the family off and went up to the urgent care where an old air medic Vietnam Vet called me a dumbass and prescribed silver sulfadiazine cream and Vicodin. He didn't have enough cream to treat it there and asked if I had ever had to do burn care before. I told him I burned the same hand about 23 years ago and he responded. "Why am I not surprised, so you know what to do, and know how bad it's gonna suck. If it gets infected come back immediately." That's it, no asking about a recent tetanus shot or antibiotics. Just an old combat vet that made me feel like a stupid private again at age 40.
.Here's what it looked like when I got to urgent care.
Night 1 sucked. Even with the Vicodin. I just slathered the wound with the silvadine and wrapped it. The next morning I gently cleaned the wound, reapplied the silvadine, and changed the dressing.
The end of that day is when the fun began. Debridement day. Docs are 50/50 on leaving the blisters and dead skin or removing it. Some say the skin helps prevent infection, others say it promotes it. My opinion is dead flesh is dead flesh and the medicine needs to contact the wound. So I sterilized my tools with alcohol and debried it.
This was the end of night 1 after debridement.
Wash with sterile gauze and unscented antibacterial soap. Pat dry with sterile gauze. Apply cream and a nonstick absorbent sterile pad to absorb seepage. Wrap with a sterile bandage.
You only have to soap scrub it once a day but you have to change the dressings twice a day.
Here was the end of day 2 (Wednesday)
End of day 3 (Thursday)
Today (Friday) is the first day that it doesn't hurt to move it and I can really start doing more range of motion exercises. As the new skin grows it's important to flex the area so the skin doesn't grow back too tight. I had to debrie some more dead first degree burn skin last night towards my wrist as it was dead and my body couldn't save it.
Tonight end of day 4.
If it looks red and angry like it's infected in this pic, its not I just got done scrubbing it with antibacterial soap and cleaning the wound so it's angry. There is no easy way around that, you just gotta grit your teeth, clench your toes and keep going until the job is done. As the wound heals and new cells regrow the wound will take on a pink or reddish color. That will last all the way through the scaring phase which will be pink for a while. For infection, you're watching for redness that extends beyond the wound, especially around the edges of healthy skin, red streaks that go up the arm or down fingers, and the age-old method, smell. The burn will do a good bit of leaking and it will look kinda brown and nasty on the gauze. Smell it. If it smells clean and odorless that's good. If it smells and has a tinge, worry.
Burns have a super high danger of infection. Always always always sanitize tools, wear surgical gloves on your working hand, and keep all of your wrapping and gauze sterile. It's gonna burn like hell when you clean it but for God's sakes don't blow on it.
.To help in healing take Vitamin C to help prevent infection, zinc and iron for cellular development, biotin for hair follicle and skin development, and eat lots of protein.
Burns that aren't allowed to scab heal from the outside edges in. From the least severe areas to the worst. This pic was from day 2 and today (day 4) of the same area along my finger. You can see the new skin forming along the edge of the wound.
I'll keep y'all updated over the next couple weeks. Burn are the gift that keep on giving in the pain department.
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. Sorry just need to insult you one more time.
