Do I need to see a doctor?

I have burned myself. I did it yesterday with hot water. Just being absent minded and managed to get boiling water on myself. Treated it with cold water and Motrin yesterday. It is on the top of my leg, actually I got both legs but today just one is bad.
The red area is just over the size of my fist (I do have man hands a bit) and there are a few blisters. Do I need to have this looked at or am I ok to try to just keep the blisters from bursting as best I can?
I hate going to the doctor. It is a long drive to town and a long wait in a waiting room. I thought I should ask some of you, who may have some medical knowledge, if I really should or not. I am happy to tough it out, but don't want to make things worse.

Here is what it looks like this morning:

I would not go but that is me I had a pan of bacon grease dump on my hand last year and burnt bad but I did not go It looked terible but I am like you I hate going
I would use some neosporin on it cover with it good and also a loose covering while you are in the house and keep it covered when out side
I feel your pain as I know how a Burn feels
Thats what I would do I know others will say doctor but Doctors and me dont mix

I'm with Appway. Many stores these days sell pads and gauge for burns that are no stick and allow air in so the burn can breath.

My hand was badly burnt as a child by an iron. I was maybe 5? Didn't know it was on and I went to pick it up by grabbing the side you iron with. They had to use a egg flipper to pull my palm off. Never went to the doctor. Back in those days, there was a kind of medicated gauge we had. It was kept in a tin and had a gel on it. My mom wrapped my hand up in that. I remeber my brother holding me all afternoon as I cried. I was in so much pain. My hand healed. Never went to a doctor.

.

Thanks everyone. I was ok with it until I got on the internet......that'll teach me!
Tara, black eye, boiled legs and don't forget the dislocated finger. Accident waiting to happen. Hubby says if I am tough enough to have him put my finger back in a little red skin and a few blisters won't hold me back!

All I have here is polysporin and honey. Just store bought honey though. Will have to go down to ranch to look for something to cover it with. Horse and cattle emergency supplies are in more abundance than human ones here.

Will be in my baggy track pants for a few days, scared to put my jeans on. I will try to keep the blisters intact as long as possible. Sounds like infection is my enemy in this so will keep an eye on that.

Thanks again for everyone's help.

coopslave wrote:Horse and cattle emergency supplies are in more abundance than human ones here.

Bahahaha! Here, too. And they're better organized.

Coop even tho you have store bought Honey it would work for this
Take 2 Tablespoons of Honey and add 1/2 tsp of Cinnamon to it mix well take 1 tsp of it 2x a day it helps increase the immune syswtem I know its hokey pokey home remedy's but believe me it does work and it does not take long to start working Darwin and I do it every day and with everyone we see having colds we have been real lucky I do it as the Doctor said if I get a real bad cold again it might be my last so I do all I can that is natural for my immune system

I agree. Doc won't do much for you. You can handle this at home, although doc might have access to better pain drugs. The question is, will he share?

For the first few days I would not put anything greasy on it. No air blocking ointments. Even though honey and aloe and vit E are healers, I would leave it alone and let the air at it. BUT, at the first sign of infection I'd apply honey. But if it's healing along nicely (although it must hurt like the dickens) I"d leave it alone and hope your body sorts itself out. Rush in with help if things go off the rails.

There goes your career as a bikini model.

Remember Coop, all those accidents just make you far more interesting  

Man, first it was my hand model career ending and now the bikini model. What if I actually have to fall back on my brain to help me survive? What will I do???

Funny when I was young I participated in lots of high injury risk activities and was never hurt. Now that I am a middle aged, fat woman I seem to get a major injury every year. Will keep you all posted what I get next year!! lol

I guess colloidal silver is out of the question...

Oh dear cant you get someone to drive you to a clinic?
HR and I really think you should get to a doctor.  Burns have a reallyhigh chance of infection!
Yikes thosr pictures scare me.

That is a bad burn. I worked at as a medical assistant for 20 yrs at a walk in medical clinic. The doc would probably treat it with flamazine. He would also want to see you in a week to check for infection. But you could also use the leaves of an aloe Vera plant. Just dab it on gently every few hours. It will minimize your pain and speed the healing process. Good luck. Lou Any sign of infection head to the doc. It could turn septic.

Yikes! Don't like the looks of that! I'm with loushrop - any sign of infection, head to a doctor.

I am taking the wait and see approach and being very careful. What do I need to watch for with infection? It is very red so redness will not be a sign. A couple of the bigger blisters have deflated.
Thanks for your help everyone, this is actually kinda interesting.

coopslave wrote:  Now that I am a middle aged, fat woman I seem to get a major injury every year.  Will keep you all posted what I get next year!!  lol

i love it! i am so not alone!

Coopslave...i agree with HIggensrat? to get yourself an aloe vera plant. You take a leaf, split it open and apply to your burn. hold it there for at least 5-10 minutes and it will be a miraculous recovery...we have some amazing plants at our disposal...
it is the only inside plant i have

If the burn has any sign of redness outside the burn area or if there is any swelling in the burn area. Also if there is no sign of healing beginning within 3 or four days you need to see a doc. Lou

Thanks Lou. Will make sure I keep an eye on it.

Years ago, I got a series of vaccination shots for Immigration purposes to the US; I threw away the pamphlets they gave me because the shots felt like a swarm of bees had moved into my arms and the doctor had warned me before hand. One of the shots he gave, however, up to 6 months after the shot can cause momentary and sudden loss of muscle control in the shot arm. Should have read that pamphlet.

I was cooking instant potatoes, had a pot of water, butter and salt at a full rolling boil, grabbed it and had that rare symptom. As I pulled back from the stove, I felt my arm lose sensation and in that split second knew I was going to drop that pot. I tried to jerk my shoulder forward, but caught the edge of the stove and spilled it down my jeans. I was alone, and my arm's sensation didn't come back for about a minute and a half, ended up in the shower, fully dressed under ice cold (not excellent) water.

The next morning, I had a water blister an inch high off my leg and about 5 inches long. I wore skirts (I never wear skirts) and tried to sleep on my back (which I still don't do). It eventually popped itself, and despite an OCD-type impulse to peel skin, I managed not to. I kept it patted down with polysporin and only peeled the skin back if it started to yellow or go off colour. It took over a month to heal, and 5 years later, you can still see the scar when I come out of a hot shower.

Leave it be and keep the flesh fresh and you're good to go.

My first reach for anything is colloidal silver water and then unpastuerized honey.  Particularly burns.  Pasteurized honey will also work, but does not have the antibacterial properties, because those enzymes are destroyed with the pasteurization process.  Honey has a very low pH, which inhibits the growth of bacteria, bacteria cannot live in this low pH environment.  Anyways.  You probably do not have colloidal silver water (hospitals use it for burn patients and Johnson & Johnson make a bandaid with silver molecules in it too, by the way).  Get that burn covered with a telfa pad, anything that will not stick.  After you have put honey on the wound.  You do not want to break the blister, that allows bacteria to enter, if bacteria is present.  With honey applied, there would be no bacteria.  You do not want the wound open to the air. There is bacteria in the air.

My Husband had a severe burn on his hand two years ago, first winter we moved to the Okanagan.  He had grabbed some electrical wire that was burning hot.  doesn't matter why the wire was burning, but it was.  Horrible burns on the hands.  That hand was treated daily with colloidal silver water and kept bandaged with honey.  For two weeks this was performed.  The blisters never broke, and the hand to this day shows no evidence of any burn aftermath or scarring.  Perhaps the scarring never took place because of the nature of the skin on the bottom of the hand, but you would never know.  Your biggest concern is to keep that clean, no matter how you do it, not break the blister, the blistered skin is protecting the flesh below.  Wounds heal from the inside out.  Eventually that skin will completely be gone, as the new skin below regrows.  Hope all goes well with you, burns are painful. With that, do find something to have a great day, CynthiaM.

This was what my Husband's burned hand looked like, it was awful.

Thanks everyone.
Here is a quick update. I sort of did nothing for the first day. The second day I had some people come to look at a horse I have for sale. On go the jeans and I know already it is not the best thing I could be doing. By the time I am done I have a large wet spot on my thigh and all the blisters have burst, not good.
Luckily the local store had some gauze and I used some peroxide to clean it up and put polysporin on it and covered it. Just before bed I had a look and it was not good. Red, inflamed and very angry looking. Changed plans and put some store bought honey on it overnight. Next morning it looked much better. Cleaned the honey off, used peroxide again and polysporin again. By the afternoon it was very angry again!! I have learned for me, polysporin does not work on burns. Clean it up again, many of the blisters have filled again. My wonderful neighbour used to have bees and she had some of her honey still. She was kind and shared it with me and overnight I did the honey treatment again. I can not tell you how much better it is this morning. Yay.
Still tender and sore, but not angry looking. Blisters are not as full and the edges are receding in the red area.
We used to use honey on the horses in Australia all the time, think I will be doing it more again!
I thought you might like an update, I will be using honey on it from now on.

Try just rinsing it with Luke warm water, or better yet if you have any saline solution kicking around. Peroxide can damage the new skin trying to heal. Ploys portion might be too oily, not a great first choice for a burn but the honey is great!!! In the burn unit they have silver impregnated dressings and I believe they have fancy " medi honey" or unpasturized honey that they use hope you heal fast!

Nice to hear of the progress, it was for surely the honey that helped so much. Why do not enough people know about the healing power of the golden liquid. It has been a power cure for as long as the human kind knew about the gift of the honeybees. I have seen miracles occur with honey used as curing agent, I kid you not. Anyways, moot now I guess. Glad you listened and used honey and it was even better that you had a neighbour with clearly and probably unpastuerized honey. I never in a million years would use hydrogen peroxide on skin, as was mentioned, it is just downright bad what it can do to skin. Period. Did you hear Briarwood? Yes, dressings impregnated with silver molecules, silver, right? Silver...remember silver....powerful healing agent too, silver, remember that, silver... my Brother's Son had a serious burn injury from falling on a walking tred machine. The hospital used silver impregnated dressings, the dressings, he said, if he would have had to pay for it would be in the $100 range. Learn about silver. It is not hokey pokey and has been around since time begin, oh and didn't only a SILVER bullet kill vampires? have a beautiful day, CynthiaM.

Thought I would update you all.
Burn looks good. Seems to be healing. One of the blisters that broke gave me a bit of trouble but when I was in town the pharmacist I spoke to told me to use polysoprin for burns on that bit and it has helped a lot. The no stick pads are way more comfortable too.
It is starting to get a bit itchy, I see that as a good sign. Still tough to wear jeans and I think I am going to have a huge scar, but it appears to be healing well.
Thanks everyone for their help!

CynthiaM, silver bullet is for werewolves I think, stake through the heart for vampires. I may be wrong.