Burnt Foot

[Lucie W]

I had boiling water spilt on my foot, ridiculously painful! I put it straight under a tap for ten minutes, then had it dressed. It's blistered with liquid-filled blisters about 1cm high and about 15cm in area. Had anyone had yellowy blisters like this before? Do they scar?

[dreamer75]

I don't know about scalds, but Boots do special burn dressings. When I burnt my hands badly in NZ they wrapped it in clingfilm, the hospital then did the same but with something a bit more official than clingfilm ! Apparentlythe air getting to it is what causes the pain and the scarring. Boots do proper burn dressings though.

Not sure if the same theory applies to scalds...

[drfrank]

Partial thickness burn.

It should heal without skin grafting but will take around 2 weeks.

All the blisters should be deroofed and the dead skin removed.

A host of dressings can be used (Jelonet/Flamazine/Acticoat/Aquacel Ag). You can do this at home but it might be worth getting a medical opinion or getting it dressed by the nurse at the GP.

It shouldn't scar but will remain red for some time. It is vital that you keep the area out of the sun (or use sun block) as you can run into pigmentation probs. Once the skin has healed simply massage the area with a simple moisturiser (E45)

[stifler]

drfrank said:

Jelonet

This stuff works really well. It is like vaseline bogeys (the dried bits around the top of the pot of vaseline) on a bendy mesh. When my mate set fire to his trousers he used these on the worst bits and you wouldn't know that he had been burned now. He even gets leg hair growing back.

[Lucie W]

I had it dressed soon after, and have been redressing it. The blisters are still in tact, and I'm planning on keeping them that way (to reduce infection and complications, scarring etc). It's been hurting a little bit the last few days, but that's due to the pressure by the bandage, so I take it off and give it a rest for a little bit.

Thanks for your comments x

[drfrank]

hi

keeping the blisters intact to reduce infection is an old wives tale. All the blister fluid does is provide a medium for bugs to thrive, modern burn management would always involve debriding blisters, but it is your foot.

[dreamer75]

I watched a program about an extreme marathon across the Moroccan desert, and the docs pierced the blisters and filled them full of Iodine - must have been excruciating!

[Lucie W]

Update - I didn't like the blisters wobbling about so I took a knife to them...oooh the pain I'm in now, 5 hours later!