silly, basic first aid question

I have a relatively deep "burn" (not sure what else to call it)  all the way across the underside and up the side of one of my fingers from trying to grab the thin cord on the dog's retractible leash last night.  The cord ripped the skin off and took a bunch of tissue with it (about the width of two quarters).  Last night it sting like crazy, so I used some antibiotic cream with a pain killer and put a bandaid over it.  I took the bandaid off this morning after my shower and left it open to the air, hoping it would start to dry up and  scab over.  It is still really wet though (and sore).

Never had one of these before... so should I leave it open to the air or keep it covered?

Lora

The Mayo Clinic says to cover wounds to keep them clean.  They also say it's OK to keep them moist - putting something like Neosporin on a wound will keep it moist and they recommend doing that, too.

What I usually do myself is leave cuts uncovered if I know they won't be exposed to any kind of dirt.  Like, when I go to bed at night and I know my shirts are clean, I would leave them uncovered and I would leave them uncovered when I shower so the area gets cleaned well.  But when I'm getting dressed and going someplace, I would cover them so germs can't get in.

It really needs to stay covered with some type of antibiotic ointment or creme on it. The risk of infection is high with an open wound like that. It may take a week or more for it to start filling in.

Thanks, ladies.  I figured covered would be better since that is what I had to do with the "crater" from my tummy tuck necrosis, but I remember my dad always saying to leave it open so it could "dry out".  (Maybe, though, that's just the Marine Corp's way of saying "suck it up, soldier!"  There is no crying, whining, OR complaining in the USMC or in a household run by a Marine.)

Lora

keep covered the best you can, but also when possible let them sit in the sun..the sun will stimulate some healing and drying.....when my first daughter was born 30 years ago...holy cow....i had stitches and thoses stitches tore apart and open so i was like a shreaded peice of paper torn from a notebook....the dr sent me home with a sun lamp to use sparelying at home...now that was quite a feat.....i will just leave it at that..but the sun lamp helped majorly.....and when i had my surgery 16 months ago, rolled up my shirt and rolled the waist of my shorts and let my incisions out in the sun as much as possible, i would walk around the pool that way and i was cleared to get in the pool at 2 weeks post op..my surgeon was quite shocked that i was totally healed, scabed over and scabs off at my 2 week check up...so get it in the sun as much as possible if you can....it could be an hold wives tale..but i know it helped me several times over the years..
good luck
debby

I wondered how your hand was (after reading the post where you took the lady & her dog to the vet). I would call your Doc and ask what they recommend. I have had terrible burns on my hands and if they are not cleaned good enough, putting neosporin on them will just keep the bad inside the wound. I hope it heals quickly.

actually rope burn should be treated as a burn rather than a cut. Neosporin and the like are grease - we use grease to cook. You can use an anti-bacterial CREAM. If your doctor is the agreeable type they can call in a scrip for Silvadine (Silver sulfadiazine) -keep it in the fridge for as long as there is a smidgen in the container because it is AMAZING stuff.
The oozing is generally short term, as a fresh wound. Air circulation is important for healing burns, but the first day or 2 keep it covered with the antibacterial cream.

The cream I put on it last night (it was a white cream not a clear ointment) was something by prescription that I got from my plastic surgeon 2 years ago,  There is a big pharmacy label over much of the small tube but I can see that it has Pramoxine HCl as the anesthetic and "___ine B sulfate" (antibiotic, I assume?)

It hurts less when I have the band-aid and gauze over it (regular band-aid pad isn't long enough to cover it so I put a piece of a sterile gauze pad over the wound and then used the band-aid to hold the gauze in place), and we are going to the zoo tomorrow so I will definitely keep it covered until Monday.

Lora

Ugh - hope you heal up soon.  Those brush burns HURT - esp on the hands since you use them so much.