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Why did people rub snow on frozen feet? (2017)

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Re: Why did people rub snow on frozen feet? (2017)

#101

Post by aspenmayer »

lukan wrote: post #73
aspenmayer wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find that oils such as petroleum jelly or olive oil do provide pain relief for burns. I can only speculate as to the method of action, but I’m clearly not the only one. Apparently even air movement or contact can cause pain to burns due to the exposure of the dermis, and possibly other reasons. > Also, oxygen's a gas. Yeah, I think it must be carbon dioxide or some other gas that is naturally occurring in the atmos…

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy "HBOT helps wound healing by bringing oxygen-rich plasma to tissue starved for oxygen. Wound injuries damage the body's blood vessels, They release fluid that leaks into the tissues and causes swelling. This swelling deprives the damaged cells of oxygen, and tissue starts to die. HBOT reduces swelling while flooding the tissues with oxygen. The higher pressure in the chamber increases the am…

That explains why they use oxygen tents, but it doesn’t really explain why oils/fats on burns provide pain relief. The little I was able to determine was that the exposed inflamed dermis is extremely sensitive to touch/pressure even of just air or air currents, but I don’t know why this is the case.

Re: Why did people rub snow on frozen feet? (2017)

#102

Post by lukan »

aspenmayer wrote: post #101
lukan wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy "HBOT helps wound healing by bringing oxygen-rich plasma to tissue starved for oxygen. Wound injuries damage the body's blood vessels, They release fluid that leaks into the tissues and causes swelling. This swelling deprives the damaged cells of oxygen, and tissue starts to die. HBOT reduces swelling while flooding the tissues with oxygen. The higher pressure in the chamber increases the am…

That explains why they use oxygen tents, but it doesn’t really explain why oils/fats on burns provide pain relief. The little I was able to determine was that the exposed inflamed dermis is extremely sensitive to touch/pressure even of just air or air currents, but I don’t know why this is the case.

Some oil has cooling properties. I suppose that is what can provide relief. With my second degree burns this year, I surely enjoyed cooling it, but with ice water.

Re: Why did people rub snow on frozen feet? (2017)

#103

Post by aspenmayer »

lukan wrote: post #102
aspenmayer wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That explains why they use oxygen tents, but it doesn’t really explain why oils/fats on burns provide pain relief. The little I was able to determine was that the exposed inflamed dermis is extremely sensitive to touch/pressure even of just air or air currents, but I don’t know why this is the case.

Some oil has cooling properties. I suppose that is what can provide relief. With my second degree burns this year, I surely enjoyed cooling it, but with ice water.

Ice water would also block air exposure, wouldn’t it?

I’ve also had some larger burns and immersed them in ice water for the immediate treatment, but after the first day or so, I found that petroleum jelly based topical ointments were easier to apply and maintain, as the burn was on the bottom of my foot, which was a distinctly horrible place to have a burn.

Re: Why did people rub snow on frozen feet? (2017)

#104

Post by lukan »

aspenmayer wrote: post #103
lukan wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some oil has cooling properties. I suppose that is what can provide relief. With my second degree burns this year, I surely enjoyed cooling it, but with ice water.

Ice water would also block air exposure, wouldn’t it? I’ve also had some larger burns and immersed them in ice water for the immediate treatment, but after the first day or so, I found that petroleum jelly based topical ointments were easier to apply and maintain, as the burn was on the bottom of my foot, which was a distinctly horrible place to have a burn.

My burns were on the hands, which is not so nice either.

But air exposure was happening most of the time, the way I cooled my burns, so it definitely was the cooling, that did help in my case.

(A wet towel with ice in it)

And I learned to not mess with the wounds at all. I think the last time I had a burn, I opened the the blister to get the fluid pressure out. Bad idea, this time I left it and it healed way faster. It healed so good, that after my first night of pain and cooling, I did not had to do anything with it, except giving it a rest.

Re: Why did people rub snow on frozen feet? (2017)

#105

Post by aspenmayer »

lukan wrote: post #104
aspenmayer wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ice water would also block air exposure, wouldn’t it? I’ve also had some larger burns and immersed them in ice water for the immediate treatment, but after the first day or so, I found that petroleum jelly based topical ointments were easier to apply and maintain, as the burn was on the bottom of my foot, which was a distinctly horrible place to have a burn.

My burns were on the hands, which is not so nice either. But air exposure was happening most of the time, the way I cooled my burns, so it definitely was the cooling, that did help in my case. (A wet towel with ice in it) And I learned to not mess with the wounds at all. I think the last time I had a burn, I opened the the blister to get the fluid pressure out. Bad idea, this time I left it and it healed way faster.…

Ouch, I bet that hurt! I think hands have some of the highest concentrations of nerve endings. The feet were pretty rough, and the callous constricted the blister and limited the expansion of the skin, so lancing the blister was necessary to prevent injury from the blister popping and the blister skin not covering the wound properly.

I stepped on flaming plastic barefoot and fortunately was able to almost immediately immerse the foot in water, which caused the plastic to fuse to my foot for a few hours until the ice water was able to reduce the swelling. Then my foot shrank away from the mostly rigid plastic mass. It was a pretty horrible experience all around considering the small surface area of the burn, and part of the reason why I don’t like walking around barefoot generally, if I had to guess, as it happened when I was around 5 years old. My folks would later be volunteer firefighters and first responders, and I learned a lot of field first aid skills by proxy and through my own shenanigans. I’m glad I’ve never needed to be hospitalized for serious injury, though apparently not for lack of trying.

Re: Why did people rub snow on frozen feet? (2017)

#106

Post by xelamonster »

cperciva wrote: post #57
xelamonster wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what does that actually look like in practice, lifting the piece of rubble an inch at a time? How slowly would you release a tourniquet in that situation?

I'm not a medical doctor, but my understanding is that in the scenario of "patient's limb has been trapped/crushed for an extended period and can now be freed" you're supposed to tourniquet off the limb before freeing it. This helps both for delaying reperfusion issues until the patient can be in the hospital with IV lines in place, and also in case there's an injury which could cause massive blood loss (since a trap…

Makes sense, thanks! I first heard about crush syndrome from an episode of House, and IIRC it ended up being a cause of death so didn't exactly learn how to manage it. Though I want to say the woman there was pinned from the waist down, which I'd imagine complicates things.

Re: Why did people rub snow on frozen feet? (2017)

#107

Post by lukan »

aspenmayer wrote: post #105
lukan wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My burns were on the hands, which is not so nice either. But air exposure was happening most of the time, the way I cooled my burns, so it definitely was the cooling, that did help in my case. (A wet towel with ice in it) And I learned to not mess with the wounds at all. I think the last time I had a burn, I opened the the blister to get the fluid pressure out. Bad idea, this time I left it and it healed way faster.…

Ouch, I bet that hurt! I think hands have some of the highest concentrations of nerve endings. The feet were pretty rough, and the callous constricted the blister and limited the expansion of the skin, so lancing the blister was necessary to prevent injury from the blister popping and the blister skin not covering the wound properly. I stepped on flaming plastic barefoot and fortunately was able to almost immediately…

That sounds painful as well..
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