On the 1st of June, there was a break in the monsoon, here in beautiful Deer Park, and I decided to burn some of the debris that had accumulated over the winter, here on the Feather Creek Ranch. I had a nice legal pile of coals going, and decided to toss one more log on the fire.
Somehow, that log hooked me, and gave me a choice, either face plant in the fire, or step in it. Being rather fond of my face, I chose the latter, thinking I’d be safe(er) because I had boots on. So, into the bed of coals went my left foot.
As I’m extracting myself from the clutches of the log and the fire, I felt an odd sensation where the top of the low cut boot exposed my ankle. Imagine my surprise when I looked down and saw a thumb sized live coal comfortably nestled in that crook. I kicked off the boot, but the coal was still attached to my ankle! I had to sweep the coal off my ankle with my glove covered hand. I took the sock off, and started hosing down my foot with a hose that I had prepositioned in case the fire got out of control.
After my fight or flight settled down a bit, and the cooking stopped, I took a considered look at it. One dime sized superficial partial thickness burn, and another quarter sized, deep partial thickness burm over the medial ankle bone on the left leg. My “flight surgeon,” says that there are 7 layers of skin, and i burned 6 of them.
I’ve been lucky. I have a lot of experience in the primary treatment of burns, but none in the tertiary care of burns. It turns out, for a burn like this, there is not much difference. Keep it clean, twice daily dressing changes, Silvadine (silver ointment), don’t make any plans, stay off the foot, don’t work on the outdoor railroad.
I’m now almost a month into the healing process. Not much pain, any more. The burns have filled in nicely, and I can see where skin is starting to grow back.
My "flight surgeon"has the bedside manner of a bent shi trashcan. He suggested, a couple of weeks ago, that I use something called a “wet to dry dressing,” to remove dead tissue. He did not say how painful that would be. I would rather have a Navy Corpsman with an attitude and a scrub brush remove the dead tissue.
Oh well, it’s all good. 2 more weeks, and I can get back at it.
