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

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.