Last Sunday, I decided to treat myself to hot dogs for dinner. Yes, hot dogs are included on my list of migraine-inducing-foods-to-avoid list. But since I develop migraines on days that end in the letter y and since Sunday does end in y, then odds were pretty high that I’d develop a headache no matter what I ate or did.

Surprisingly, though, I did not end up with a migraine. I did, however, end up with a boo-boo.

Although I prefer hot dogs prepared on the grill, I settled for boiled wieners. But with a functioning toaster oven in the house, I saw no reason to settle for microwaved buns. So, I tossed the buns into the toaster oven until they were toasted to something much less than perfection.

When I removed them from said toaster, the forefinger on my left hand grazed the top heating element. I felt next to no pain and quickly forgot the incident.

By the next day, a reddish, angry-looking raised blister on my finger had reminded me of the incident.

I ran cold water on the blister, treated it with boo-boo medicine, and covered it with a bandage. But every time I washed my hands – for something less than the recommended 20 seconds – the dern bandage came off. So, I decided to continue sans bandage. Besides, maybe the blister could benefit from some air.

Unfortunately, I kept hitting my hand on various objects, resulting in the blister’s bubble bursting and a smidgen of skin tearing loose. Even though the blister remained raised, red, and angry, I viewed this as potentially good news and a sign that the finger was healing itself.

By Thursday, however, part of the blister had turned yellow and green and it appeared to be oozing liquid. When I showed the blister to others, they recoiled in horror and advised me to wrap that thing up. When I explained that handwashing was adversely affecting my bandages, they screamed, “Quit washing it!”

I wasn’t really sure if, by that, they meant for me to quit washing that part of my finger, the entire finger, or the hand. I’m also unsure what to make of an adviser’s theory that burns don’t heal as fast as they used to. Regardless, I started using more powerful boo-boo medicine and I re-committed to bandages.

As of this writing, I am happy to report that the blister is smaller in size and pink in color and no longer angry or raised. It still throbs at times and the bandages are itchy. On an unrelated note, I’m also seeing auras and their arrival usually means a migraine is imminent. This day does end in y, so the odds are pretty high anyway.

This post originally appeared in the Appalachian News-Express.

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