[Cubeoid]

Or do you leave them hoping they'll just..oh I don't know... dissapear.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Yuck. I don't think I have ever had one actually.

[Kerrigan]

[Cubeoid]

Bunch o' god damn pussies around here. God damn it.

[Goldfinger]

Slice them open. I love playing doctor.

[Cubeoid]

Originally Posted by Goldfinger

Slice them open. I love playing doctor.

[Warung]

Don't do it. They can become infected really easily.

[Goldfinger]

Never happend to me.

[Cubeoid]

Who cares. It's a lot of fun. I do it before bedtime, so you go to sleep hygyne like. It happens after I've walked for hours or danced in crappy shoes. Cutting open giant blisters kicks ass.

[air]

its not sweat. its lymph!

[Goldfinger]

Lymph...Yumm!

[Cubeoid]

Originally Posted by air

its not sweat. its lymph!

Awesome.

[Kevin]

Never had one...

[dcmacdaddy]

Just nick them enough to drain all the fluid and let the stretched skin act as a protective barrier for the raw skin beneath it. Do NOT cut the skin all the way off. That will hurt like a mother and does expose you to the posibility of infection.

After a pretty tough backpacking trip this Summer, I literally had blisters on my blisters. (Two consecutive days of soaking rains didn't help that, but there was no way to keep our feet dry, even with Gore-Tex lined hiking boots.) So, with water-logged feet that were a solid mass of wrinkles and blisters I took out a knife and cut off all of them, down to the exposed flesh. Then didn't put shoes on again for 4 days; Everywhere I went I was in sandals or in bare feet--wrapped with cotton gauze. That made a big difference in getting rid of the calluses (calli ?).

Anyway, take care of your feet, gently, and they will take care of you.

[Mediaman_12]

I keep a pack of these* in the house. Makes them heal up lots faster, Especially if you have to wear shoes, as they protect the stretched skin from being rubbed by your socks and tearing away.
I can't believe there are people who have never had any blisters. You must be really lucky never to ended up walking a considerable distance in ether slightly damp or ill-fitting shoes or boots.

*I realise that you are in the USA and so won't have a local Boots, but I am sure something along similar lines is available from chemists in the US.

[lavar78]

I guess I'm the only one who sucks out all the juicy goodness...

[ghporter]

If you don't mess with them, most blisters dry up in 24-48 hours all on their own. Just put a piece of gauze over them and hold the gauze in place well enough to let it pad the blister.

A blister is caused when there's enough friction on the outer layer of skin to cause the dead part (the upper two layers of skin on the feet, the stratum lucidum and stratum corneum) to separate from the living layers, damaging the watertight covering in that area. The fluid is typically interstitial fluid, the fluid that bathes and nourishes the living skin cells. Since the dead skin layers prevent the entry of harmful materials and infectious agents, opening them to drain the fluid allows stuff in, and can cause serious problems. Further, if you drain the blister, you often wind up damaging the underlying healthy tissue by rubbing it with the stretched dead layers.

I went hiking one week ago today, in boots that I should have gotten rid of. I had blisters on the backs of both heels when we packed it in at around noon. By that evening both sides were noticably better. By morning, they were already significantly less fluid-filled, and by Monday afternoon they were both dry. All I did was as I said at the begining, pad and protect the blisters, and yes I did have to do quite a bit of walking with the bandages on.

[SimeyTheLimey]

I've had some pretty bad blisters ruck marching in the Army. Leg boots used to cut me up pretty badly, but jungle boots were OK. I don't know if there is any scientific basis for this, but it always seemed like I got worse blisters if my feet became sweaty. One time I managed to get a blister that covered my entire heel. In that kind of situation, you have to pop it.

A trick that works to avoid blisters is to wear nylons. The friction gets directed away from your skin. You'd be amazed how many tough rangers and paratroopers have l'eggs on under their BDUs.

[Face Ache]

Originally Posted by SimeyTheLimey

A trick that works to avoid blisters is to wear nylons.

Now how would one discover that?

[11011001]

I get blisters from Kendo practice. We run around on the tips of our bare feet (you don't let the heel touch the ground). A blister can usually appear half way through a practice and sometimes they burst. It's pretty gross.

Sometimes I get a bad blister that doesn't dry up in time for the next practice, to avoid bursting it all over the dojo floor I do the following: First I disinfect the area where I will cut the blister, then, with disinfected scissors I make the tiny incision. Using clean gauze, I drain the blister. Following this I poor some peroxide over the area, and then apply polysporin, and a gauze over the area. Finally, I use cotton athletic tape, and create a pattern on the area that will still allow me to move effectively without rubbing the tape off during practice.

The best defense against blisters of this kind of course is to improve ones footwork, and to develop thick calluses. Oh, and this is a pretty gross topic, I have no idea why I replied.

[ReggieX]

I always make a small cut and drain the liquid out, making sure it's very dry, then put a bandage over it to protect it from getting rubbed more. Seems to work just fine lo these many years.

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by SimeyTheLimey

You'd be amazed how many tough rangers and paratroopers have l'eggs on under their BDUs.

I probably wouldn't be TOO amazed...

[sek929]

A small pin (sanitised with flame) to let the juice out, you should leave the covering of dead skin since the pink stuff underneath takes a day or two to get ready.

[Cubeoid]

Thank you for sharing how you all care for your blisters. I especially enjoyed reading the informative input from the following persons: dcmacdaddy, ghporter, and 11011001.

[rickey939]

Whatever you do, do not cut off your entire foot. That is drastic and not necessary!

[MaxPower]

Are you talking about large blisters? I get these little blisters on the soles of my feet but they are no larger than 1/8 inch, usually in little patches. Same thing though, if I cut them away it is much worse than letting the skin stay put.

[lavar78]

Originally Posted by rickey939

Whatever you do, do not cut off your entire foot. That is drastic and not necessary!

[DeathToWindows]

Depends. If they're just tiny (e.g. under .5cm diameter) I'll leave 'em. If they're really huge (over 1cm) I'll usually take a needle, sterilize it with ethenol or something and drain the blister... they do heal faster that way - and at least you can walk on them.

[jcadam]

Last time I had to deal with blisters, I was doing the 100-mile march in Nijmegen. (100-miles in combat boots really fux0rs your feet).

Pull out your pocket knife, cut a small hole; drain the puss out. Leave the dead skin on, you have to keep walking, after all (it'll hurt like a motherf!cker if you cut it away). Might be a good idea to rub it with an alcohol pad afterwards also. Then, have your buddy re-apply tape to your feet. Ignore the wet spots on the tape on other areas of your feet, those would be blisters that popped as you were marching (you definitely felt those go). Oh, and change your socks often.

To dull the pain, be sure to get fscking drunk when you stop for the evening.

[Cubeoid]

I like the use of the word "draining" in this context.

[Troll]

This is a gross thread, but here's my contribution. I used to do competitive windsurfing when I was at university so we'd get blisters on the toes and all over the hands. There were times when I had 10 blisters on each hand! Competitions were over the course of a few days, so you couldn't just leave them be. If you didn't do something about them, then they would grow and burst and become open wounds (which are very nice to have when you're sailing in salt water)! I've tried all of the techniques mentioned above, and this is the one that works best for me:

Get a needle and thread. Disinfect the needle and the blister area. Put the thread through the needle and run the needle and thread through the blister (in one side and out the other). Cut the thread so that there's about 5mm of thread sticking out either end of the blister.

What this does is wick the liquid out of the blister without exposing the wound to infection and without cutting the skin off entirely. After a few hours, you can pull the thread out. If you're lucky, the skin will actually reattach itself and give you a nice callous which protects you down the line. But even if the skin doesn't reattach, it'll protect the new skin long enough for it to harden up.

Uggh!