So I was at my daughters house for the 4th last night and we were doing the obligatory sparklers and such. As we are doing this I was trying to recall the ICD-9 codes for accidental burns and blown off fingers due to fireworks. I used to work at a hospital and I would type up the emergencies from the previous night. So of course I always dreaded the 5th of July.
My son-in-law was lighting some Small Bee Spinners in his hand and throwing them in the air, I liked the effect and in all my experience and wisdom I thought.... "hey I should try that"..........
Anyway...after I washed the black scorch marks off my thumb left by the fuse I could see that my skin had turned white and I was getting a blister. The pain was searing and unrelenting. I drove home and immediately went to Earth Clinic and tried the aluminum foil. Within 15 minutes the pain had subsided enough that I was able to sleep. I removed the foil this morning and the blister has gone down and it feels fine. I am impressed!
Thank you to all of you who share your remedies and experiences! And I guess I can add an obvious remedy... Prevention... Do not light fireworks while holding them, duh.
Replied By Eve (Milwauke, Wiscomsin) on 07/10/2012
Long story short, burned myself (again! ) on the grill cover. VERY hot. Went searching for some relief after holding a cold pak on two fingers for 30 min. They are now wrapped in foil and it is working.... Who knew??!! Tough to type but the pain is subsiding!!!Replied By Dan (London, Uk) on 07/21/2012
First day of the school holidays, time to mow the lawn so the kids can play. Out comes the old lethal petrol mower. 'Stay back kids, it's got a big blade and it's very dangerous.' Twenty minutes later and it's not working properly. So I reach down and pointlessly touch the exhaust plate. Three burnt fingers literally sticking to the plate as the flesh cooks away. Screaming, shouting, point safely made about the dangers of the lawnmower. Two hours of ice packs later, it was still like i'd just burnt them. Found this site. Utterly brilliant. Top tips: tin foil should be shiny side down on the burn. Also, crumpling foil helps. And wrap around the bottom with sellotape/scotch tape to seal. I look like a rubbish version of the Terminator, my kids have called me 'silly' for the past few hours, but 30 minutes later and the pain is all but gone. KEEP THE FOIL ON, THIS TOTALLY WORKS!!!Replied By Iowama (Pella, Ia/usa) on 08/20/2012
I am writing with another story about using foil to cover a burn. Redundant, yet had I had not run across this cure in the "latest posts" so often, I might not have thought of it when I burned both hands badly in a cooking accident. As it happened, once I collected myself I asked my daughter to break a couple of eggs into a plate while I ran water over my hands. Then I worked the eggs through my fingers until the egg had heated up to about room temp. I had read about this somewhere: It felt heavenly! After I rinsing, we created foil mitts around my hands, pressing the foil down between the fingers. When my hands would start to feel too hot, I cooled them down by waving them in the air and a couple of times, I had to pull the mitts off and run water over them again. I went to sleep in those mitts, but they came off in the night. Next morning, there was very little discoloration, very light stinging, and there were no blisters at all. Amazing! I went through the day performing my usual chores and 2 days later, the nerves in my hands were completely calmed and the color was back to normal. I want to express my gratitude to everyone who wrote in to tell of this cure, which turned out to be so helpful to me in my time of need.Replied By Keleeemo (Dover, Nh) on 08/20/2012
Hi, It kind of makes sense using aluminum because when my son got burned I had to put Silvadene cream on the burns and it is made with silver and keeps the burns from becoming infected. Good tip!