Medical Advice...

While it could be said that some of us present are susceptible to the occasional accidental mishap, there are others of the female persuasion that seem to cause personal injury at random.  Some of the time, these incidents are even more avoidable that the issues that strike at me.

In order to protect the Not-So-Innocent, I will use a pseudonym for the accused to protect her identity... We'll call her Schmellie.  Today, Schmellie, has spent the afternoon in her daughters bedroom clearing up, putting handles on the wardrobes, hanging a mirror - that sort of thing.  The wardrobe handles, however, needed to have a hole filled before they could be attached, so Kellie Schmellie used some Epoxy Resin putty.

So Schmellie plops it into her hand, splodges it around to warm it up and make it malleable, and fills the holes on the wardrobe. Half an hour later or so, I get in from shopping, and she shows me her handy work. While showing me the filled holes, she makes mention that her skin feels "a bit strange"

Having a look at the tube, I see the words "Epoxy Resin" and the penny drops. Like a rock.  I KNOW from personal experience* that it's nasty shit. So I point out to Schmellie that it's evil, and you really shouldn't get it on your skin... "But it says to warm it up in your hands first" she tells me, and takes the packet from me and reads it.

Line one: Always wear protective hand wear while handling this product.

"Oh"

With her fingers very sore and very red, and with me being a fully qualified Doctor** I set about trying to find a way to make it better.  I found plenty of "For-The-Love-Of-God-Don't-Get-It-On-Your-Skin" advice, lots of "Always-Wear-Gloves" advice, and even a fair bit of "Just-Don't-Use-This-On-It" advice, but very little actual advice on how to sort it.

Finally, I came across - of all places - a model rocket club help page with the following cure to remove Epoxy Resin from the skin:

Wet hands in hot water, apply a good splodge of washing up liquid, some granulated sugar, and scrub your hands together. Rinse and repeat. Once the hands are clean, rinse in clear water, dry thoroughly, apply moisturiser. 

Armed with my Fairy Liquid, my Tate & Lyle and my Atrixo, I ordered Schmellie into the bathroom.  She might have looked at me like I had had some sort of massive brain-fart, but after ten minutes, her hands were mostly clean.  I say MOSTLY as the advice is to do the cleaning within a few minutes of getting it on you. NOT the better part of an hour. Aside from one hard bit on one finger, her hands were clean.

They still looked very sore though, so with liberal blobs of hand cream all over them, we got her hands nice and soft once more

The moral of this story is twofold:

1) Always read the label, and
2) I WILL tell the world.

I'm sure there are more morals to be had, and am sure that Schmellie won't be playing with dangerous chemicals again any time soon.  I say "I'm sure" but I think a more accurate line would be "I'm hopeful"




*A story for another day (when I'm not ripping someone else for their silliness)
**My degree says I am in plain black and white crayon.