Rich aroma scents the air. Tomato sauce, enhanced by fresh herbs, has everyone’s mouth watering in anticipation. Eager to eat, my kids volunteer to set the table. Fresh-baked French bread is served on a wooden cutting board, along with a large container of garlic butter. Everything is ready except for the spaghetti noodles, and they’re almost done.
I carefully lift the lid from the pasta pot, but my shoulder catches, my arm jerks ever so slightly, and the steam takes the wrong path in its escape from the pot.
Ouch! A 2″x3″ steam burn is truly a curse-worthy event! A little cold water (indirect) helped briefly. My first thought was, “Oh good, it hurts. Really bad burns don’t hurt.” (It turns out that this is a myth.) My next thought was, “Didn’t one of those meds I take include burns in the list of reason to phone the doctor?”
Every pill bottle came out of the cupboard and I scanned all the little info sheets. Nope. I must be thinking of something else. Good. I’ll just treat it with tlc.
Aloe is great for burns. Fortunately, I have some. I sliced open a couple leaves, placed them carefully so that the burn was covered, and bound them on with vet-wrap.
Before going to bed, I changed to fresh leaves. The next morning in the shower I decided that the pain of hot water on my arm was much worse than the stigma of being unwashed.
I bound more aloe onto the burn and left it alone until bedtime. A few days of morning and evening dressing changes helped. After a while I skipped the new aloe at bedtime, and in the morning decided to give the burn some air (since it no longer hurt). The tlc worked. I was shocked that the burn never blistered.
Aloe is good, but I still expected blisters. Instead, the skin looks… well… Have you ever gotten glue on your skin and let it dry instead of washing it off promptly (not that adults would do this, but perhaps you remember when you were a kid)? After a while it looks tough and wrinkly, sort of like an old farmer’s hands appear after years of working in the weather. You can scratch the glue and start peeling it off.
Well, that’s what my burn looks like now. Tough and wrinkly, except where it’s starting to peel away. I’m keeping a pretty close eye on it, since from my recent reading about burns, perhaps I should have checked in with my doctor. I just don’t see why it’s necessary to run to the doctor about every little thing that happens.
