Boys do crazy things sometimes! Especially when you get several of them together WITHOUT their wives or girlfriends around.
Last weekend we went to a reunion in Central Texas with several college friends. During the day on Saturday the men went out for a couple of hours to explore the Guadalupe River while the girls stayed inside with the kids.
During their exploration they saw a huge rope swing hanging about 20 feet above the river. What was their automatic reaction? LET’S SWING ON IT! Of course… that’s what anyone would do when they see an old (who knows how old!) rope swing above a river. Right?
So the men – should I say boys? – are swinging and having a blast, and it’s my husband’s turn to get on the swing again. While he is standing on a tree branch about 20 feet from the ground with the rope in his hand, a gigantic praying mantis gets on his shoulder. Now, my husband isn’t scared of bugs… he’s the one that has to kill all of them in our house! But the guys that were on the ground started yelling that there was a huge bug on his shoulder and to JUMP!
So he jumped and tried to get down the rope as soon as possible… and in the process, he slid down the rope about 10 feet one-handed. OUCH!!
Needless to say within minutes he ran into the house to hold his hand under cold water at the sink. After he held his hand under cold water for a while, I sprayed it with burn spray, but aloe vera on it, put gauze on it, and then put an ice pack on it.
That helped it to feel a little better, but within a couple of hours it was hurting so bad that my husband (who NEVER suggests this) was suggesting going to an emergency care clinic or to the ER.
I called the closest Emergency Care Clinic and it was going to be a minimum of $150. While I was certainly willing to spend that so that my husband could feel better, I wanted to look up one more thing.
I knew Baking Soda was a remedy for several things, so I looked up “Treating Burns With Baking Soda” online. And TONS of forums came up with person after person saying how they used baking soda on their burns and the pain went away almost immediately.
My husband is always up for trying out any new natural remedy that I find, so we tried it. Here’s what I did:
1) Made a paste with baking soda and water. The baking soda was pretty wet, but thick enough to stay on his hand.
2) Put the baking soda all over his hand.
3) Put a plastic bag over the baking soda (to keep the baking soda wet).
4) Put a sock over the plastic bag (to keep the plastic bag from falling off).
And guess what??? Within 5-7 minutes the pain was GONE! Completely!!
He left the baking soda on for several hours and then it started hurting a little bit again. So we went to wash off the baking soda and I was going to reapply a new batch. But after my husband washed it off, he kept waiting for the pain to return… AND IT DIDN’T!!
And already the blisters had popped and had started to heal – just in those few hours!
By the next afternoon he had complete use of his hand again… and we were saved from spending $150+ for a doctor’s visit and medicine!
I haven’t tried this on other types of burns yet, but from what I’ve read online it works for all types.
I’m definitely adding Baking Soda to my travel First Aid Kit!
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Wow that is a awesome tip, thanks for sharing. Sorry your husband got hurt though. Hope he is feeling better!
Wow, that is an awesome cheap remedy!! I will definitely be using that one on myself!! I regularly burn my hands while cooking….:)
Hi! My name is Chels and I wanted to let you know that I linked to two of your posts yesterday on my blog:
http://fantasticfind.blogspot.com/2009/09/baking-soda-and-cornstarch-home.html
I saw your Quick Bee Sting Relief post in July and had just used a home remedy on my daughter with cornstarch. I wanted to make up a post of a few great true stories with home remedies and sent your post to my springpad for when I needed it. So when you posted your husband's burn story (ouch!) I liked that story too! Thanks for sharing and I hope you're okay with having links on my blog!
Chels
http://fantasticfind.blogspot.com
Wow! I'm impressed. Thanks for passing this along. I never would have thought to try baking soda to treat a burn and I use baking soda for all kinds of things.
Loved your tip but hated that your poor hubs had to go through that. Isn't the Internet wonderful! Wanted to pass on a remarkable tip I found on the Internet when my DH was in severe pain late one evening. We were almost certain it was a gallbladder "attack". I went on the Internet & found two natural remedies, apple cider vinegar & lettuce. I just had regular vinegar, so I made him a little bowl of lettuce, sliced apples & vinegar. Literally within minutes the pain was gone! Hope this helps someone.
Wow! I can’t believe how well this worked. I also added a bit of honey and a couple drops of lavender essential oil to the baking soda mixture. Pain was bothering me for an hour.. baking soda, and the pain was gone immediately! I love baking soda!
Love baking soda too! Wow!!!!
This remedy was used on my Grandmother during WWII when her oven exploded in an unexpected bomb drop blowing out the gas mains. She had her face in the oven. Her face was saved, flawless in fact. I’ve used it for serious burns myself with 100pc success. But you MUST follow the rules. Always keep the soda wet. ALWAYS. If it dries out you’ll damage the healing. Use two layers of bandage. The first sealing in the soda (which should form a wet thick and sticky paste). This doesn’t move until you change the soda (once every 24-48 hours depending). The next layer is removable. Remove this and wet the lower bandage/soda every 2-3 hours. Then replace the top dry bandage. If the burn area is big you may want a waterproof middle layer but DO NOT just put a bag over it and seal without air holes because it forces the temp to artificiallly rise over the burn. When a burn heals the skin is pink (in white people) for example – but this is not fully healed. Leave on until fully healed and to avoid scarring, leave it for a day/week extra (Depending on size/degree) when the skin ‘seems normal’. Don’t stop treatment at this point as the extra time helps to prevent scarring. Don’t think ‘old remedy’ for this. This is the BEST remedy for burns. I would reject standard treatment with dry dressings in favor of this based on the serious burns I’ve treated myself with. Note: this treatment does not work for cuts.
boys are not silly!
Swinging from ropes over a lake? I’d say that’s silly! My husband would say it’s fun (as long as you don’t slide down the rope). Ryan actually wanted to be a stuntman growing up, so I’m not surprised that he had no issues with swinging over the lake.
Wow that was unusual. I just wrote an very long comment
but after I clicked submit my comment didn’t show up. Grrrr… well I’m not writing
all that over again. Anyway, just wanted to say excellent blog!
I wasn’t a believer in this remedy working on other types of burns, but I am sitting here with baking soda paste on two fingers that I burned very deep with hot glue and it is amazing. I had been using ice just to make the pain bearable, but now it is gone completely! Thank you!