Dark skin girl meets 2nd degree burns… Whachu gon do?

First off, I am not a klutz or an accident waiting to happen. I burned my face in january and while trying to research, i found only caucasians having any form of burns online. So i was really scared about if my burn would heal completely and what i would look like. This is a piece on that period with pictures, so if you’re darkskin like me, you get burned, you have a guinea pig to convince you it can heal. But, if you can, go to the hospital.

 ​in the month of january, on a sunday, at about 10 am, i sustained first degree burns on my face and second degree burns on my right hand from the steam of an industrial iron. 

I had opened the container where the water was stored without realising it was hot and the steam exploded upwards. think fountain. a fountain of steam. it felt like hot water was a poured on my face because, hot water had indeed been poured on my face.

i ran to my room in shock. the pain started to set in. it felt like cayenne pepper had been poured on my face. i splashed water on my face. it helped a little. i was still in a daze. i went back to the scene of the crime,water was spattered on the floor, i cleaned that up and closed the container that the steam had escaped from. my face was aching. it hurt sooo bad. then i went to the fridge and got some ice cubes and used them to slowly rub my face. (i read later that i wasnt meant to do this, but i didnt know at that time , and it sure felt good). i lay down infront of the TV, not really seeing anything, just needing to stay put and relax from the adventure so far. i had some clothes to put finishing touches to and deliver that same day, but for that moment, i needed to rest and breathe.

a quick check some minutes later and the left side of my face appeared to be swelling. it hurt like hell too. after lying down for about an hour, i got back to work putting finishes and fixing buttons. a lot later in the afternoon, around 5, i put on big shades and , making sure to use the a/c, set off. in this this way, i inadvertently shielded the injury from sunlight and any germs patrolling the outside air.

After deliveries, i went to hangout with two friends… not the actions of the severly wounded you might think… but it was a nice cool evening and i wanted to make the most advantage of it before i dedicated myself to treatment.

That night, i applied honey on the burn before bed. The next day, i rubbed natural aloevera and honey. it looked really swollen. like for some reason i stumbled into the boxing ring with Tyson and told him he fought like a little princess and he should take his best shot.

The next evening, i finally mentioned it to my parents. they advised me to get a burn cream, dermazine. 

i applied dermazine every night. First, i cleaned my face with an antiseptic solution and cotton wool. Then i applied the cream. In the morning, i made sure to reapply the cream in a thick paste and all day as it was absorbed. In the nights, i am one of those people who doesnt move a centimeter in their sleep without waking up, so i was able to take major advantage of this since studies have shown that a high degree of body repair takes place at night.

some days into treatment, the skin of my face started to peel. i had used the cream on my entire face to kinda help the whole thing come out uniformly. so, the whole face was peeling, kinda like a drastic exfoliation. however, dermazine contains a silver content that when absorbed in the skin into the body leads to higher count of white blood cells, anaemia. so, NO, do not use dermazine as a beauty treatment. this peeling went on from wednesday till friday. it is important  not to force the skin to peel and let the dermazine do it because, if you force pull at the peeling skin, you might peel off a portion that isn’t loose enough to be peeled and cause an injury. and injuries leave scars, and as this was my face… i took no chances. As the dead cooked skin came off, i saw the path the steam had taken on my face; my eyelids and underneath my eyes, in a minor portion; on the right but going all the way over my cheek and to a corner of my mouth on the left, the skin on the corner of my left eye was also tinged pink. 

However, in the ensuing days of peeling. After, i washed off the day’s application of dermazine, i noticed the exposed pink skin take on a darker hue.

 by sarurday it was completely covered but was looking a lot darker than my normal complexion.

I, at this point, had my face thank dermazine for a job well done and started to use a concoction of shea butter, mixed with coconut oil, honey, carrot oil and olive oil. 

my hand had not really been involved in the treatment. it hadn’t really ached me so i had ignored it, but, by wednesday it had started to look really really black and by friday was turning into the mother of all blisters. 

because honey is so stubborn and stays put, it was the perfect thing to put on my hand. as you know, the hand is one of the most active of all body parts and cream tended to wipe off in a heartbeat. but i decided to try with the dermazine. on sunday, at church, the blister burst, exposing very tender flesh. i used my hand sanitizer on the non injured parts of my hand, in case i unconsciously touched the wound. soon as i got home, i cleaned the wound with antiseptic liquid and covered it with dermazine. in two days, all the skin peeled off it and a new pink covering was over the wound.

Surprisingly, this ignored hand that actually sustained the worst burns has healed completely. 

My face however? not so much. the past week has seen me using lemon and tomato on my face. i apply lemon on my entire face first. once the face is completely dry and all lemon juice absorbed, i cut a little slice of tomato and rub the juice on my entire face. the dark scar seems to be fading.

and then one day i put my shea butter concoction and the very next day inoticed a tremendous amount of fading on the dark side.

 LOL. darkside. 

since then i use a facial  scrub everynight and then smear on mrs. shea butter on the whole face. mrs. butter hasn’t disappointed me. Two weeks after i started with it, the discoloration was easing.

PRECAUTIONS

1. DO NOT APPLY DERMAZINE WITH YOUR HAND, IT IS IMPORTANT TO KEEP GERMS OF ANY SORT AWAY FROM THE BURN, I USED A SMALL PLASTIC SPOON THAT I WASHED  BEFORE AND AFTER EACH APPLICATION.

2. MAINTAIN A HIGH PROTEIN DIET. PROTEIN IS USED TO REPAIR IN THE BODY,  SO FIX AS MUCH OF MEAT, YOGHURT, EGG, BEANS, MILK ETC. AS YOU CAN IN YOUR MEAL.

3. FRUITS AND VEGETABLES ARE ALSO A VERY NECESSARY ADDITION.

4. TRY TO AVOID EXPOSURE TO THE OUTSIDE. AND BY OUTSIDE I MEAN OUTSIDE. FOR THE ENTIRE WEEK OF SKIN PEELING AND HEALING, I DIDN’T SMELL THE OUTSIDE. YOU NEVER KNOE HOE MUCH FILTH AND GRIME IS IN THE ENVIRONMENT; EVEN IN THE AIR WE BREATHE TILL YOU HAVE AN INJURY IN A DELICATE LOCATION.

IT WAS ME AND BED, ME AND TV.WORK WAS COMPLETELY PUT ON HOLD BECAUSE OF THE BURN ON MY RIGHTHAND.

So, that’s it. If your face gets burned, it’s not the end of the world. You can bounce right back without a single scar.

Stay safe ✌✌