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Burn Survivor Support
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Topic starter
17/06/2019 12:19 pm
Hello!
I would really appreciate any thoughts anyone would have on this matter!
i sustained 20% burns back in September 2018. The most severe ones being to my arms and hands. I am still experiencing high levels of pain – mainly in the morning, and have breakdowns, contractures and hard skin on my hands/palms. The consultants have told me that the wounds aren’t big enough to justify more surgery, but big enough to raise some concern. I have been told to just carry on doing exercises to stop my hands from contracting inwards. I have had pulse dye laser which didn’t really do anything and have had full thickness skin grafts on my wrists with the hope of releasing the scars but to no avail, as I have high level of hypertrophic scarring. Being well connected with doctors, practitioners, alternative healers and herbalists in my private life I have been told about all kinds of remedies, which sounds amazing – except I seem to have too much of a good thing; that is information. I feel overwhelmed with all the different things people tell me to try and I obviously can’t do all of them, I also don’t know when to do them.
I would be really intrigued to hear anyone’s suggestions? I’m asking to see if perhaps corresponding information is suggested to me that helps
me choose more definitely what road to go down with my own self care.
I am wondering at the moment if the main hurdle for my healing process is actually being more consistent and simple with my own self care.
Thank you dearly to take the time reading this 🙂
20/06/2019 7:54 pm
Hello Friendlybean!
I’m sorry to hear you are having issues with your hands. My hand were very damaged by burns aswell to the extent I have had to become left-handed rather than right-handed.
Pain – I found at at times I’ve had to take a different type of pain medication (like Gabapentin) for nerve pain, which has been very effective. My pain comes and goes but causes a fizzing/firework type sensation.
Exercises – carry on with your exercises as much as possible. Wear splints if you have been given them. The more you use your hands the better and easier it will become. I’ve had to have 2 fingers fused in position as I wasn’t very compliant with exercises, so learn from my mistakes!
Skin breakdown – keep hands moisturised with whatever potion takes your fancy. Grafted skin can be more fragile than normal skin and can get quite dry so just be mindful of that. The only precaution I really take now is to wear gloves when gardening. And I’ve recently bought an electric screwdriver to save the wear on my hands.
I found my hands really improved when I went back to work and spent all day typing. It really exercised my fingers and helped with the stiffness. My hands were also really sensitive to the touch to begin with and it was a long process to desensitise them by repeatedly touching lots of different textures. I also play lots of boardgames which I count as physio due to picking up lots of small pieces.
Hope that helps.
Beth
Topic starter
01/07/2019 10:43 pm
Hi Beth!!
I’ve just become aware of this and realise how now that we met and already talked about this!! It was such a pleasure to meet you. Thankyou for sharing your stories with us – I know you must have told them many times. Your information was very helpful to us – more so than a lot of what you read or get told. ^ This information is also great, and I’m happy to say I feel i’m doing a lot of this. I’ve noticed a recent quite drastic improvement from applying silicone sheets under my pressure garments to fight back my strong hypertrophic scarring – and yes still on the gabapentin. Hope you are doing well and look forward to meeting again in September!
Best wishes from me and April 🙂