Burn Update: 1 lesson learned

So, my hand has healed very well from my nasty burn on Monday and something very surprising happened when I stopped applying lavender... On Monday and Tuesday I put lavender on my burn site regularly - no blister.  On Wednesday and Thursday morning I didn't apply any lavender.  By Thursday afternoon I had started to develop a small flat blister pocket on the palm of my hand.  As soon as I realized that I was getting a blister I have been putting lavender on it a few times a day and the size has gotten slightly smaller and it has stayed very flat with almost no fluid inside.  The blister is unlike other blisters that I have had in that it has not interfered with my use of my hand.  The lack of fluid is pretty remarkable.

In summary, this is what I learned from this experience:

To avoid big puffy fluid filled blisters, apply lavender until the burn has completely healed.

Well, thats all folks!  Oh.. and if you are scratching your head and saying? "Burn? What Burn?" Please read my previous post on my wicked burn.   

Burns + Lavender = No Blisters!

 Ok, I know I promised to blog about everything mom related… not just lavender…. But I just cannot pass the opportunity to share this crazy thing that I did yesterday and how lavender saved me from a lot of agony.

Last night I was cooking with a skillet that I had put in the oven at 410 degrees Fahrenheit—you see where this is going don’t you?  I pulled the skillet out, tossed my oven mitt to the side, checked the temperature of my meat, and you guessed it – I grabbed the handle of the skillet with my bare hand.  Yowzer!  It hurt a lot.  This was by far my dumbest and most painful burn of my life.  At the moment, I was sure that my hand was going to be totally unusable for days.  Luckily I was wrong, thanks to the heroine of this story, dun, dun, dun, Lavender!

Thanks to lavender, what I have to tell you now is pretty unbelievable.   Are you ready?

I do not have a single blister on my hand!

You are probably sitting there thinking, “come on Mumma Lavender get a grip, that burn must not have been that bad”.  Actually, this was a really bad burn.  The pain was excruciating for hours.  It was so severe that I thought that I would not be able to fall asleep AT ALL.

 This picture is from 12 hours after grabbing the skillet.  The burn area actually stretches from the first knuckle from each of my fingertips all the way to the bottom of my palm to the base of my thumb.  My pinky was pretty much spared.  Right now my skin is shiny and warped in some places, but in others you can’t even see that I was burned.  In fact, my ring finger and palm were the areas that hurt the most.  Now you cannot even see that my ring finger was part of the burn area.  Thank you lavender!

So why does this all matter?  I am so glad you asked…

I always assumed that bad burn = bad blister = ripped off skin = lots-of-pain-for-days-and-days.  It was the natural order of things.  Now I realize that blisters don’t have to be a way of life!  No blister = no raw skin = no infection!  I probably will not even get a scar.  Lavender is making this burn heal very fast.

This also means that one day post burn, when baby Max stood up WITHOUT-HOLDING-ON-TO-ANYTHING-FOR-THE-FIRST-TIME-EVER I was able to clap with all my might!

So now, I’ll get to the specifics of what I did to prevent blister mayhem all over my hand.

As soon as I realized that I had burnt my hand, I did what most people do – I ran my hand under cool water for a few minutes.

Next, I gently spread several drops of lavender all over my burn.

Finally, I filled a bowl with water, 4-5 drops of lavender, and a few ice cubes.  I used this to keep a small washcloth constantly moist with cool water by dipping it in and wringing it out periodically.  I spread the wet towel over my burn.

I basically used this cool compress all evening until I was ready to go to bed.  I also reapplied lavender directly to my burn under the compress once every hour or so.

When it was time to go to bed I was actually afraid because every time I took the compress off my hand the pain started to intensify incredibly quickly.  My hand looked all right but it felt like I was still gripping that hot pan.  I really thought I would not get any sleep until I remembered something: I have an Aloe plant!

So I broke off a piece (actually my husband did because I was pretty useless at this stage) and spread the inside goo and fibers onto my hand over a fresh application of lavender.   The coolness and moisture of the plant kept my pain at a much more tolerable level and I was able to sleep - A deep lavender sleep -which I had also put under my toes of course ;)

Disclosure:  I am not a doctor, just a mere mortal that uses essential oils for everything.  I am also a Young Living distributor (#3126359) and my statements have not been certified by the FDA.  If you are considering using essential oils, please do your research on which oils are healthy and safe for therapeutic uses.  Not all oils are created equal.