Monday, May 6, 2024

A Burning Sensation


Well I had quite an experience last night. You may not really be able to tell but I burned the shit out of my left hand. I was making a fabulous Southern Sunday Supper and part of the menu was slow-baked pork loin ribs finished with barbecue sauce. Not let me say right here that they were quite possibly the tenderest, most delicious ribs I've ever personally eaten. But, in the process of the finishing-off process, I took the sheet pan that the ribs were on out from under the broiler to brush on more barbecue sauce and instead of reaching for the edge of the counter which was way too close to the edge of the pan (my fault), I grabbed the pan and it was hot as hell. 
I managed to jerk my hand back so fast that my fingers weren't even involved. So I didn't grasp it, thank goodness. But I seared that area you can see in the picture right nicely. 
I knew that I'd fucked up royally. You know how sometimes when you fall or when you hit your head on something or whatever, and you just KNOW you've done something really not good to your body? 
Well, that was me last night. 

I immediately went and got an ice cube and grasped it thinking that maybe, maybe it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Ice is my go-to for burns mainly because it is so instantly pain-relieving. I managed to finish making supper with one hand, my burned one wrapped in a towel-wrapped ice bag, and held my hand in a bowl of ice water while I was still eating. That was all fine but even a few seconds without the ice resulted in severe pain. Burns just hurt. 
I sent Mr. Moon out to that overgrown aloe patch and had him bring me in a leaf that I sliced the saw-like edges off of and then split to get the goo and I applied that to the area frequently. You're not supposed to use ice on burns because that, too, can damage the skin. However, I completely ignored that figuring that since the ice was in a plastic bag and not directly on my skin I probably was not in danger of frostbite.

The pain remained extremely intense for about four hours. I kept checking it to see if it was blistering and by all rights, it surely should have. But it never did. I continued the aloe and ice all that time and finally, about 12:30 the pain abated enough that I thought I could sleep. But before I turned out the light, I spread some comfrey ointment on it that Liz Sparks had made and given me a few years ago and that was it for the pain. I mean, it was like a miracle. 

I am so grateful. It could have been so much worse.

The whole incident reminded me of a time I burned that same hand as a child. 



See that little pit? That's the scar I have from when that happened. I was home alone because my mother had some sort of meeting or gathering after work and I was in the kitchen and thought I felt something warm near the stove and proceeded to put my hand on the burner which my mother had accidently left on low after she took her percolator coffee pot off of it that morning before we all left for school.  
I surely learned a lesson that afternoon about not testing burners to see if they're on by touching them. 

But the thing was, Mama wasn't home. My grandparents who lived right behind us were at their house so I ran to get help from them. My hand was already in terrible pain at that point and I was probably in a bit of shock. I did not, at that time, know the wonders of ice and of course we only had the ice that we made in those horrible aluminum ice trays with the handle that you pulled to release the cubes and there was no way I could do that with one hand. So to Granny's I went. 
Poor woman. She didn't know what to do for me either so she got out her favorite all-purpose remedy which was a little green bottle of Campho-Phenique. It looked like this. 


They still make the stuff and it's mostly used to treat cold sores and bug bites. It does indeed have camphor in it which can have a soothing, cooling effect on those things. It also has or had carbolic acid in it which was probably where the antiseptic part came in. And although it was labeled as pain-relieving, it did not relieve the pain of a very severe second-degree burn on a little girl's hand. In fact, it made it much worse. 
Now that burn did blister. And what I remember is the agony I was in for hours. We went to the Anchor restaurant that night to get clam chowder and a "hamburg" as Granny called it for our supper. My brother, my grandparents and me. I recall sticking my hand out of the window of Granddaddy's Rambler on our way to the restaurant to let the rushing air cool my hand and later on, in the restaurant, holding my glass of ice water to try and relieve the pain. 

So last night, when I burned that same hand, the memories came rushing back and I remembered the way my skin somehow magically bubbled and turned into translucent blisters that seemed a part of me and yet not a part of me. I do not remember what happened when my mother got home. Did she take me to see her good friend, our pediatrician, Dr. Bob the next day? I doubt it. Did she put something else on the burn? I do not know. In those days, home first aid consisted of mainly iodine or Mercurochrome and Bandaids. And Campho-Phenique. All I know is that I still have that tiny scar and that today I keep looking at my palm to wonder at the fact that there are no blisters there. Perhaps the ice or the aloe did the trick or perhaps it isn't as bad a burn or maybe my skin is much tougher and thicker now after a lifetime of use than it was when I was eight years old.

But once again, I have learned yet another lesson which is to be even more careful than I usually am in the kitchen which is probably the most dangerous room in the house with its blades and its glass and its variety of heating elements. Not to mention things like hot oil and boiling water. The kitchen'll kill you if you don't watch out. 

Guess what I bought today?


I did not pick beans today, thinking to give the plants time to mature a little and when I went outside to dump the compost this morning I gave the vines a quick inspection and let us just say that tomorrow I am going to need the big basket. 

Here we go! 

Be safe, y'all. Look before you grab. 

Love...Ms. Moon









28 comments:

  1. Ouch! When I was nine or ten I did the same thing, put my hand palm down on the burner of our electric stove just after it had been turned off. I remember the concentric circles in my palm, but very little else, and do not have a scar. I do have a tiny scar from a single scalding drop of spaghetti sauce that leapt out of the pot to attack me about 40 years later; you're so right about killer kitchens. Margaret

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    1. That's so strange that one tiny drop of spaghetti sauce left you with a burn scar. Isn't that crazy? I guess we all have to learn about what heat can do to skin the hard way.

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  2. When an adult human reaches the grand old age of seventy, he or she should wear ovenproof gloves whenever they enter a kitchen. If any of your adult children are reading this they should probably consider oven gloves when choosing your birthday present this year. A stout walking stick is another possibility.

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    1. There is no way I could wear oven mitts in the kitchen. I am in constant motion, using my hands for far more than handling hot things and I'd be taking those mitts on and off so much I'd forget whether I had them on or not! I use a pot-holder.
      And I do have a stout walking stick! Mr. Moon made it for me. I use it all the time. Mostly it's for use if I see a bear or an alligator or a frenzied dog.

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  3. I'm so sorry. I am a person who burns their hands frequently. I did find, by chance, an ointment sample in a first aid kit that has helped me greatly. You can order it by the bottle on Amazon and it is called "Burn Jel" by Water Jet. I keep it by my sink with my dish soap.

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    1. Burn Jel. Huh. Never even heard of it. I see it has lidocaine in it which explains why it stops the pain. It would be a good idea to have some around although I rarely burn myself. But...obviously, sometimes I do!

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  4. I keep my aloe plant in the kitchen because I burn myself so much. clumsy and forgetful, not a good combo. I'm glad you got pain relief in the end. I never have ice in the house anyway.

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    1. Clumsy AND forgetful. That's me too. You never have ice? Oh my word, woman. You ARE English! I must drink two quarts of ice water a day.

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  5. 37paddington: oh dear. I’m so sorry you burned your hand by my, those ribs sound delicious. That 8 yo burn memory is seared in pretty strongly, I’m glad this one at least did not blister. That was such a rich sense memory, though, holding your hand out the car window to let the breeze furl and cool it. Reading it, I suddenly realized i have that same memory! Weird.

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    1. Do you remember burning your poor little hand? That's so strange that you have that memory too.

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    2. I did! I held the plastic wrapping from a piece of candy into the burner flame to see how it burned. It shriveled in a nanosecond and sent the flame into my palm. I dropped the wrapper, now ash, and slapped my burned hand against my thigh. But I didnt tell anyone about my burned hand because I knew that I shouldn't have been playing with the flame. It healed; kids heal so fast. But no wonder I birthed a firefighter.

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  6. I am sorry for what you went through with that burn as a kid and grateful that you had better resources and knowledge at your disposal last night and that you are on the mend. Your memories unleashed some of my own and you are right about kitchens being potentially dangerous.

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  7. Maybe next time go straight for the comfrey? I've had an occasional kitchen burn but never anything serious. Many years ago when my older son was four he learned that the iron was indeed hot when he tested it and blistered four tiny fingertips right after I'd told him not to touch it while I answered the phone.
    Canning lids! For the beans of course and maybe other things?

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    1. I will go straight for the comfrey!
      Oh, your poor little boy, deciding he'd find out about heat when he was tiny. I bet he cried and cried. I would have!

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    2. He didn't cry, but he was huddled up in the corner of the couch looking miserable, unusual for him, so I asked if he had touched the iron and he shook his head "no" but then I took his hand and saw the blisters. I gave him a bucket of ice to play with.

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  8. I think most women probably have matching burns on their upper wrists from pulling hot pans out of the oven don't they, but being in that kind of pain as a little kid must have been hell!

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    1. Yes. Scars on a cook's arm are badges of service for sure.
      I guess that burn I got as a kid most have been pretty bad to still remember it so clearly.

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  9. Ouch! I'm glad it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I'm not sure I've ever burned myself bad enough to get a blister. I'm amazed at the detail with which you remember that burn on your hand!

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    1. What?! Steve- you have lived a sheltered life if you've never gotten a burn bad enough to blister you. Lucky you! You're probably more careful than many people.

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  10. Burns are the worst. That picture of the camphophenique brought back a bunch of memories, not one of them happy. Eep. We keep a tube of silvadene on hand for burns here. No howling or tears. We keep a spray can of xylocaine on hand for the painful ones.

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    1. We still have a bottle of campho-phenique around here. We use it on bug bites sometimes. I've never heard of silvadene as far as I know. I just googled it and like many tried and true remedies, turns out it might not be that good for us. A spray can of xylocaine would be a smart thing to have around. Bactine has lidocaine in it too.

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  11. Sorry you burned your hand, Mary! I have a good pair of "Memphis Red Brick" gloves that my daughter gave me to protect against burns and they are fabulous. You can grab the hot oven rack and you won't feel any heat. I think they are made for industrial work.
    Also, I work with a group of women to make silk flower arrangements and we can get burns from the hot glue guns we sometimes use. The ladies keep a bottle of mustard on the work table to squirt on a burn.

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    1. MUSTARD? I am learning so much about burn remedies from these comments. Wouldn't the mustard stain the silk flowers that y'all are making? Maybe something like xylocaine would be less stain-producing and it might actually work better but what do I know?

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  12. Ah you poor woman. Burns are one thing but on your hand is even worse. Good thinking about the aloe, that's one reason we have a potted aloe on the kitchen window sill. (We also use the spikes/leaves to dry plastic freezer bags after rinsing them.)

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    1. Oh now. I do like the idea of using the spikes of the aloe to dry freezer bags on. I use all sorts of things but have never used aloe. My aloe patch that has probably a hundred plants in it is just steps from the kitchen door so it's close by.

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  13. I picked beans today and have enough for tonight's dinner. I also still can't find the damn tomato worm.

    damn Mary. I've done that too, stupidly reached with my bare hand to move a sheet pan, in my case, that I had just taken out of the oven. just a small burn though. burns are supposed to be the most painful of any injury. aloe is my go to for burns.

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    1. You need to find that horn worm!
      I bet that you and I are both apt to just reach and grab while moving quickly about the kitchen. I need to remember to slow down and LOOK before I leap.

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