Sunday 31 May 2009

Day 33 - recovery position

A well placed rest day after yesterday's exertions. I spent a portion of the day trying to work out what to do with my right foot blister. T'interweb is useful for advice, but it does give you a myriad of possibilities. I decided to ask three other sources, my mum, Jarlath and the pharmacist. From these four sources I distilled a concoction of savlon, surgical spirits, blister plasters and zinc-lined athlete's tape for future runs.

To burst or not to burst? That is the first question. The orthodox position is to leave the blister alone, allow the new skin to form under the protective bubble of skin-inflating fluid.

"The unbroken skin over a blister provides a natural barrier to infection, and patients should try to keep blisters intact and unbroken in order to avoid infection."

Hmmm. But that means leaving a blister untouched. Unpopped. Undrained. Its just not going to happen. So instead I go for the sterilised pin, drainage and dressing approach. And it seems to have worked out well. Exercise on Saturday and running on Sunday was no problem, and, as long as the athlete's tape works in the future, that should be that.

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