George Foreman grilled my arm. Preventing scars?

Ginzue

My little grill grilled my bicep pretty bad, its 5 lines of red and 3 of bubbly white skin. Should I drain this? How do I prevent white scars, as this area is so visible.

It really hurts too.

I don't have health care, so OTC ideas? Thanks!

Gabriel_Pitt

If it's just red skin and blisters, then leave it be. A cold compress should help ease the pain. Carefully put some burn cream on it, loosely wrap a gauze bandage over it if it's too big for a bandaid of any sort, and let it heal. Second degree burns might leave minor scarring or discoloration, especially if you pick at them.

LiveWire

:shock:

How did you manage to grill your bicep, may I ask?

Falx

After they've healed, if you notice markings try putting on some vitamin E oil everyday. I have a scar on my forehead, and after using the oil for a few weeks it went from an angry red to skintone and almost halved in size.

Also, some mild tanning does wonders for the skin. 15-20 minutes a day with some decent sunblock will give your vitamin D, which is also good for the skin, a big boost.

meeker

No advice, just wondering if anyone has seen The Office where Michael grills his foot on the George Foreman.
Too funny!

Rook

Ginzue wrote: »

My little grill grilled my bicep pretty bad, its 5 lines of red and 3 of bubbly white skin. Should I drain this? How do I prevent white scars, as this area is so visible.

It really hurts too.

I don't have health care, so OTC ideas? Thanks!

There are over the counter scar reduction creams, I couldn't recommend a specific one, but it's worth going into your local pharmacy and asking for advice.

starmanbrand

Also: Do not drain the blisters. People everywhere will tell you you have to, but do not.

One of my instructors at culinary school told me that inside of a blister is some weird type of healing agent, that if mixed in with your blood, can cause some kind of poisoning. I called him on bullshit and went to investigate.

It is just plasma separated from blood and HELPS the healing process.

Keep it intact as long as you can.

If it does burst, neosporin. I think is what it is called. That stuff also helps scars.

RNEMESiS42

LiveWire wrote: »

:shock:

How did you manage to grill your bicep, may I ask?

I'm wondering, also. I've never even burnt a finger with that grill!

embrik

LiveWire wrote: »

:shock:

How did you manage to grill your bicep, may I ask?

The first rule of fight club is... you do not talk about fight club.


Anyway, as suggested, Neosporin or any generic bacitracin zinc ointment (pronounced bass-ih-trace-in) should help. Just rub into the burned area every day.

Here's a helpful page from WebMD. Note the part that says not to break the blisters.

Nrthstar

A&D Ointment works well as does a lot of the Tattoo after care products. I've used these before. Whatever you use, just don't over do it, you'll end up with zits growing from the area if there's too much of the product clogging up your skin. I doubt you can afford to have ichy zits around your burn marks.

Ginzue

Okay, I'll leave the blisters. Once they pop I'll put some anti-scar stuff on them.

As for how I got the burn, my dorm fire alarm started going off, and I did NOT want to get firetrucks there, so I quickly unplugged the device, but my power strip was in a tricky place, and so my arm hit the grill as I unplugged it, my fingers got burnt as well, but I hardly notice the burns there.

Blah dorms.

LondonBridge

I've had many burns in my life and the best way to prevent scaring is not to drain the blisters. I found vaseline helps with the healing really well. Smear some on and cover the burn so you don't pick at it.

LoveIsUnity

Be very gentle to the area. Make sure it is not constantly irritated, scratched, bumped, etc... You shouldn't have any scarring as long as you aren't constantly irritating it and forcing it to take longer than normal to heal. Also, if you do see any scarring, I've heard very good things about Mederma for eventually breaking up and making scars less visible.

Pheezer

If you're young and it's only a mild burn (as it sounds to be, red marks and blistering but no bleeding or missing skin or anything is probably just a really rough first degree burn) you won't have any scars. I mean, that's not a guarantee by any means, but it's unlikely that you'll need to use special creams to minimize them, it doesn't sound very serious.

We may have different definitions of serious though. I worked in kitchens for four years and after a while you stop noticing a lot of the burns, and you really only remember the worst ones. If this is your worst, I'd say you're doing pretty good.

In summary, don't worry, just don't fuck with it.

brandotheninjamaster

starmanbrand wrote: »

Also: Do not drain the blisters. People everywhere will tell you you have to, but do not.

One of my instructors at culinary school told me that inside of a blister is some weird type of healing agent, that if mixed in with your blood, can cause some kind of poisoning. I called him on bullshit and went to investigate.

It is just plasma separated from blood and HELPS the healing process.

Keep it intact as long as you can.

If it does burst, neosporin. I think is what it is called. That stuff also helps scars.

Once when I was about 17 my cousin and I were playing with compressed air (y'know the stuff you clean computers with) we each gave ourselves frostbite (I don't know if was full scale frostbite cause I never went to the doctor. But it bared a close resemblance to a 2nd degree burn) on the forearm. Blisters developed. I was in incredible pain, I did my best to keep my blisters intact. I had a system: neosporin, gauze, then ace bandage. After about a month it healed and left a small scar. My cousin did not share the same fate. He picked his blister and got a major infection. It was pretty gross, where the frostbite was there was like a green spot the size of a quarter beneath the wound. The Doctor that saw him said that if it went on any longer there was a very big possibility that it could have spread into his blood.

By the way, I know this wasn't a crowning moment for my intelligence, but we're all entitled to at least one stupid thing in our life right? ...right?

TL;DR Had a similar burn. Don't pick your blisters; its bad news.

Sarcastro

Not so much with the vaseline, oils and petroleum based products will not help. See Also: No Butter. Good liming on the no -blister popping, leave that skin intact, and you may not even get a mark.

There are scar reduction creams, the vitamin E advice was pretty good, and for another option, get some straight, plain old Aloe Vera. Squozed straight from the plant if you can find one. That stuff works amazingly well.

Nrthstar

Bempentole (not entirely sure if that's spelled right) is good stuff. But there's a catch. You can't buy it in the US. You have to order it from South America. It actually helps skin regenerate. I've had friends use it on their tattoos after getting an especially large area covered to aid in the healing process.

ben0207

DrDizaster wrote: »

If you're young and it's only a mild burn (as it sounds to be, red marks and blistering but no bleeding or missing skin or anything is probably just a really rough first degree burn) you won't have any scars. I mean, that's not a guarantee by any means, but it's unlikely that you'll need to use special creams to minimize them, it doesn't sound very serious.

We may have different definitions of serious though. I worked in kitchens for four years and after a while you stop noticing a lot of the burns, and you really only remember the worst ones. If this is your worst, I'd say you're doing pretty good.

In summary, don't worry, just don't fuck with it.

Some of the burns I used to get in the chip shop... I used to only notice them when customers were recoiling in fear at the sight of my arms. Still got some scars too. You think a George Forman is hot? Try vegetable oil at 190 degrees. Sticks like napalm and you're too busy to wash it off enough. Worse are the curry sauce and Mushy Peas. Kept in a Bains Marie for hours at a time, they scald within about half a second of contact and always blister.

So anyway, don't burst it, keep it clean and if it does scar lie about how you got it.

Spacehog85

ben0207 wrote: »

DrDizaster wrote: »

If you're young and it's only a mild burn (as it sounds to be, red marks and blistering but no bleeding or missing skin or anything is probably just a really rough first degree burn) you won't have any scars. I mean, that's not a guarantee by any means, but it's unlikely that you'll need to use special creams to minimize them, it doesn't sound very serious.

We may have different definitions of serious though. I worked in kitchens for four years and after a while you stop noticing a lot of the burns, and you really only remember the worst ones. If this is your worst, I'd say you're doing pretty good.

In summary, don't worry, just don't fuck with it.

Some of the burns I used to get in the chip shop... I used to only notice them when customers were recoiling in fear at the sight of my arms. Still got some scars too. You think a George Forman is hot? Try vegetable oil at 190 degrees. Sticks like napalm and you're too busy to wash it off enough. Worse are the curry sauce and Mushy Peas. Kept in a Bains Marie for hours at a time, they scald within about half a second of contact and always blister.

So anyway, don't burst it, keep it clean and if it does scar lie about how you got it.

Lying how you got it! couldnt agree more!

Kitchens are bad. Brazing copper is worse
I'm a steamfitter apprentice, and I was in soldering/brazing class. We had to cut the fittings in half length wise so the instructor could inspect them. guy in the class finishes brazing, then proceedes to grab the peice he was working on to take it to the saw. He tried dropping it, except it was stuck to his skin
I've not seen anything like it since, nor do I want to.

starmanbrand

If that is the worse you have seen you probably have never seen a sugar burn or a bad steam burn.

Oh the carnage.

And yeah. ..Burning yourself on a george foreman grill is pretty meh.

How about something like saving orphans from a burning circus?

Ladies love it.

Spacehog85

Who saved the clowns from the circus?

Pheezer

okay guys

not being too helpful at this point are we

let's go back on topic now