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Noemon, Are you still looking for what to do about the blisters when you go back to Aikido. I have lead several student groups on backpacking trips where blisters became a major issue. I recommend that you put the second skin stuff on the blisters and then put duct tape over the second skin. No, this is not a joke, it works really well. For years I used mole skin but I learned about using duct tape for blisters in a wilderness first aid course and it works even better than the mole skin. After the blisters heal, I would recommend putting duct tape on your feet before the Aikido class. It may get you some strange looks but it works really well for preventing friction blisters.
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I forgot to mention above that once the blisters have popped, put polysporin (or something similar) on them before you apply the bandage. It worked really well for our backcountry trips. No problems with infection.
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CT, I'm curious as to how silvadene compares to ointments that contain chlorhexidine? Are you aware of any research that compares the two?
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Rabbit, all I know of chlorhexadine is its use as an oral rinse in peridontal problems, and that it can be embedded as a gelchip under the gumline for localized antimicrobial dissemination. We also use it as a skin prep sometimes, I think. I've never run across it in an ointment preparation. (Alucard? Tullaan? Theca?)
I don't think it's been approved for use in children. The Peridex oral rinse also can have the side effect of soft tissue ulceration, so it may be too strong for general recommendation to treat larger open wounds.
How often do ulcers occur? I have no idea. How would it compare against silvadene? Again, I have no real idea. However, I'll try to find out.
I use cloth medical or duct tape on intact skin to prevent blister from forming, too, especially when breaking in a new pair of shoes. Much better for friction to be exerted on the tape than your skin! I've never used it on already-damaged skin, as I was worried that it would later pull off the healing epidermal layer.
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Well, as long as we're talking about prescription stuff, I've been prescribed Synalar since I was a toddler to deal with near-constant rashes, and I have found it to be amazing stuff. I have used it for any other topical stuff that has come up, like cuts and burns, and it has always worked like magic.
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And I thought I'd never apply this thread to my daily life:
We spent the day at my Grandmother's condo in Hot Springs today, and my uncle brought his boat and water weinie tube thing. Anyway it was the first time I'd ever ridden it, and I held the handles so hard that my knuckles were skinned pretty bad from rubbing against the nylonesque handle/tube cover material. It effected seven of my fingers and oozed "a mixture of blood and clear fluid" just like Noemon's. They hurt like crazy until I got back inside, where I promptly cleaned them and put polysporin and bandaids on each hurt finger. Even though there was some Bandaid newskin around, I decided to abstain, thinking that what happened to Noemon might very well happen to me too. I'm not in the mood for blisters, thanks.
Just goes to show you how seemingly trivial things make a difference. Butterflies beating their wings and all.
Actually, though, it turned out that it just looked like I had blisters; actually these bandages apparently have a backing that turns into a gel when it comes into contact with the fluid coming out of a wound. I haven't had a chance to play with it yet, but I'm going to see plain old water will cause the reaction. Anyway, the gel cushions the wound and helps to keep it hydrated, I think.
I've put a normal bandage on my right foot, and one of these special bandages on my left. I'll be curious to see what happens with them. The new bandage hasn't developed the blister like gel cushion that the original did, probably because the wound isn't seeping as much as it was originally.
They've changed the bandage design, by the way. The bandages of this new type that I bought awhile back--maybe 6 months ago--were of uniform consistency, and all parts of the bandage were useful for treating a wound. The bandages of this type that I bought on Saturday, on the other hand, were clearer than the old ones, with a spot in the center, corresponding to the pad in a regular bandage, that had the coloration and consistency of the old bandages. It could be that this is a cost saving thing, as the 2nd skin material is probably more expensive to make than the surrounding material. Of course, I don't know for sure that the entire new bandage isn't made of this material. It could just be that consumer testing showed that people expected to see a "pad" on their bandages, and liked it better when one was present--kind of like the way people like it when buttons click, and so as a result touch screen buttons are made to emit a click when you press them.
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Okay, final entry CT. Night before last I pulled off the conventional bandaid, and found that the wound was more or less healed. It looked a bit scuffed, and it's still a little red, but it basically just seems to be new skin. Last night, I removed the new type of bandage. It stuck to the wound pretty tightly; I probably should have soaked it in water before trying to remove it. The wound was still present, and while it wasn't oozing at all, the surface of it was covered with a thick, jelly-like substance, which turned into a regular scab when left exposed to the air. The new style of bandage seems to have actually slowed down the healing process, which was a surprise to me. I'd almost like to get two identical wounds again so that I could experiment some more.
[Edit--Okay, I was wrong. That thick scab just fell right off, and the skin beneath it was completely smooth and unblemeshed (although red, of course), while the wound that was bandaged with the conventional bandage is still rough (it's basically healed too though).]
But it improved the healing. All the little fibroblasts could cook away in peace, spinning their little bridging fibers, and all the blood cells were nice and cozy and warm under the gently protective gel, and the whole fabric of his skin grew back to its fuller potential.
That's awesome.
The icky pus-dripping necrotic face of the guy who lost his face to a flesh-eating fungal sinus infection, now that's ewwwww. (Anyone else watching Amazing Medical Miracles?)
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I also think "flesh-eating fungal sinus infection" would make an excellent name for a punk rock band.
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So the new type bandaids are better, CT? I was leaning toward thinking the old style were still better, from Noemon's description. The difference in the skin makes you like the new ones more, despite the fact that there was still a scab? I'm interested to know.
[ August 26, 2003, 05:48 AM: Message edited by: ak ]
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All of those 7 Up dots at my foot party are dancing to Kermit the Frog's rendition of "Happy Feet", just so everyone knows.
Sure CT, glad to provide the data! Actually, I'm just glad to have someone to provide the data *to*! Any time I have the opportunity to experiment on myself like this I take it (no, I don't purposely maim myself in the name of science; I've just, historically, taken advantage of my own clutziness to advance the cause of science ), but usually people's reactions are more like mac's.
Ak, the thing was, that final scab was basically a scab over healthy tissue. The 2nd skin bandage did such a good job with keeping the wound hydrated that the proto-scab remained in place in jelly form over the healing wound the whole time. When I took off the bandage, the skin beneath had healed completely, but the jelly was still there. When exposed it turned into a regular seeming scab, but it wasn't needed and didn't really have anything to adhere to, so it just fell off.
The new skin is still really red, by the way. I was kind of surprised by that.
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Actually, no, I take that back. They're dancing to Flesh-Eating Fungal Sinus Infection's cover of "Happy Feet".
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<laughs> My imagination has gone wild with that thought. I fancy I can hear that song exactly. Posts: 2843 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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Now that your feet are all healed, next time you go to Aikido and end up doing hanmi handachi (you kneel and your uke stands) or seguriwaza (both you and your uke are kneeling) techniques, ask your sensai or whoever you're working with the proper way to mat walk so you don't have this problem again.
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Okay, Band-aid advanced healing experiment number 2: Diabetic ulceration on extremities.
Every time I get a bug bite on my ankles or feet, they take forever to heal and don't really get better. What happens is they start to itch and then I scratch them and they get BIGGER over time instead of smaller, sometimes turning into these nasty things that leave big scars and take months and months to ever go away.
So I have a bug bite on my shin that's trying to do that now, and I'm going to try these cool new bandaids on it and see how it does. Sorry there's no control group here. The only comparison will be with my memory of how these things usually go.
The bite itself I got on Labor Day when I went on a long hike. It had turned into one of those pink circular pits about a centimeter across, that oozed clear fluid. It itched. I applied the bandaid yesterday and now there's a nice little blister looking thing right over the circular wound, and it's not itching. I'm going to take a bath in it now and see if it stays on. More observations later.
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I'm a true believer in the advanced healing bandaids now. I use them exclusively. I've even begun putting them on at the first sign of itching of a bugbite. It seems to prevent them ever growing into those big sores to begin with. Half an hour after I put the bandaid on, the bite will just totally stop itching. It's great. I'm thinking poor circulation is playing a role at the start of the process (making the resulting sore much bigger) as well as later on delaying the healing. Somehow catching the body's own fluids and keeping them next to the wound is the very best possible thing to do for a sore to heal it.
The insert says not for use by diabetics, so I use them with caution. Sometimes the sores start to itch with the bandaid on, after a few days, and bleed inside (the darkness shows through) and when that happens it seems to be better to pull it off and let it dry and air out for a couple of days before putting another one on. Yet they decrease the healing time (again, anecdotally, no controls because I want to HEAL) from like six or eight weeks to maybe one or two. A huge improvement for me. I hope I never have to be without these again.
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