Treating Burns

by Tim / Nomad
(Louisville,Ky. &The Road)

I once steamed/scalded the entire top side of my left forearm. I kept the arm in a cooler full of ice water for the first three hours and it didn't help. As soon as I removed my arm from the water the intense pain would return.

I called the pharmacy and they recommended DERMOPLAST SPRAY. I sent for some and after applying it several times the pain was completely gone as if I had never burned it. That was the first day and the arm only had a few small blisters visible. The second day an area 1"x2" had sloffed off. The third day as I was showering the entire area from my elbow to my wrist sloffed off.

To treat this a person needs to be sure to remove all of the dead skin. If they don't an infection can set in quickly, possibly causing blood poisioning.(per my doctor) To remove the dead skin I used scotch brite pads cut into 2x2 squares. These squares I boiled to sterilize before useing to scrub the burned area. I kept the arm covered with neosporin and sterile guaze at night. During the day I would clean it again, re-apply neosporin, keep it clean and let it air during the day.

Upon going to the doctor she said I had done a great job of careing for the burn. She was surprized that it wasn't infected and said it looked great. She did prescribe silvadine burn cream. I used this instead of neosporin. My doctor said the neosporin could actually trap bacteria under it on a burn of that size.

For minor rope burns, fire burns and steam burns you can treat these with solarcain sunburn gels or dermoplast spray.