Need advice, messed up hand with grinder sparks/metal shards

[MikeBear]

Ok, I was stupid yesterday, and am paying for it now.

I had to grind some aluminum stock extensively on a bench grinder, and didn't pay much attention to the sparks/small pieces of aluminum that were flying off and hitting the back of my left hand. Yeah it stung a little during that time, but I just ignored it. I spent about 1 hour doing this, and the whole back of my hand got bloody and has "bumps" all over it now.

It's almost like hives or poison ivy bumps, but is probably just inflamed. I cleaned it well when I finally came in the house, and there doesn't appear to be any embedded pieces in me. I've put some peroxide on it, cleaned it with antibiotic soap, tried Bacitracin Zinc cream, and even later tried some anti-itch cream. It stays messed up, and doesn't seem to heal yet. It's been weeping a bit and getting a little "crusty".

What should I do about this? Just wait and it'll heal? It does itch a bit, but not so much after the anti-itch cream... Next time I'll be sure to wear gloves...

 

[manchester1]

Where is Dr. Buck :shrug:

 

[steven Durham]

In consultation with me. You can take a number at the front counter
Steve

 

[Itype2slo]

I hope those filings didnt embed into the skin. then its like a bunch of metal splinters that get infected. Good luck

 

[kzhorse]

You will be fine,Just treat it as a burn and in a couple days you will have forgot about it.
I do it all the time with a 4" grinder on steel.Most of what you see is small burns from the hot media hitting you.


Scott

 

[manchester1]

In consultation with me. You can take a number at the front counter
Steve

Thats pretty funny Steve:laugh::laugh::laugh:

 

[KustomKartKid]

This is a post I wrote after Windber last year.....as soon as you said "it looks like hives"..I said that's exactly what happened to me:

I put a gash in my arm just prior to Windber...didn't think much of it but then my arm started to swell up and I got what looked like hives around the cut...then I cut my shin at Winber when I had my get-off....and that started to fester and swell with hives the same way...I'm thinking wtf is going on here....by Saturday I was in bad shape which is another reason we loaded up after the parade...by 11 pm saturday night I was in the emergency room getting them both looked at....they said it might be a staff infection of some kind and put me on some strong Antibiotics....after 3 days it kept getting worse so I went to my regular doc cause I was getting really worried my forearm was twice the size as the other....he said "you don't have a staff infection, that's an allergic reaction to Neomycin (Neosporin which I had been applying every time I washed it :doah.

The weird thing was I been using that stuff forever and it always worked like magic but the Doc said he sees it all the time people just develop an allergy to it...and it's serious business..If you want to see some gross pictures Google "Neomycin allergic reaction"...that's what my arm loooked like..:doah:

Anyway, the lesson learned was that all it took was the right Doc to look at it and figure it out.....it's finally almost all gone now.

.

I had been doing the same thing with cuts my whole life...peroxide wash and then Neosporin...alway worked like magic until that day...now I don't use either anymore. The doc said wash it out with soap and water...and cover it with plain Vaseline petroleum jelley....started getting better immediately.


I'm not a doc nor do I play one on TV...just relating a very similar scenario......if you have little bits of aluminum imbeded under your skin that's a different story, go get it looked at.





.

 

[buckeye]

Yes, what type of insurance you have? Please pay copay in advance, thank you.:laugh:

Honestly, don't sound too cool. I wouldn't mess around to much with it. My first thought is, you have 5000 little pieces of alum in your skin. Big issue potentially. Forien bodies in the skin, and that many, can cause a rip roarin infection.
If you came to the office ,xray first to see if any of the 5000 pieces of metal show up.
Antibiosis would be in order. Keflex, bactrim comes to mind if you don't have allergies.
If they are minute little pieces, not much to do but wait it out and trat the symptoms.
If they are bigger, dig those suckers out in the OR under anesthesia. And copious amounts of irrigation.
That will be 150. Thank you.:laugh:

 

[manchester1]

This is a post I wrote after Windber last year.....as soon as you said "it looks like hives"..I said that's exactly what happened to me:



I had been doing the same thing with cuts my whole life...peroxide wash and then Neosporin...alway worked like magic until that day...now I don't use either anymore. The doc said wash it out with soap and water...and cover it with plain Vaseline pertoleum jelley....started getting better immediately.






.

Are bodies definately change with age:doah::doah: All of a sudden I now can't take aspirin (hives) Hey, KKK...Didn't you also have a tooth-ake

 

[KustomKartKid]

..... Hey, KKK...Didn't you also have a tooth-ake

The toothache was at Hershey in October...drove 2-1/2 hrs to get there and turned around and came home...:doah:

As soon as I hit 50 I started falling apart.....:laugh:

 

[jeep2003]

yea like kzhors said. iv had that happen . Its just burns not really metal embeded in. If it was you would hurt alot more. like when you get a metal shard in your skin and if you rub it just the right way. youd just about dig right through your had with a razor blade to get it out

 

[buckeye]

KKK, is right about Neosporin. If you use it too long it becomes a irritant. 10 are the words I use, unless you begin to notice a rash.:thumbsup:

 

[KustomKartKid]

Is it itching real bad...???..my cuts were itching so bad I almost went out of my mind, I wanted to dig my nails in and rip the skin off!! And once you start scratching it...the angrier it gets.

 

[buckeye]

But you're neurotic obsessive compulsive.:laugh:

 

[Txpowdercoater]

I heard with a good kick to the grapes that the body will tense up enough to shoot the minute pieces of metal out of the skin :shrug:

 

[buckeye]

Texas prarie medicine. Read that somewhere.:laugh:

 

[MikeBear]

Yeah, I am allergic to Neomycin for about 5 years now, but I don't use it. I used Bacitracin Zinc ointment, which leaves out the neomycin. So, it's sort of "Double-antbiotic" instead of triple-antibiotic!

Anyway, I don't think I actually have any metal embedded in me, I think it's just an inflammation response from the burning hot metal pounding the back of my hand. Maybe it's even the old Shingles firing back up due to the damage. I hope not! I'll know more in a couple days.

It's not itching too horribly bad, but it looks nasty.

 

[buckeye]

Pics or it didn't happen.:laugh:

 

[KustomKartKid]

I was using Bacitracin too....try washing it with plain soap and water and cover with Vaseline for one night.....

 

[manchester1]

The toothache was at Hershey in October...drove 2-1/2 hrs to get there and turned around and came home...:doah:

As soon as I hit 50 I started falling apart.....:laugh:

Same here:laugh::laugh: One thing about being over 50 is that something different hurts every day:doah: Today it was my wrist:laugh: