This morning my mother spilled hot gelwax (very sticky and about 180 degrees) over her right hand, while making candles. She fully expected blisters, etc.

I had her put her hand under cold water and then put a Curad Advanced Cool-Wrap (gel-wrap bandages) on her burns. She used 2 in about 30 minutes, and now, six hours later, there isn't a blister and 90% of the redness/swelling/pain is gone.

I bought a couple of boxes of these gel-wraps at a Meijers grocery store for ~$4/box. I think it's a great addition to my first aid kit, especially since we've a wood-burning stove, candles, a more than a few oil lamps. I hated to have to "test" my first aid kit this way, but am glad that it turned out so well.

-- Deb M. (vmcclell@columbus.rr.com), December 18, 1999

Answers

Thanks for the testimony, Deb, and I'm glad your Mom's okay! I was looking at this product the other day and was unsure whether to spend the money. Think I will, now.

-- Jill d. (jdance@mindspring.com), December 18, 1999.

Deb-- glad to hear your mom is ok.

We have experience with 2nd and 3rd degree burns. If you can't get to a doctor, you need to have on hand 'black soap' -- surgical soap. You also need peroxide, burn creme with analgesic, and guaze.

The burn must be washed gently but thoroughly at least twice a day with the soap. Use guaze instead of cotton balls to gently scrub the burned area. The dead tissue has to be washed off this way. Use the peroxide to rinse off the soap. The burn creme goes on thick enough to help prevent sticking of the gauze bandages. If the bandages stick, soak them in peroxide first before trying to remove them.

This is extremely painful for the patient. Pain medications can be given before you wash the burn.

I am NOT a medical person, but we had to do this on two different occasions. (Belonging to an HMO is like not having medical care at all, some times.) The main thing you want to do is get to a doctor, but if you can't, you have to keep the burn from getting infected.

-- helen (sstaten@fullnet.net), December 18, 1999.

Here's another grea tip. I poured boiling gravy over a portion of my hand weeks ago....I know...I know...grin. I have a spray bottle of bluish liquid that's Aloe spray for sunburn. I first ran cold water over the hand to wash it and immediately covered the burn with the Aloe spray. Within minutes it stopped burning and all redness was gone...not a blister to be seen.

beej

-- beej (beej@ppbbs.com), December 19, 1999.

Thanks Deb for the tip.

Aloe vera is easy to grow if you protect it from frost/freezes. If things are bad and we run out of all our other first aid preps, you can take a leaf of aloe vera and squeeze the gel right out of the leaf onto the burn. It helps a lot. My experience though is that it is not as effective as what technology has given us. However, it is a renewable resource.

-- mommacarestx (nospam@thanks.com), December 19, 1999.

FWIW, peroxide kills tissue, including tissue that's trying to heal. Plain, sterile water is better for cleaning burns and wounds, IMO, after perhaps a one-time peroxide rinse to kill foreign bacteria at the wound site. Colloidal silver used in the same way would be even better.

-- silver ion (manyg@shes.later), December 20, 1999.

silver ion -- Thanks! We did what the doctor ordered, but the burns took what seemed to be a long time to heal. Maybe the peroxide use daily slowed down healing.

-- helen (sstaten@fullnet.net), December 20, 1999.