Jalepeno Burn

So I've never heard of a Jalepeno Burn before, have you? These nasty little demons made almost 24 hours of my life- a burning Hell! I was making some salsa and a spicy Ranch Dressing (for Sunday's dinner) on Saturday night. I don't handle jalepenos very often but I'm sure I've cut them before. And I had no idea you were supposed to "wear gloves"? I know I didn't before and my dad, who cuts them a lot, never has to my knowledge.

I didn't want the salsa too hot, so I decided to take the seeds out before I diced the pepper. Of course I just cut it open then dug the insides out. I cut up two of them and proceeded preparing that portion of our Sunday dinner. Which was FABULOUS by the way. Click HERE for the recipe.

About an hour or so after I cleaned up, my fingers felt a little "warm" but I was fine. I decided to eat the last corn on the cob that was left out. Well with my hands touching it, I rolled it over and over to eat, and unknowingly I spread the pepper resin all over it. When I finished eating, I felt like I had applied jalepeno lipstick! OUCH! That was no fun, but still I could handle the discomfort.

We had the genius idea to sleep in a tent with the kids in the backyard. Yes I know it is still 80* in the middle of the night! We learned our lesson and won't be camping out back again till October! Besides being hot, my hands really started to heat up. Especially my right hand on the thumb, middle finger and partly my index finger! My hand was wrestless and it didn't help being hot and uncomfortably sleeping on the ground when my AC and bed was 15 feet away! After 2 potty trips into the house, I gave up at 4 am and bailed on the sleeping family. But even in my nice cool bed, I woke several times to a burning pain in my right hand!!

By morning it was pretty uncomfortable, but I proceeded in getting ready for church. It was hard to shower because the hot water intensified the heat in my hand. Blow drying my hair was nearly impossible. In a desperate effort to make the pain go away, I looked to my good friend, GOOGLE!

I found tons of home remedies for jalepeno burns. Rubbing alcohol, Colgate toothpaste, facial astringent, milk, ice, baking soda, antacids, dawn soap, lemon juice and countless others. Most of them worked for some of my fellow burn victims. Everyone had their story on their. "this work right away!!" "this one didn't do anything, but this did..." and a few lonely people stated, "nothing has worked, please help!!".

I certainly didn't want to be that guy! So I pulled out the rubbing alcohol since that was in several success stories. It felt cool to the burn but didn't really relieve it. In fact, after stopping with it.........it seemed to be worse! I washed 3 times with Dawn soap. Nope. So I sat with my hand in a cold cup of Milk. All the while Jonathan is laughing and rolling his eyes, because after all, I am a hypochondriac! Grrrr!

Milk seemed to do the trick.....oh wait. NO! It's worse again! The more I tried, the more my hand felt like balls of fire on each finger tip! So I pulled out the baking soda and made a paste with the milk. I sat in front of the computer (after sending the fam off to church without me) reading on for more advise, while soaking my fingers in milky baking soda. I decided to add some antacids to the mix. So with my left hand I pounded a tums on the desk with a pair of scissors trying to get powder. Yea, I'm looking really lame and desperate by now I know!
I then have a purple creamy paste all over my hand. I cake it on and put a plastic glove over it and try to go to sleep. (the other advise given) After minutes of dozing off, I awake to my hand on fire- no really- real flames raging inside the glove!! Well maybe that was my nightmare, but the pain wasn't only still there, but worse. I ripped the glove off to let the "heat" escape!
Now in tears, I run to my bathroom to find the Colgate.

Crap, only Crest!! Why don't we use Colgate!

Then I see it, shinning brightly right at me. Cucumber Melon Hand exfoliate! (given to me by my sis Jenny, like 3 years ago for Christmas) If I can't suck the heat out, I scrub it off! With the delicious smelling scrub and my baking soda, milky, tums paste I scrub the death out of my hands! They seem to be feeling quite nice........I rinse and still nice. I'll wait it out........Yup, Still nice!

I lay down to rest from my anxiety.....and awake 25 minutes later to slight burning making its way back. Come on! Well, wait...it's only minor. lets see what happens.

That horrid pain never did return....It faded slowly and my hands are once again feeling human and fire breathing pepper free!

Take my advise, WEAR GLOVES WHEN CUTTING JALEPENOS! Even if you've had no prior burning issues, wear gloves. You never know when you'll get a strong one!