UKC

Has anyone here had experience of frostbitten fingers? If so what did you do to treat your hands over the following days?

Have found some info on the web but would be useful to hear what people have done.

Cheers

Andrew


Aftercare for chillblains, frostnip, and frostbite:
* Treat the area gently and with care as it heals.
* If blisters develop, try not to break them.
* If skin is broken, keep open areas covered with a clean, dry dressing.
* Get a tetanus booster shot if appropriate (more than 10 years since the last one).
* If signs of infection develop (redness, pus, worsening pain, fever or chills, swollen lymph nodes in armpit or groin), seek medical care.
* Seek medical care if symptoms persist, worsen, or reappear.
from: http://barhc.w2c.net/blog/index.php?/archives/4-Health-Safety-for-Activists...

In reply to My Gravity:


I got fairly bad frostbite (i.e. black peeling flesh) on three fingers back in 92. Here's the history:

1/ Saturday night, topped out on NE buttress at about 1 am with no fingers left on gloves and all fingers numb.
2/ Feeling still not returned next morning. Spent an hour or two with fingers dipped in Trangia in tent near CIC before packing and descending.
3/ Sunday night A&E at Edinburgh RI saw me presenting a mess of fingers, three of which (right index, middle and ring fingers) were yellow, black and blue past the inner knuckle. This is a bad sign. If yours are at all discoloured then seek medical attention. If they are just a bit red and numb then this is just frostnip and will clear up in a few years (I still have a lump in my cheek from this).
4/ If you have punctured the frostbitten area then there is a possibility of infection and gangrene. I came close to having the end of my index finger lopped off but kept it clean and protected for the crucial first few weeks.
5/ You may have damaged or killed of the nerve endings commpletely so be careful with it. You will have also damaged the flesh and the best way to promote regeneration (so the Drs told me) was to drink a fair bit of red wine to keep the blood flowing.

Good luck and get it looked at now rather than after you've developed any symptons on the list above - preferably by someone who's seen it before. I still have very limited sensation in my index finger 15 yrs on.

In reply to Duncan I:

Thanks Duncan.

Fortunately (for me) it's my mate with the frost bite. He went to A&E but they weren't very knowledgeable. Did you see a GP or a consultant about it? If a consultant then was it a dermatologist?

In reply to My Gravity:

I had a friend who had three consultants suggest surgery, wire brushing and leaving it for the same condition. He left it and it was fine, but then it was mostly just the tips of his fingers, and not down to any joints. If it is just tips and under the fingernails it might grow out by itself, but it depends on the tissue affected, your mate really does need professional assessment to see how bad it is!

In reply to My Gravity:

The A+E dept at ERI (as it was then) had a fair bit of experience with urban frostbite in the local homeless community.

Got any juicy pics? Although I guess juicy isn't really the right word.

In reply to My Gravity:

I got frostnip/frostbite on my fingers in 1971. I had misplaced my mitts, but still went winter climbing barehanded. For the rest of the week, I either wore my mitts or kept my hands warm in my pockets. I was OK in tthat the blisters did not break. I never went to the doctors or hospital.

In reply to Norrie Muir: rockhard stuff indeed. men were men and all that...

In reply to My Gravity:


Most immediate treatment (if available) is to place affected limbs in a plastic bag and feed in raw oxygen. Failing that - an application of 'fresh' urine, then keep affected area covered with a soft dressing until medical treatment available.

In reply to Norrie Muir: how long did it take for your fingers to recover, i have a similiar problem this week.

In reply to Barber Baz:

As it was on the backs of my fingers, I never really had any problems and there was no real damage, so I was climing the following week. I have no long term damage either, and I hope you recover as well as I did.

In reply to My Gravity:
I got frostbite, not on the hills but when I was up the top of a steel mast on a survey ship moored in Bergen Norway in the 1970's. My boss, the engineer, & me, the operator, were repairing a sat-nav aerial, each of us standing on a little peg off the side of the mast about 50 feet above the deck. This was early October. Because the screws to remove the cover from the aerial were small we had to take our gloves off to unscrew them & to change the little components inside. You had to use your left hand to hold onto the mast & your right hand to replace fiddley bits then vice versa. It was only when we came down that I noticed my left hand was frozen, white + multi coloured. They took me to hospital where the nurse gave me a big injection in the main artery in my left armpit of something to thin the blood. The artery rolled around & it took her 3 goes to hit it. They gave me some pain killers which I thought I wouldn't need, but when the circulation began to come back the pain was f*****g terrible, so I took them. Then I was OK. no aftercare needed.

In reply to My Gravity: I forgot to say that it took about 3 years for me to regain all feeling in the fingers of my left hand.

In reply to D.Musgrave: I got preliminary frostbite while filming without mitts at 27,000 ft. I got back into the snow hole with absolutely no feeling in my hands, heres a tip. An SAS paramedic (they all are I think) took one look at my fingers and immediately heated a pan of water to exactly (I think) 40°C and stuck my hands in it, maintaining that temp until the feeling came back, my hands healed with no sign of frostbite so it worked for me.