Thursday, December 4, 2008

stuck on me...and my charred flesh

So, sometimes I can be not too smart.

I'll admit it, I make some really dumb moves sometimes.

Sad, but true, it happens to the everybody once in a while. Ya do something and right away you realize "I really should not have done that."

I had one of these moments yesterday.

Let me back up a bit.

Last Saturday we had our yummy-in-the-tummy Thanksgiving dinner while my parents were visiting. (pictures still to come on this, I promise, lest ye wait around with baited breath--wait a minute, what the heck does that mean? Cuz I was around some tackle recently in a shop and I certainly wouldn't want that bait anywhere close enough to my mouth to cause baited breath of all things. Sistah, please, grab a tic tac.) Anyway, turkey dinner.

All went fine except I very quietly very painfully very accidentally burned my forearm while I was taking the biscuits off a hot-out-of-the-oven cookie sheet. It hurt and I recoiled and I considered for about 30 straight minutes putting ice on it...but, I didn't. See, the last time I burned myself badly, I tried that. But putting ice on it only made it 1,000,000,000,000,000 times more painful when I took the ice off. So this time, I just suffered in silence and went about my evening. It hurt, but oh well, life goes on.

The next day, it hardly hurt at all. I had a three inch long burn mark, but a nice layer of new skin had already built up over the seared flesh and I was on the road to recovery.

Until.

Yesterday.

I was helping a friend move some heavy boxes around and mistakenly rubbed it against my burn taking the top new fresh layer of skin off.

This is not the big mistake I made. Well, yes, it was a mistake--no one would purposefully do such a thing, right? But this isn't the mistake for which I am now paying dearly.

No, the mistake comes in when I asked for a bandage. And then proceeded to put the bandage long-wise down the length of my burn, instead of width-wise just over the part that had rubbed off. See, in my head I was thinking, "Aimers, if you only cover the part that got rubbed off, the rest will come off with the next box you carry in. Cover the whole thing so it is protected."

That part of my brain has been fired. Let go. Downsized. Demoted. Sacked.

Cuz within seconds of sticking that nice new very adhesive bandage straight over my fresh burn, I realized, "Oh. That was stupid." Cuz now, the bandaid itself was stuck to my wound.

My options were to either leave it on for weeks until it came off (along with my skin?) naturally on it's own. Or. To pry it off little by little (along with my skin?) so as to let the wound heal and breathe and get better.

Sigh.

So, for the next 6 hours I contemplated what to do. Run the bandaid under water, figuring it would fall off as all my other bandaids do when I want them to stay on? Rub baby oil all over it in the hopes the oil would permeate and sink through the bandaid and unlodge itself softly and easily, freeing my sensitive skin from almost certain moments of torture? Crisco? Pam? Vaseline?

I tried variations of all of the above. Let me tell you, nothing worked. Nothing budged that bandage even in the slightest. I need to talk to my friend and find out what kind they were, because dang. 'Stuck on me' is right.

And right painful.

So millimeter by millimeter, I peeled that sucker off last night. My 9 year old was next to me, I think in as much pain as I was just from the watching. He actually said prayers for me (how cute is that?). I almost passed out from holding my breath while I did it.

In the end, ow. Ow ow ow ow ow. About half of my new skin came off with it. And left behind is a very fresh very sensitive burn AND NOW the irritation left on my skin by the bandage. I really hoping that's what it is, and not infection, because my arm does not look good.

Wanna see?

It's not like oozing or anything.

Any more.



OK, I'm probably exaggerating a wee bit. (Me? no!) But it hurts!!



And I wanted you all to know, my friends, my neighbors, my family, my readers: don't do what I did. Leave your burns clear and free and for the love of all green-colored-jello do not put a bandage directly over it.

That is all.

15 comments:

tif-do said...

ouch! But mostly I'm impressed with your muscley arm!

The Bluths said...

Burns hurt, I wouldn't think you were exaggerating; but NEVER use a nasty band-aid again. EVER!

Anonymous said...

Yeah seriously have you been working out?

B

linda said...

Ouch that looks painful..

Mike y Kenia said...

ouch Amie!! you should ask for help to your paramedic Danny next time...
We're waiting for you guys!!

Casey Lu said...

Amie, I have done exactly that myself before and I totally feel for you as it is EXTREMELY painful! I have some topical ointment that I will give you tonight if you want to put on it to help it heal faster and also to help so it doesn't scar as bad as it probably would! How sweet of your son to pray for you at that moment, what a sweetheart!!!!

Katrina :) said...

geez amie! You're so smart! lol

Trina

Anonymous said...

Ohhhh OUCH!

Don't you hate those dumb moments?

AZ HS Spotlight said...

Totally ouch, and I hate taking a shower with a burn. Yikes, that's awful.

Randa said...

Ouch!

I hear ya, girlfriend. Last Friday morning I was retrieving toast from the toaster over and, you guessed it, I hit the top burner with my right index finger. Did it blister? Heck no - it just turned yellow and oozed and crusted...repeatedly for three days.

Flash forward to last night. I'm working on a Christmas gift project using a hot glue gun - which I've used, oh - about a million times. I shove a new stick of glue in the end of the gun and, of course, glue - HOT glue - oozes out of the spout. On the counter? Okay. But no, this blob drips right on my newly painted cabinets. Yikers! Better get that off there quick! ...so I swipe the HOT blob of HOT glue with my left index finger. Did I mention the glue was HOT? Oh yeah, and sticky?? Yeah, real sticky...it stuck right on top of the lovely - GIGANTIC - new blister on my left index finger.

Uh-huh...I definitely hear ya!!!

musikmama said...

You're not the only pan who accidentally grabs pans that are fresh out of the oven. I have gotten some good burns on my fingers, but nothing like this. You need an aloe vera plant!!

Lorie said...

ow! Just OW! And I am sure the pink is from all the fussing. The pulling and rubbing of various oils and fats! ;D I hope it is feeling better today!

jinxi~ aka angi said...

OUCH "Aimers" hehee.
Arent burns like the MOST painful thing.. goodeness.

Delfina said...

I know this sounds gross, but next time put muster on it. It will prevent it from blistering and for some reason or another it has something in that gives a cooling feeling, instead of burning feeling. Old Mexican remade, but really works.

Toni said...

BRILLIANT!!!!!