It's been nearly two weeks since I burned 4 fingers on my left hand. It happened late one night when I should have been sleeping. My husband and I were up late (as usual these days) and he went to bed before me. I had a few things to do before settling in for the night, one of which was to make my poor sick hubby a cup of tea for him to sip in bed. I put water in the teapot and sat down at my laptop to read email. It's so easy for me to lose track of time when I'm on the computer and I got myself lost. All of a sudden I remembered -the teapot! I jumped up and ran to the kitchen and realized that because the spout wasn't closed the darn thing didn't whistle to get my attention. I grabbed a kitchen towel and simultaneously turned off the gas and picked up the teapot. It was empty. I took the top off and it was bone dry. Not thinking, I went right to the sink to refill it and as soon as the water hit that hot pot a burst of steam shot out at me. I dropped it in the sink as fast as I could but unfortunately not soon enough. I stood there at the sink running cold water on my hand for 25 minutes, then I went and told my hubby what happened. I tried to get ready for bed but had to keep running to the sink for more cold water; it burned like hell! The same thing happened after I went to bed -I had to keep getting up. I decided to try ice packs but that didn't work either. So I got out of bed, filled a pot with ice cubes and water and set it next to my easy chair in the living room. I spent the rest of the night trying to sleep while dipping my hand in and out of the ice water. I've never experienced a burn such as this. It made me think of the immense pain that real burn victims must endure.
The next afternoon I went to the doctor with ice pack in hand but because my fingers were pink from the ice and he couldn't see anything he said I must have internal burns and he referred me to a neurologist. Jerk. I didn't go. By the time 24 hours had passed the burning finally was subsiding and burn marks started to appear.
A few days later I broke a blister that I didn't even know I had. As I was putting clean sheets on my bed the blister broke and the skin peeled off. Ouch!
I took this picture of my hand last night. This is 12 days after the incident:
(for detail click on photo to enlarge)
Obvious is where the blister was, on my middle finger, but the skin on my other fingers is all hard and shriveled up. I hope it doesn't stay like this forever.
Never underestimate the power of steam.
After all this happened my internet buddy, Chris told me about something I'd never heard of -Electric Tea Kettles! I was clueless so I went online and checked them out. I went out and bought one and it is really cool. It boils water incredibly fast, so much faster than water boils on the stove, and it's real boiling water, not like when you nuke it in the microwave. After it comes to a full rolling boil it automatically turns itself off so you never have to worry about it boiling away (like a real teapot). The handle is always cool to the touch and although the body of (at least the one I bought) does get hot, it's not hot enough to burn you, unless of course you kept your hand there and never let go. Oh, and the base plugs in but the actual kettle is cordless & that's a definite plus. Brands and models vary but most are about the same. Chris says that just about every household in England has one. Thanks Chris!
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