Playing with Fire

Thought I'd let you know that I burned the shit out of my left arm Saturday night while attempting to start a camp fire. I couldn't get it to ignite so I figured I'd let it soak in gas (I know, stupid) for an hour or so then come back and toss a match or lit piece of paper on it. I'd done it many times before and never had any problems doing it. This time was different. I rounded the brush pile with the gas and as I took my first step away from it the entire thing exploded in my face. Well... more like my side. I jumped out of the way and noticed that my shirt was on fire so I dropped and starting rolling. What seemed like an eternity was only a few seconds but I kept thinking to myself "Why am I still on fire?" and "I thought this stop, drop, and roll crap I learned when I was a kid was actually supposed to work!" Well... eventually it did.

Ally heard the explosion from inside and came running but by the time she opened the back door I was already on my feet making my way to the house. We grabbed the hose and sprayed the small fire that was still burning on the gas can spout until it was extinguished. We then went inside to tend any burns that I may had received. I immediately knew my arm was burned but stripped down in the bathroom anyway to make sure that I wasn't burned anywhere else. The first question I asked Ally was "Do I still have my eyebrows?" To answer that... yes... they're still there. We rinsed off my arm best we could then went to Wal-Mart pharmacy for burn cream and sterile pads, etc. That night we wrapped the arm and I took some Tylenol PM to get to sleep. At that point it felt like a really bad sunburn.

Sunday I talked to Lester (my brother-in-law) and the tone in his voice convinced me I needed to see a doctor. The only reason I hadn't gone to begin with is b/c of the $100 emergency co-pay. Plus, I had just purchased two tires for the Honda earlier on Saturday so that put me down $200+ already. So... we called urgent care and they told me to go to the ER. We did. I was admitted then found out there was a 3 hour wait and the guy I was sitting next to me said he had already been there for at least 4 hours. So... I talked to one of the RN's there showed her the burn and asked if there was anyway to avoid the 3+ hour wait and $100 ER co-pay. She told me as long as we could get the wound debrided and could get some silvadene (a white burn cream used on 2nd and 3rd degree burns that is an antibiotic and promotes skin growth but is only available by prescription) that's all we would need to do. As luck would have it, I'm married to a vet. We went to get the silvadene from TU's large animal clinic then headed home to clean the arm properly.

It took about 30-45 minutes of Ally scrubbing my arm and peeling away dead skin before we could really clean the arm. That part of the cleaning didn't hurt that badly. It was the soapy water and rinse once all of the dead skin was gone and the fresh layer of skin underneath was exposed that really got me screaming and cursing. If you've ever had a badly skinned knee and poured soapy water on it... think of that. Except instead of small quarter sized scrape it's your entire knee. Multiply that pain by 10 or 20 and you may be able to imagine it. Also, if you've ever had road rash (Trey, my other brother-in-law has gone through that). So, we got the creme on it and was able to wrap it up before going to bed. I also took some more Tylenol PM to help me get to sleep b/c of the continuous pain to my tricep.

So needless to say... I made a very bad judgment call and was lucky to walk away alive or seriously injured. I'll never be making that stupid ass mistake ever again, and if anyone ever suggests adding gasoline to get a fire going I will protest against that decision. Hopefully I'll have a slight scar to prove my case.


Before the arm was debrided and cleaned:



After the arm was debrided and cleaned:




I know the after version looks worse, but I will have less scarring and it will heal much better this way.