Cold burns…yes it does :(

Eugh, you know when you’re feeling sort of down in the dumps because of your own idiocy? Well that’s me today.

I hadn’t really been taking the docs advice too seriously (bad Rachy) and had still been wandering around town and doing my usual lots of steps but resting more on a night time and spending my nights lying with my leg out instead of all cramped up at my laptop. I thought this would be enough but my knee was really bad yesterday so I decided the time had come to actually rest properly. So I got into my ‘house clothes’ (aka my ‘if I ever had to wear this outside I would die of embarassement’ get up) and dutifully bandaged my ice pack to my knee and left it there til it melted. It was SO painful cos it was so cold but it did take the swelling down a lot which is good. I repeated this all last night, refreezing it each time it melted then putting it on again. I put it on for the last time at about 1am and lay watching Scrubs until it melted. It was again very sore but I thought it was from the cold again. I took it off and saw two disgusting red swollen patches on my knee, one on each side. I thought it was just from the cold so I touched one to see if it hurt and my god it did, so damn painful. I started to panic because I had no idea what these awful massive red swollen lumps were, they were stinging more and more. Even the air touching my skin was making it sting. I had no idea what to do with it being nearly 2am but the skin was too tender to even have my sheets brush against it so I wrapped my knee in bandage and went to bed. I couldn’t sleep because of the sprain twinges and now my tender skin so I was lying awake just sort of letting my mind wander.

It was then I remember the infamous scene from the movie ‘Dumb and Dumber’, when Harry (Jeff Daniels) gets his tongue stuck to the icey pole of the ski ramp thingy and it rips all the skin off his tongue…yup, that’s exactly what I’ve done to my freaking knee *sigh*

When I got up this morning it wasn’t as red but it’s still a massive lump either side of my knee, it’s absolute agony. The ‘burns’ are actually much more painful than the sprain as they are so delicate and raw and always sore, at least with my sprain it was ok when I lay with my leg stretched out. I read up on it on Wikipedia, apparently they’re known as ‘cold burns‘ (ok it seems like most of you knew that, but I didn’t lol) and they’re basically the same as a regular burn. My arms and hands have a few scars from burns from the oven, hob and iron (and one particularly nasty encounter with a soldering iron) but these are the worst burns I’ve ever had, and with being on either side of my knee they keep getting brushed with things which gives me so much pain. I had an awful nights sleep last night because I sleep on my side but couldn’t lie on either side because theres a burn on each side. *sigh again*

I cannot believe I’ve done something so bloody stupid lol What I can’t understand though is the first few times I did it my skin was absolutely fine! The first time I did it the ice pack had been in the freezer for weeks, it was a totally solid block, yet when I actually got the burns it was after it had only been back in the freezer for a few hours and wasn’t even totally solid yet. *sighs yet again*

I’m sorta bummed out tonight, I’m in so much pain than before and all because I was trying to help myself. What a bloody idiot!

Take care guys,
Rachy.

PS – won’t be around much, behind with most of my mails but everything will be sorted when things are starting to heal. Thanks.