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So, I was making pasta tonight ... and, while putting slices of sausage on the pan, accidentally put my hand way too close and burned the tip of my middle finger on the pan. (Didn't mean to, obviously.)

That was about an hour ago. First I panicked and didn't know what to do, so I did all the stuff I usually do for wounds like run it under cold water, put some aloe vera gel on it, put some antiseptic on it and put a band-aid on it ... but none of them reduced the pain. (The band-aid seemed to make things worse, so I took it off).

Then I looked up various treatments online, and found that I did most of the right things (except the antiseptic/bandaid, which is not necessary). They also recommended taking some anti-inflammatories for the pain, but I don't usually have those because they give me stomachaches. (I do have some painkillers, but they're not anti-inflammatory ... but I took two anyway. It couldn't hurt).

I also remembered that I have some Voltaren cream, which is anti-inflammatory, so I tried it and it seemed to reduce the pain. But then I read online that I shouldn't use any creams or gels, so I washed it off and washed my hands in cold water.

The skin around the burn seems to be turning slightly brighter, but this is apparently normal. I'm still experiencing a kind of dull stabbing pain, but it's mild compared to the sharper stabbing pain that I was experiencing earlier. It's obviously not pleasant, but it's much more bearable.

Any ideas how long this will take to heal? As I said, this is only affecting the tip of my middle finger, which is painful enough. On the plus side, the burn seems to be only first-degree, so I hope it will go away soon. The pain seems to be lessening too - what a relief. Right now, it's more embarrassing than anything; I've been cooking for close on 25 years and never burned myself. First time for everything, I guess ...

Aww I'm sorry to hear that Rath...

My family and boyfriend can testify that I am bizarrely accident-prone - one nasty situation in the home is the electric kettle being near the coffee machine, which has caused me to burn my arm at least twice in the past 12 months, the biggest injury still visible. There's the time just a few years ago during COVID when I dropped just a couple of drops of boiling tea on my foot - causing such a huge blister (just try to keep your foot underwater) that I couldn't wear shoes for a week. The oven used to claim a lot of my flesh - once I had an oven pizza that had to be baked super hot at 250 degrees and I burnt my arm on the top of the oven - Dad solved this by buying me an oven mitt that reaches up to my elbow. And I couldn't count how many times I burnt fingers when Dad's illness lead me to daily cooking after work and commuting had already drained me of energy. At age 4 I had my biggest burn when my leg got in contact with an open oven door. I still have a very noticeable scar from that, but mostly I remember the skin peeling off and how everybody (notjust doctors but alsy family, teachers and miscellaneous interested beiple) twisted my leg painfully in order to get a good look at it.

Why, even last week at the parade I got sun-burnt. Luckily for me that doesnt happen too often anymore as I hate being out in the sun.

The best cure is prevention - I take extra care when making tea, the oven mitt helped a lot and staying out of the sun has been my go-to method since my sunstroke in 1995.

Can't prevent it? Hold the affected burn under streaming cold water for 10 minutes. (not longer to prevent hypothermia) Should it still give you a burning sensation after that, you can always go back to cooling with water. Do not use ice packs or a tub of cold water.

When the injury's sufficiently cooled, you can start using ointments. Petroleum jelly, aloe vera gel or after sun are great for sun burns, other first-degree urns (redness) can use a dob of petroleum jelly or other disinfectant. If you run the risk of damaging the injured area further, use gauze, but only if the injury has cooled down.

And lastly, don't be The Dude like my dad who maintained his shoulder wasn't broken when it was, o rlike my colleague who went to work with a huge bruise and swollen foot saying it's nothing and then had to go to hospital it was broken. Better to visit the GP 10 times too often than once too little.


I know that hospitals use ointments that can cure burns almost instantaneously but those are out of our reach.

Rath Darkblade wrote: ↑Sat Aug 31, 2024 5:55 am So, I was making pasta tonight ... and, while putting slices of sausage on the pan, accidentally put my hand way too close and burned the tip of my middle finger on the pan. (Didn't mean to, obviously.)
The pain seems to be lessening too - what a relief. Right now, it's more embarrassing than anything; I've been cooking for close on 25 years and never burned myself. First time for everything, I guess ...

It's probably also going to blister as the skin tries to replace the dead skin that got burned. It's going to probably hurt for a bit.

Thanks, all. The pain subsided after an hour or so (obviously it hurt like hell before), and now I have a fresh new blister, but luckily it doesn't hurt. Hopefully, it will heal naturally soon (most websites say within 3-7 days).

Oh, well. This thing will remind me not to be so stupid and touch red hot surfaces again. *blush*