Blood blister on my fretting hand thumb. Pop it?

[Uladyne]

I hit my left thumb with a hammer at work today, and while I barely clipped it and it didn't hurt at the time, I quickly noticed the rapid formation of a gnarly blood blister. Common sense (and googling) says I should leave it alone and let it heal, but the damn thing is a good 3/16 of an inch tall and it's making guitar practice pretty much impossible. I'm wondering if an open wound covered with a band aid might make guitar playing a bit easier.

Should I pop it or leave it alone?

Edit: I've been icing the fuck out of it since I got home but it doesn't seem to be doing much.

 

[egan.]

Against recommendations I always pop blisters. I don't have time for that shit. Note that it will hurt after all of the fluid drains which may impede practice anyway. Superglue can be awesome for finger cuts if you've got to play.

 

[Rocker123]

+1 on superglue

 

[JeffTD]

Against recommendations I always pop blisters. I don't have time for that shit. Note that it will hurt after all of the fluid drains which may impede practice anyway. Superglue can be awesome for finger cuts if you've got to play.

^^Exactly this. Got huge blisters on my thumbs while retolexing my head/cab (rubbing off old glue... PITA), and it was easier to just lance, drain, and cover with a bandaid.

 

[Cyanide_Anima]

I agree with the above posts. It is more of a pain in the ass to try to keep the blister from popping for the week or so than it is to stick it and apply some neosporin and a bandage!

 

[Daemoniac]

The one thing I've heard is that because there has to be access to a blood supply from a blood blister, there is a higher risk of infection. Most of the time, by the time I've decidedto go for it, the blood in there has hardened and comes out more like a splinter

 

[Uladyne]

I think maybe I'll try to keep it intact until after work today, as aparently one of the things on my agenda is to clean up a bit of black mold, and I figure it would be best not to have any sort of open wound around that shit, even if it's bandaged up.

 

[colonel kurtz]

i always pop blood blisters

they don't form in the same manner as a regular blister...and as such, they don't hurt or anything after you pop them. there's basically a tiny little hole on the side of an open wound, and then it's healed in a day or 2

i'd much rather deal with that than leave them alone, in which case it'll probably take well over a week to go away

 

[StefTD]

don't use superglue! you can get a blood poisoning from that, and I really mean that, my brother
studies medicine and had a guy at the hospital who had a blood poisoning because he used super-
glue on a finger that had a little wound from guitar playing...

I don't like to open them because I have less pain playing with them when they're still "closed".
But if you open it, wait some time before you put bandage on it (2-3 hours) because it's good
if there's some fresh air around that part.

When I visited my uncle for a week, I was playing on his upright bass everyday and my hands
were full of blood blisters, I just tried to play a little bit softer and that's it.

 

[RedDog]

After you clean up the mold, go buy some Hibiclens. It's an anti-microbial salve-like ointment that kills all the germs ever. Pop it, hit it with the Hibiclens, wrap it up and good to go. That stuff saved my ass when I got a staph infection.

 

[Uladyne]

After you clean up the mold, go buy some Hibiclens. It's an anti-microbial salve-like ointment that kills all the germs ever. Pop it, hit it with the Hibiclens, wrap it up and good to go. That stuff saved my ass when I got a staph infection.

I shall look into this.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

Simplest thing to do, which is what I always do...needle, lighter, heat up the needle, then dip in in rubbing alcohol, pop the blister, let it drain using only mild pressure. Let the blister dry for a few minutes, Hydrogen Peroxide or iodine, Neosporin, band aid. I change the band aids every six hours or so and add more Neosporin. I find that popping them while making them more sore initially, having the band aid allows you to do much more before irritating it. Since it is the thumb of your fretting hand, having the cushion of the band aid which does more in terms of pain and playability than not pooping it, and from my experience, popping them and treating them with Antiseptics and Antibiotics tend to let them heal faster.

 

[Terminus]

There's another one called New-Skin Liquid I think is cheaper. They're pretty durable and ime stay put when jamming.

 

[Arsenu,]

basically you should either pop it with a needle or drain the blood with a syringe.

i know it because i had blood blisters in my legs while i was in the army and that's what the doctor did.
but if the blood inside the blister is already dry than your'e too late and you should leave it