Sunburn!!

Sunburn or burns in general are definitely one of the worst maladies to suffer from (at least in my book!). Even a minor burn can light up your nerve endings and cause relentless excruciating pain. After healing begins, the damaged nerve endings come back to life, and you feel like bugs are crawling around under your skin! Alrighty then . . . . let’s begin!

Sunburns come in 2 flavors, first degree and second degree. First degree is simple redding of the skin that feels hot and hypersensitive. The burn becomes classified as a second degree burn, as soon as a blister forms, or there is any interruption in the skin.

Treatment and Expectations:

1. A sunburn can cause a lot of discomfort and fever from inflammation. You can take ibuprofen, such as Motrin for relief.
2. Drink a lot of water, chances are you have some degree of dehydration
3. Take frequent cool showers or baths. Use cool cloths on sunburned areas.
4. You can use some 1% hydrocortisone cream on the burn areas. It is available without a prescription and is pretty inexpensive.
5. Other than cortisone I don’t recommend putting anything else on your skin. I know there are a lot of home remedies like aloevera, lotions and such. The skin which is highly absorptive, is already injured and angry and in many cases those topical agents just make it worse.
6. If your desperate, and you feel like your going to jump out of your skin, you can spray on some topical Solarcaine, which calms the nerves down so you can sleep.
7. DON’T pop blisters! Blisters are annoying, but they keep the wound clean and infection free, until the new skin is mature enough to become your outer skin. When that time comes, the blister will pop itself.