burn (follow-up)

[redbird]

I poked around the Web--refdesk.com took me to Medline and the Mayo Clinic--and then my medicine cabinet, and have applied an aloe vera sunburn gel to my leg, with some hesitation: the packaging said not to use if there was blistering, but the Mayo Clinic specifically suggests aloe vera gel for this situation. Since the product is marketed/labeled for sunburns, I suspect that the message is "if your sunburn is bad enough to blister, seek medical help".

The blister is small, and I really don't want to deal with an emergency room on a Sunday night. Depending on what cattitude says when he says this, on how I feel by morning, and on any comments I get, I may go to my doctor tomorrow. I've also taken two aspirin.

Comments

[treadpath.livejournal.com]

Be careful with aloe vera gels--make sure they are all aloe vera. Some of them have lanolin in them, which is good for unbroken, healthy skin, but can irritate burns.

I hope you feel better soon!

[redbird]

The "active ingredient" is actually lidocaine HCl 0.5%, and the other ingredients are aloe vera gel, water, propylene glycol [is there anything that doesn't contain propylene glycol these days?], glycerin, triethanolamine, isopropyl alcohol, polysorbate 80 [see previous parenthetical], carbomer, diazolidynil urea, menthol, disodium EDTA, FC&C yellow no. 5, FC&C blue no. 1. The last two combine to produce an attractive medium green color. I think I have the commas and capitalization right, but the packaging is in all caps and the commas tend to run into the preceding letters.

Having read this, I want something different, but that'll have to wait for a trip to the drugstore tomorrow.

I am also considering the (im)practicalities of gauze pads, antibiotic ointments, et alia.

[treadpath.livejournal.com]

I am scared of things that contain urea. Because, um, isn't urea like... well, that stuff in urine? Chief nitrogenous waste of mammals?

Or is it something else that they just call urea, to make it sound suspicious and unappetizing?

Like, one time, my acupuncturist prescribed medicine for me that had an ingredient that sounded like crickets, which freaked me out, but it turned out to be an herb that had the exact same name as crickets. How freaky is that!?!?!!

Urea is sterile

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

And so is urine when it comes fresh from your body.

Re: Urea is sterile

[treadpath.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but I still don't wanna drink it! :)

[elusis.livejournal.com]

Urea is essentially a salt. It draws moisture and holds it (at least, that's its application in the dyeing of cloth, to keep your cloth evenly damp while the dye sets). It's not going to cause an infection.

[treadpath.livejournal.com]

I'm not worried it will cause an infection--it just sounds icky! Urea. It's nearly as icky-sounding as the word moist. ;)

I just reread my comment and I realize now that to people who don't know me, it may sound like I am actually frightened of and/or worried about using products with urea in them. In actuality, I was just laughing at the inordinate amount of skeeviness I feel uttering the word urea.

Thanks for the background on urea--sorry to waste your time. I am starting to realize my dumb sense of humour doesn't really translate on lj.

Here's something different

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

Use REAL aloe vera gel. There's so little aloe in aloe gels, that they don't deserve the name. It's pretty easy to find the plants, and they are very, very difficult to kill. Take a large leaf, split it, scrape off the clear pulp, and apply to the burn. If you want, you can also put it in a blender with a drop of water. That's much easier to apply. To be honest, a coffee grinder that's never been used for coffee is better than a blender, but not too many people other than herbalists have those around.

I'll bet that if you put out a SOS to friends, one of them will have both an aloe with a big fat leaf they can give you and a baby plant clinging to the mother to pot up for you.

Another good thing for burns is calendula cream or gel. Calendula kills bacteria as well as healing the skin.