I may have just learned a lesson the hard way. Probably a few lessons.

I’ve had these cruddy old canvas gloves since we first bought this house back in August. Since then I’ve used them for everything from stripping paint to cleaning metal with ammonia, to wiping things with mineral spirits, and pulling dusty clothes out of the foundation to spray in insulation foam. These gloves have seen it all. But that long lived loyalty may have been my undoing. Seems that during my last session of paint stripping, I received some minor chemical burns on my hands. I should have known better than to use canvas gloves for any of the aforementioned jobs.

Anyway, the burns are minor, but I only now realized that I don’t know a thing about treating chemical burns! I washed my hands in cool water with a mild soap, patted them dry with a cotton towel, and haven’t applied any balms or lotions or anything, just kept them cool and dry. The sensation is like a bad sunburn.

I took some pictures. I know, I know, totally self indulgent. They’re not even that bad. You can barely see them in the pictures. But it’s my blog and I’m posting them anyway.

And of course when I pushed my sleeve up, I got a nice chemical burn in the crook of my elbow. There’s one like this on my other arm but I couldn’t hold the camera with my left hand and get a picture of that one. Just take my word for it, it looks the same.

My course of action for now is just to keep them cool and dry and watch them carefully. I’ll welcome any suggestions you have (except to suck it up and stop posting pathetic pictures of myself on the intarwebs; I already know I’m a total dork.)

Technorati Tags: photos, chemicals, burns, hands, mineral spirits, first aid, safety