Yesterday evening I was frying bacon on the stove because I had to cook a lot of it and it would have taken too long in the microwave. To make a long story short, when I went to clean up the frying pans, I accidentally picked up one of the handles, not realizing that it had been directed over one of the flames and so the handle was scorching hot. Four of my five fingers got burned and now have blisters. I really want the blisters to heal as fast as possible because I have a four day weekend coming up this week and planned on making some recordings.....so my question is: Should I pop the blisters now? If they pop now, will they heal faster? Or should I wait another day or so? Or don't pop them at all?

Maybe Eddy can help? Or anyone else?

Hi Monica, May I have your permision to examine you? Ok lets see, the RH has four fingers with regions of the palmar aspects of digits 2-5 with well-demarcated elevated blisters seen to have lighter color than the adjacent tissue or a slightly whitish appearance to them. A few appear notibly pressurized. There is also increased erythema in a localized area of the thenar eminence. The areas are tender to palpation.

Diagnosis and Plan:
1. Second degree burns on the dominant hand: release of the accumulated fluid causing pressure and thereby decreasing blood flow to the affected areas. May puncture each blister with a clean needle (wash skin with soap and water prior to procedure). When the skin eventually dries, it may be trimmed carefully with scissors or nail clippers. Later, practice piano as tolerated.

<DISCLAIMER: This post is strictly for entertainment purposes and does not constitute an effort to perform telemedicine in a state in which the physician is not licensed.>

All day went by with nobody saying anything to me. This is the most painful injury I have had in a long time, and I figured that since it involves my fingers, then my piano friends would commiserate with me or maybe show some sort of compassion. Apparently not, nobody cares...
Except for you, Eddy. Thank you very much! You may not be licensed in my state, but that's okay, I will still disregard your disclaimer and trust your diagnosis/plan. My blisters are on my third, fourth and fifth finger on my RH. I can't tell you how bad it hurt when I got burned! Like a hundred needles sticking in my fingers. I had to keep my hand under running cold water for an hour afterwards because that's the only thing that made the pain bearable. Today, I went through a box of bandages and have to type with the very tips of my fingers..the burns are more on the pads. I'm still hoping I can play piano by this weekend, but I guess time will tell...
Thank you again, Eddy, and I hope you have a nice Thanksgiving!

Monica, sorry to hear this, I've heard injuries to the hand are the most painful as there's something like tens of thousands of nerve endings in our fingers. That's what the Doc said to my Dad, about a year ago he was cleaning a pot after dinner, it full of angel hair, but it was hardened and in the process of scraping it off the pot it got under his nail and messed up his finger.

Well, I use to be a Wilderness First Responder, and I'd give you my advice but It's only useful if you are at least 2 hours away from medical care , not to mention my certification has passed earlier last summer. But for this type of thing, I think you did the best thing run your hand under water. I think you are supposed to wait it out, I wouldn't pop the blisters prematurely, idk. As for as using the Piano, I would say take a break. Like for sports injuries, in high school my friend got shin splints once in track. I think he took a week off, but I think if he did run on it, it wouldn't have healed as fast and could have even done some permanent damage. Some injuries I think you are supposed to be out all season, kind of a bummer if you are out to prove something...

you should get a cast everyone can sign it

GWS (get well soon)

Thank you, Riley. Ohhhh, what happened to your Dad sounds bad too. I believe that about fingers being the most painful. I accidentally bit my nail down too low the other night and it hurts almost as much as the burn. We should have a 'who has the worst boo-boo' contest. I win!...this week, anyway.

Even though you are not in the USA right now, I wish you a happy Thanksgiving. Do they have turkeys in China?

That's the spirit, Monica. Take your mind off one pain by creating another. You know what they say, a trouble shared is a trouble halved.

There, there, don't cry. We all love you really, and hope you get better soon. Meanwhile, look on the bright side. You can plead temporary disability, and get the rest of the family to help more than usual (or do I just mean help, for once) in preparing the turkey and everything that goes with it. After all, your hand it going to have heat-phobia for quite a while, and going anywhere near an oven or anything hot is going to be completely out of the question until things return to normal.

I was almost going to say, yesterday, when you mentioned in the puzzle thread that you wanted beer, that you should have plunged your hand into a large mug of it straight away. Of course afterwards you can still drink it. Very versatile, is beer.

Hey, how about posting a photo of your injury? That's sure to make the commiserations flood in!

Are there any left hand pieces you could play?

Oh, Rainer, I did not think about cooking and the heat that comes from it! My sister is cooking the turkey but I am supposed to bring the green bean casserole and also roasted root vegetables. I will have to be very careful that I don't roast my fingers too.....*ouch*!!
But you're right about the family having to help me out around the house. My husband had to wash my hair for me yesterday, and I have gotten out of doing certain chores the past couple days. Hmmm....maybe I can milk this for a while....

I didn't know that about beer. I love beer! haha

Maybe I'll take a photo of my hand when I'm home tonight....but I dunno....that's a little embarrassing.

I don't know any left-hand music, but that's okay because I have no desire to learn any.

Sounds nasty. I would take Eddy's opinion over mine, but Arnica gels are quite good in my experience for relieving bruising, sprains and other miscellaneous ailments and might be worth a try. Helped once when I tripped and fell over two days before a recital and my third finger had swollen up to twice its usual size around the knuckle joint (x-ray revealed a chipped bone). At first I didn't think I would be able to play due to the initial resultant loss of finger mobility.

Oh, Andrew....if your injury had happened this week, then I think you would win the "who has the worst boo-boo" contest. Yikes! I've heard of Arnica - mostly that it helps with bruising. Still, that's interesting information.

Ouch! Four fingers is pretty bad.
During our blackouts here in NJ I suffered one burnt finger - basically from a kerosene lantern. I left it alone (except for lots of antibiotic creme and steroid creme) and it healed ok in about a week. I played a little during that time, but I did not have to play, so I could just quit whenever it hurt. I don't think I could have done a recording session.
(One of the problems is that you don't want to have the cremes on your fingers while playing - it will make the keyboard too slippery.)
I'm sorry, but I doubt that you'll be doing much recording this weekend.

Thanks for wishing me a happy thanksgiving, I'll add that to my list of blessings on this day! No, no turkey in China, probably the closest thing to it is Peking Duck. I have a date with some friends of my family tonite it should be fun, though the Chinese do not celebrate it or regard it as an official holiday.

Well, it's Wednesday now....three days since the incident. My fingers are still red but the skin on the burned parts (blisters) is like leather; there is no feeling there. That's good, I think. I only have certain times when I have enough time to record anything, and I put it in my mind that this weekend I would make at least two or three videos/recordings. I usually do what I say I'm going to do and so I think by Saturday I ought to be able to play again....*fingers crossed*...

That's good, I'm glad you have friends to spend time with today/tonight. A duck is close to a turkey.

Here is a little turkey for you.



EDIT: Stu, you were right. It's been 6 days and I thought my fingers would be healed up enough that I could record today (Saturday). Not going to happen though. I'm bummed....now I have to wait for next weekend.