A cautionary tale…of course I may be the only one who doesn't know this. 
I got off a bit early from work yesterday so I could head over to my parents house. Two friends and I are converting half my parent’s garage into a small sitting room this weekend and I still had some prep work to do before we could drywall Saturday. Anyway, as I was getting ready to leave it dawned on me that now would be the perfect chance to throw together that salsa recipe I had wanted to try. I had the time and it would be a great snack while we worked. I quickly chopped up some of my garden grown tomatoes, a red onion, garlic, cilantro, limejuice and last, but not least, a jalapeño pepper I bought specifically for this at our farmers market. I throw everything into a Tupperware container and head over to my parent’s house. Success, everyone loved it!
About an hour later, I’m helping move stuff in the garage, when the back of my knuckles started burning…not horribly, but very noticeably. So I head to the kitchen to wash my hands with soap and water just as a precaution…ahhh, that helped…or maybe not. Once out of the water the burning returned. How odd…10-15 minutes pass and now the burning appears to be a bit worse and have spread to the tips of my fingers too. Ok, no biggie, I’ll wash my hands again…not working…hum, soak them in soap, wait a minute then wash them? Still not working. Very strange, and it’s starting to really hurt. After a half-dozen or so unsuccessful hand washings I decide to give my roommate (and best friend) a quick call. “Hey, can you quickly look up on the internet and see if there are any remedies for jalapeño juice, I think I got some on my hands making the salsa and now they are starting to burn.” The suggestions given me where rubbing alcohol and milk. Great, I’ll give them a try. Not bad, seems to be working…cool, I think it worked!
Not…working…10 minutes later the burning returns, only it’s worse now. What the h***? More rubbing alcohol, then milk…temporary relief but the burning eventually returns. Now I’m starting to worry a bit and decide its time to head home.
I make it back and decide to take a quick shower thinking that might help. BAD idea, the hot water BURNS and my hands are now stinging in pain, both the back, fingers and palms of both hands. I dump some rubbing alcohol into a bowl and dunk my hands into it but now it’s not working at all, or the milk. Okay…baking soda. I grab a handful, a little water and smear it into a past over my hands; wait 5 minutes…burning still there, this doesn’t work either. This sucks. Maybe aloe-vera? No help. In frustration I grab some ice, stick it into a towel and head to my room to read for a bit hoping to distract myself. The ice eases the burning, but the pain isn’t going away. Roommate suggests a strong painkiller; I nervously take one…which, even after an hour doesn’t touch the pain. About 10:30 I realize I just can’t handle this, my hands feel like they should be blistering with the heat. Grab sleeping bag - toss on living room floor - two bowls of ice water - lay on back and soak hands, one in each bowl. AHHHHH! MUCH better…sort of. The water, like the ice, cuts the pain somewhat but not all of it. I have to keep adding ice as it melts and do this for an hour or so. Tired, I finally fall asleep and get about 35 minute of sleep before the ice melts and my burning hands wake me. The pain is so startling that I jerk my hands, skillfully dumping water all over sleeping bag, the carpet and myself. This is NOT working. My hands are ON FIRE, the pain is excruciating and now I look like I’ve peed myself…perfect.
One change of clothes later I realize it’s about 1:00 in the morning, but lucky for me my roommate is an insomniac, so he’s still up. I have him look again on the Internet, this time more carefully to see if there is ANYTHING that might work. I try Tomato juice, soaked my hands for 20 minutes…no help. Butter…nope. Olive oil…nope. Ibuprophen…nope. Burn ointment…nope. Anti-histamine cream…nope. Getting angry and screaming obscenities…nope. Lotion combined with flapping my hands while pacing up and down the hallway…nope. I couldn’t try bleach as we had just used the last of it the other day and we where out of benadryl. The only thing that seemed to help was cold water or ice.
Now I have never given birth, broken a bone or had the pleasure of knowing what it feels like to be kicked in the crotch, but this has to top my list of one of the most painful experiences I have had. Without cold of some kind my hands felt exactly like I was holding them over an open flame. My solution was to return to using ice. Two bags, one for each hand wrapped in paper towels. This works as long as you don’t mind not sleeping and wet bed sheets.
While my hands feel MUCH better now, it took roughly 12 hours from the first signs of burning before I felt any sort of relief, which was about 5:30 this morning. I have gotten about 2-3 hours of broken sleep. But, I did discover a great weapon of mass destruction, so I guess that’s a plus. I still love salsa, I can eat the stuff all day and the fresher and hotter the better, but I won’t touch or chop another jalapeño without first having body armor and some strong narcotics. Gloves might be a good idea too.
I got off a bit early from work yesterday so I could head over to my parents house. Two friends and I are converting half my parent’s garage into a small sitting room this weekend and I still had some prep work to do before we could drywall Saturday. Anyway, as I was getting ready to leave it dawned on me that now would be the perfect chance to throw together that salsa recipe I had wanted to try. I had the time and it would be a great snack while we worked. I quickly chopped up some of my garden grown tomatoes, a red onion, garlic, cilantro, limejuice and last, but not least, a jalapeño pepper I bought specifically for this at our farmers market. I throw everything into a Tupperware container and head over to my parent’s house. Success, everyone loved it!
About an hour later, I’m helping move stuff in the garage, when the back of my knuckles started burning…not horribly, but very noticeably. So I head to the kitchen to wash my hands with soap and water just as a precaution…ahhh, that helped…or maybe not. Once out of the water the burning returned. How odd…10-15 minutes pass and now the burning appears to be a bit worse and have spread to the tips of my fingers too. Ok, no biggie, I’ll wash my hands again…not working…hum, soak them in soap, wait a minute then wash them? Still not working. Very strange, and it’s starting to really hurt. After a half-dozen or so unsuccessful hand washings I decide to give my roommate (and best friend) a quick call. “Hey, can you quickly look up on the internet and see if there are any remedies for jalapeño juice, I think I got some on my hands making the salsa and now they are starting to burn.” The suggestions given me where rubbing alcohol and milk. Great, I’ll give them a try. Not bad, seems to be working…cool, I think it worked!
Not…working…10 minutes later the burning returns, only it’s worse now. What the h***? More rubbing alcohol, then milk…temporary relief but the burning eventually returns. Now I’m starting to worry a bit and decide its time to head home.
I make it back and decide to take a quick shower thinking that might help. BAD idea, the hot water BURNS and my hands are now stinging in pain, both the back, fingers and palms of both hands. I dump some rubbing alcohol into a bowl and dunk my hands into it but now it’s not working at all, or the milk. Okay…baking soda. I grab a handful, a little water and smear it into a past over my hands; wait 5 minutes…burning still there, this doesn’t work either. This sucks. Maybe aloe-vera? No help. In frustration I grab some ice, stick it into a towel and head to my room to read for a bit hoping to distract myself. The ice eases the burning, but the pain isn’t going away. Roommate suggests a strong painkiller; I nervously take one…which, even after an hour doesn’t touch the pain. About 10:30 I realize I just can’t handle this, my hands feel like they should be blistering with the heat. Grab sleeping bag - toss on living room floor - two bowls of ice water - lay on back and soak hands, one in each bowl. AHHHHH! MUCH better…sort of. The water, like the ice, cuts the pain somewhat but not all of it. I have to keep adding ice as it melts and do this for an hour or so. Tired, I finally fall asleep and get about 35 minute of sleep before the ice melts and my burning hands wake me. The pain is so startling that I jerk my hands, skillfully dumping water all over sleeping bag, the carpet and myself. This is NOT working. My hands are ON FIRE, the pain is excruciating and now I look like I’ve peed myself…perfect.
One change of clothes later I realize it’s about 1:00 in the morning, but lucky for me my roommate is an insomniac, so he’s still up. I have him look again on the Internet, this time more carefully to see if there is ANYTHING that might work. I try Tomato juice, soaked my hands for 20 minutes…no help. Butter…nope. Olive oil…nope. Ibuprophen…nope. Burn ointment…nope. Anti-histamine cream…nope. Getting angry and screaming obscenities…nope. Lotion combined with flapping my hands while pacing up and down the hallway…nope. I couldn’t try bleach as we had just used the last of it the other day and we where out of benadryl. The only thing that seemed to help was cold water or ice.
Now I have never given birth, broken a bone or had the pleasure of knowing what it feels like to be kicked in the crotch, but this has to top my list of one of the most painful experiences I have had. Without cold of some kind my hands felt exactly like I was holding them over an open flame. My solution was to return to using ice. Two bags, one for each hand wrapped in paper towels. This works as long as you don’t mind not sleeping and wet bed sheets.
While my hands feel MUCH better now, it took roughly 12 hours from the first signs of burning before I felt any sort of relief, which was about 5:30 this morning. I have gotten about 2-3 hours of broken sleep. But, I did discover a great weapon of mass destruction, so I guess that’s a plus. I still love salsa, I can eat the stuff all day and the fresher and hotter the better, but I won’t touch or chop another jalapeño without first having body armor and some strong narcotics. Gloves might be a good idea too.
