Personal Attacks Tolerated?

Some insults are works of art. For example, the "Divine Comedy" by Dante. Others are just crude and vulgar. Should we make a difference?

 

Wink wink

On to really important things.....


After my one (and so far only) trip to the UK and Germany, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that English and Irish beer are more to my taste. 'Specially the John(?) Smith Extra Smooth served by the cheeky Irish gal at Earl's Court Tavern. 'course I'd drink most anything if she were serving it.

 

Beer is not good, I have decided to stop drinking it, It makes you fall off your motor bike. I had only 4 bottles of Chang beer. Im not saying it was entirley the beers fault I just lost concentration at this road junction and over it went.

How I managed to lift 535 pounds out of the ditch is still a mystery,-- maybe that was the beer? Chang beer 5.3% a good drink -- hic.

I got up early this morning and fixed most of the bent bits, the burn on my leg will take a little longer.

 

I've got a burn, what can you do? They last forever...you die and they keep on keepin' on.



Mine is from just reaching down into the bilge to put a rag under an oil leak and I just contacted my homemade exhaust riser. Damage done.

Beer was not to blame. I was perfectly sober...despite my nickname, I was captaining at the time, but it was the virgin run after many bilge repairs I had made, so my mind was on potential problems as well as real ones. I handed over captain's chair to my brother and indulged in some beer that the less responsible crew had been consuming. I find it to be quite comforting in such situations. Treat beer with respect, use it medicinally, and it will take care of you. Treats many illnesses.

Mike

 

oh thats a nasty burn there ,--but it matches well with your upholstery.

 

On the burn deal: in the hours right after, chill it down with ice packs wrapped in towels until the burn feeling subsides. Protect from all sunlight until fully healed. Do not take hot sowers or baths. Seriously. Use a moisturizing cream until fully healed but be careful as most consumer brands contain some alcohol and also now 'alpha hydroxy acid' which is no good for a burn.

This last tip is really important:

Buy a bottle of vitamin E gel capsules. Twice daily, break open a capsule and apply the vitamin E oil directly to the burn area. It will heal many times faster and leave little or no scar.

All the above is only applicable to first and second degree burns. You appear to have a second degree burn.



I recovered from an auto radiator explosion with no scarring whatsoever using above regimen, after being told by doctors that I would need several skin grafts for my face and chest to heal properly

Jimbo

 

. It takes a lot of practise to become skilled enough to rip a man to the floor and remove his ability to speak ,leaving him with jaw wide and shocked . This takes considerable skills that can only be acheived by years of practise.

i thought that was called Tact lol

 

Its nearly 2 weeks now and my burn is not good. I have read very carefully what Jimbi 1490 has said . The thing is It gets wet constantly because of the climate I am in,--- I have sweat running down my leg now as I type.

I have been using Betadine ( a red stuff) and that makes it kinda ok but some times it goes all gooey and throbs,- I have to wash it and apply the Betadine again.

An assie bloke across from me said I needed Paw Paw ointment,--- Desperate I tried it, I though it was working but naa it turned int a mess.

There seems to be a big hole now where the first scab came off and I have an indentation of about 2-3 mm in to the flesh.

There are some chemists here but I doubt they will have vitemin e capsules but I will have a look -- Cheers Jimbo

 

Betadine (povidone iodine) is a disinfectant solution used to clean skin before surgery and other related tasks. A second degree burn should be well on the way to healed by now. From your description, you may have a secondary infection. Apply a cotton gauze soaked in triple antibiotic ointment to the burn area and keep it covered during the day with this gauze. The gauze may need to be changed throughout the day. You can soak a gauze with the ointment by putting a blob of the ointment in the center of the gauze and then placing the gauze in a warm oven for a few minutes. It's important to protect ANY open wound from running sweat. Sweat can carry pathogens on the surface of your skin into the wound causing infection. Burns are especially susceptible. Can you not stay home for a day or two until the wound closes? You must keep the burn out of the sun. The chemists should have the triple anitbiotic onitmnet. The vitamin E capsules will be useless until the wound closes. In your picture the wound was not open, so it has deteriorated somewhat. Be on the watch for signs of infection such as extreme redness, local swelling, extreme tenderness or red streaks radiating away from the wound. If you have any of these, then you must be prescribed a course of antibiotics by a physician in addition to the ointment soaked gauzes. I'm suprised you have not gone in to see a phyician yet. Is there none close by?

Jimbo

 

Boy are we of the the topic or what??

The picture is not of my burn Jimbo,the picture is Bilgeboys burn. Mine is a disgusting mess and would put people off there lunch. I am at home!!! I am retired and sitting on the deck of my boat,--the sweat doesnt know that I suppose.

Physician???? well there are a few Indian quacks in town in the shopping centre. I have been to see them before but when they find out I am English they are more concerned about talking Manchester United
I am on an Island called Langkawi just off the west coast of Thailand /Malaysia. Your not supposed to be sick here its a tourist destination!!
I thank you for your input Jimbo and I will try to keep it dry. I will wander down town later and see if I can get some stuff you advise,Thank you.

Amoxacilin perhaps?? cheap broad spectrum antibiotic should be availabe,although I shall watch very carefully for red streaks.

 

Sorry, Jack. I didn't realize it was so bad when I was joking around. Well, you did too, and yes, that is the couch that I am sitting on presently. The Admiral's choice, but quite comfortable, thank you.

Jimbo clearly has some good advice, the best being that you be seen by a physician.

I will humbly offer a few more thoughts, as I would treat the wound a bit differently.

I wouldn't put anything IN the wound (ointments, salves, vitamins, etc). Twice daily dressing changes, and here's how I would do it. Soak sterile dressings in saline solution, squeeze out, and pack in the defect in your skin. The wet dressings have to be the appropriate size to fill the defect in skin, but not contact healthy skin. Wrap that with dry dressings. Keep the dry...well, dry.

You should start a course of oral antibiotics for sure, I would say Keflex (Cephalexin...it has a few different marketed names). You can't buy this stuff "over the counter" here in the US, but you probably can in Thailand. Its an excellent antibiotic to kill the bacteria that live on the skin, and I guarantee that a wound that is pussing out as you describe is filled with them.

If there is dead tissue in there, nothing will prevent the bacteria from feasting. I think a physician could quickly determine if there is dead tissue or not. You can, too, but you will be less likely to perform an adequate debridement of dead/burned tissue than a physician. Its not you...its just human nature not to take a knife to your own leg. The dressing regimen will help this, though.

The idea behind this kind of dressing is that the moist dressings kind of sticks to tissue in the wound a bit, and as you remove the old dressing, it debrides the wound for you. Healthy tissue will not come off with the dressing changes, but the dead tissue and bugs will. The wound will infiltrate with white blood cells ( it clearly already has), and they can manage the rest. Some docs still use weak solution of iodine in wounds, but this has been shown to slow healing. Bad for bacteria, but bad for your cells, too.

Gradually, the defect heals, and you will know when you can stop the wet, and just keep dry. And no, I didn't make this up. Its pretty much the standard of care in the US.

Keep us filled in, and if you don't mind posting a pic of the injury, I am curious.

If you do see a doctor, it will prevent us from having a public discussion about diabetes in your family, etc, etc, etc..

Good Luck,

Mike

 

It took me so long to type that, you already replied and I missed it. Now I got the big picture.

Keflex. Amoxacillin is ok, but almost too broad, and at least send me a picture to my email.

Mike

 

I havent got a digital camera yet. I should have as this island is also duty free ( you wouldnt believe how cheap the beer is).

Any way I have Betadine, Some antiseptic ointment, and lots and lots of sea water. It maybe a stupid question after all of your input Jimbo and Bilgboy but its times like these that I just dive into the sea and clean the props for an hour or two . It works wonders on cuts and abrassions.

Would it not get all the gungey stuff off and clean it up? It seems a silly question when you have spent a while typing dont get it wet. But what do you think?

 

biopaceaton... is that the rghit seplling fro hte medicine?... wrok evrythetime

 

Jack,

Paw Paw ointment???

Bloody stupid Aussie.

I swear that stuff is the hippie-cure-it-all-snake-oil-rub of gullible Australians.
It is nothing but a few milligrams of fermented paw paw mixed into a tub of vaseline. For some reason they have avoided putting this on the lable, and accordingly most users don't know this (my dads a cosmetic Pharmacist).

I don't mean to be alarmist,
but seriously
if it is red, inflamed, aching and not healing,
GET YOURSELF SOME SERIOUS ANTIBIOTICS IMMEDIATLY.

I have two very good freinds who got measly little scratches on their legs in Thailand, as it happended in exactly the same spot- in the middle of their shin-bone, one six years ago, and one about a month ago. Through absent mindedness, they both let the wounds get infected.
BOTH OF THEM ALMOST LOST THEIR LEGS.

The guy from six years ago had to get a skin graft from his *** nearly the size of his palm (it took almost a year to heal- and still doesn't look good- and for months looked like the graft was going to fall off), while the one a few weeks ago simply had to spend two weeks of his one month holiday in agony in a thai hospital contemplating a one-legged life. He still has a big gory hole in his leg- but luckily no need for a graft.

I don't know what it is about Thailand (other than the heat, humidity and lovely array of germs) but infections there are not a good thing.

The pharmacueticals in thailand are simply excellent, and cheap- best place to stock up for a travellers medi-kit.
Get yourself down to doctors, or at the very least a pharmacy (unless you are on a tiny island they should have one) and get some oral superstrength antibiotics, combined with some superstrength antibiotic cream.

I don't think betadine is going to cut it.

Seriously.

Hans.