I’ve burnt my hand and I’m not sure if it’s bad or not

[Grappala]

Excruciatingly painful, happened around 2 hrs ago.

No blisters or white skin, but it’s gone wrinkled and tight, I can’t bend my thumb or two fingers as the skin feels so tight. Very red. One finger tip feels numb

I’ve had it in cold water on and off and taken painkillers. I work in A&E (non clinical) but I’m not in until Monday.

Does anyone have any ideas if this burn sounds superficial or not?

What did you burn it with? I splashed myself with hot oil. I went to the doctor and he dressed it with moist dressings. Really took the pain out of it. I did have some little blisters.
Take ibuprofen for the pain. It really helps.

This is the finger I’m most concerned about, it feels so tight I can’t bend it and the fingertip is dull like I can’t feel it properly

My worry is if it doesn't hurt then it might have burnt the nerves and in that case, yes it's bad. Does it hurt? I know you said one fingertip is numb, but what about the rest?

If it's thumbs and two fingers that's a bigish burn. I'd lean towards having it checked out.

I was very stupidly being lazy taking corn on the cob out of a boiling pan of water. I turned the cob on the side with the stabby corn holder thing and pushed it in to remove from the pan. Corn slipped as I was pushing down and my whole hand submerged in the pan.

I ran it straight under the tap

It sounds pretty nasty. How did you do it?

Any chance of a pic? Could be worth cling filming as when I had a large first degree burn it helped immensely once I'd done the cooling thing.

I didn't think mine was that bad until I went to the GP on the advice of the pharmacist and was seen by a former A&E nurse who immediately dressed it.

I ended up dressed and strapped for two weeks!

Sorry! In the time it took me to type that essay you'd already had replies

I have to admit I've had similar looking burns from hot water that I've treated myself. I now keep burn lotion in the house. It really helps.

When you say in and out of water, do you mean in a bowl? Ideally you need cold running water.

If you’re worried then please call 111

That’s superficial and looks like a steam burn which burn like a bitch. You will
Absolutely get a blister of it. I’ve had a really bad burn once when I fell on to an old electric ring cooker. The rings were red and my whole hand fell on it. It went white immediately and I was screaming in pain. Horrid. Had to have the dead skin cut off.

I personally wouldn’t go hospital. I burn myself all the time

It's the air hitting nerve endings makes it hurt like mad. Ointment on and cover it with cling film

Oh missed the up date. If you whole hand submerged in boiling water go A&E. your other fingers look fine though?

Op, if the burn goes all the way around any of the fingers, that needs to be seen by a doctor asap.
Any burn of that size on fingers or hands needs to be seen.

Burnshield Hydrogel is the stuff I use. It's excellent. I have clumsiness issues. I burn myself a lot. I always go straight to cokd running water, the hydrogel and Nurofen if i get a burn these days.

It might take some time to blister. If the blister is more than a centimetre then you should go to a minor injuries walk in. They will treat it and de-roof it so that it heals better and then dress it.

I found this article. Says if over 3 inches, you should see a doctor www.healthline.com/health/boiling-water-burn#outlook

Keep going with the cold water, go to minor injuries first thing in the morning. Hand burns are very unstable and they'll always want to see you. If it was day time I'd say go now, but casualty at midnight isn't quite what you need. I know I'm answering as if Corona isn't happening, but for injuries we kind of should act like that's the case...

We’ve been putting the message out all week that we are “open for business” so I’m happy to go, it’s just a very weird burn! Skin feels like it’s shrunk but gone wrinkled at the same time iyswim

Thanks for replies

Get yourself some special gel burn plasters. They sell them at Boots and larger supermarkets. They really helped me when I burned my hand quite badly a couple of years ago.

I had a very similar steam burn. I did it st around 6pm and even after several houra I had to keep my fingers in a cup of water whilst trying to fall asleep as it was so painful. Sounds so silly as it was a tiny burn but my goodness did it hurt! Pain went away around 2am after having it in cold water for ages. Hope the pain settles OP :)

It's not to bad I have done the same before ice pack on for a few mins then off again to remove the sting I always use warm water it will hurt for about a week but not bad enough for a and e no blisters or skin missing

I had a saucepan with a metal handle in the oven the other week. I took it out with oven gloves and then put it on top of the hob. I then promptly forgot that it had been in the oven and picked it up with my bare hand as you would normally pick up a pan! The parts of my hand were charred white and I couldn't feel a bit of my finger.

I reeeaally didn't want to go to A&E late in the evening so took some painkillers today and ran it under cool water then soaked it in bowl of cool water with some dettol. Then I covered it in aloe Vera and wrapped in clingfilm. I think I used some sudocrem and kept it covered over the next couple of days but it healed amazingly. I was mostly worried that the skin would break and I would be left with a huge open wound on my dominant hand when I still had to go shopping, to work etc.

The moral of my story is to treat it properly (I never normally do!) and then see how it looks/feels in the morning.

How long did you run it under water for?

Personally I wouldn't go to a and e for that. Cool it down and see how it is in the morning. I'm not a medic!

If you've a burn the whole way around your finger and you've any worries you should go to A&E. A full circumference burn can cause a strangulation effect as there's nowhere the inevitable swelling can go - potentially cutting off the blood supply.

Best to get it looked at.