Help! I Need Some Serious Advice About Concrete!

[BigDon]

I was helping a friend pour a slab last Wednesday. Mixed up 42 bags of concrete in four hours. Not bad for a man my age, even with a mixer.

but I forgot the first rule of mixing concrete.

and that, of course, is washing your hands BEFORE going to the bathroom.

Now I have an alkali burn so gnarly I'm contemplating seeing a doctor. As in I can't even wear pants, just loose pajamas. Been showering at least every six hours to keep the burning bearable.

Anybody have any useful advice?

[grapes]

Bag balm, or, see a physician

[danscope]

He may suggest an aloe moisturizer or some prep like that. Your physician ( skin specialist ? ) will be the best judge.
Sorry for your discomfort. Remember: gloves are a good thing. And you can remove them for personal functions.
As a mechanic (at times) I wear gloves around any contact irritants ( engine oil, grease, etc etc ) and it is always
advisable. We live and we learn.
Work safe and prosper,
Dan

[BigDon]

Bag balm, or, see a physician

Doesn't bag balm have menthol in it?

Pass.

[grapes]

Menthol? Didn't think so.

It's been used on saddle sores, baby butts, and cement-damaged hands and knees. Hmmm, I think I need some for my heels--my wife and daughter have been applying HeelTastic, insisting that my health is in danger.

[NEOWatcher]

Bag balm, or, see a physician

Is that the same as udder cream?
I've heard that udder cream is good for concrete workers.

[HenrikOlsen]

Whatever else you do, don't try tiger balm.

[grapes]

Is that the same as udder cream?

Various manufacturers. Bag Balm is made in Vermont, Udderly SMOOth is another one I think I used forty years ago.

I've heard that udder cream is good for concrete workers.

Used it myself, for that.

[grapes]

Whatever else you do, don't try tiger balm.

Tiger Balm does have menthol.

[BigDon]

Tiger Balm was what I was thinking of, thanks Henrik.

The pharmacy down the street had some Bag Balm. Wow that works!

I feel so good now I might put on some pants, go back down there and apologize...

[Swift]

but I forgot the first rule of mixing concrete.

and that, of course, is washing your hands BEFORE going to the bathroom.

Ow, ow, ow. Sorry for your pain BD. I have no better advice than what has been given.

Does remind me of an old joke, about how you tell that someone is a chemist: one of the ways is that they wash their hands before they go to the bathroom.

[Trebuchet]

I forgot the first rule of mixing concrete.

and that, of course, is washing your hands BEFORE going to the bathroom.

Applies to cutting up hot peppers too! Yes, I'm speaking from experience.

Another Bag Balm type product is called Udder Butter!

[HenrikOlsen]

And rubbing your eyes while eating chili nuts (chili flavoured peanuts).

Which I naturally just did.

[BigDon]

And rubbing your eyes while eating chili nuts (chili flavoured peanuts).

Which I naturally just did.

Worse. (Oh, you know I can always come up with worse.)

Having a mustache, a yen for pickled jalapinos and a sweet girlfriend I didn't mind paying special attention too later on that night.

You add it up.

[profloater]

I was going to say nappy rash ointment,( that's daipers,) Zinc oxide cream but it looks like I'm too late.

[redshifter]

I was helping a friend pour a slab last Wednesday. Mixed up 42 bags of concrete in four hours. Not bad for a man my age, even with a mixer.

but I forgot the first rule of mixing concrete.

and that, of course, is washing your hands BEFORE going to the bathroom.

Now I have an alkali burn so gnarly I'm contemplating seeing a doctor. As in I can't even wear pants, just loose pajamas. Been showering at least every six hours to keep the burning bearable.

Anybody have any useful advice?

Just be glad you didn't unknowingly get poison oak on your hands before going to the bathroom ....yes, that happened to me....it was none too pleasant. That occurred not too far from your neck of the woods, down at Ft. Ord, back when there was a Ft. Ord.

Anyways, sorry I can't offer anything constructive other than the chance to have a laugh at my misfortune..

[swampyankee]

Is that the same as udder cream?
I've heard that udder cream is good for concrete workers.

Bag Balm is udder cream, hence its name.

[BigDon]

Just be glad you didn't unknowingly get poison oak on your hands before going to the bathroom ....yes, that happened to me....it was none too pleasant. That occurred not too far from your neck of the woods, down at Ft. Ord, back when there was a Ft. Ord.

Anyways, sorry I can't offer anything constructive other than the chance to have a laugh at my misfortune..

I am one of those very lucky 20% who doesn't react to urushiol. Woo hoo and knock wood.

[PetersCreek]

You me both, Don. I got the rash a few times as a child but since then, I haven't reacted much to exposure, if at all. It's not a concern nowadays, though. We don't have it way up here.

Though worst I can think of is emptying a big ol' can of OC at a bear...who happens to be charging from upwind. Not that it's happened to me, of course but I've often considered the scenario. I'm not too worried about it, however. Jacketed lead bear repellant doesn't waft back to you on the wind.

[BigDon]

I couldn't tell you how many hikes I been on where every single person except my brother and I were just misirable with it.

And I still look out for and avoid it. No need to press the issue.

It's all over the Bay Area. You have to chase it out of backyards around here.

[swampyankee]

Local urban legend: somebody from out of state liked using wild greens in a salad. Thought poison ivy looked nice and tasty, so this person included it in a salad. Urushiol is not broken down by the digestive tract, and the person had contact dermatitis in an inconvenient area. Non-legend: most urushiol does not break down in a typical bonfire; it gets dispersed in the smoke cloud. My wife got caught downwind, and had a very serious case of poison ivy: mucous membranes, eyes, bronchial tubes, inside her mouth, and over much of her skin. Had to withdraw from all her classes that semester.

Serious advice for BigDon: Consider a visit to a urologist, or at least your internist. They may be able to prescribe something better than Bag Balm or Aveeno cream, and I suspect you would rather avoid infections.

[grapes]

And I still look out for and avoid it. No need to press the issue.

Good plan. I never even really knew what it looked like, it was so scarce. When I moved here, I started cleaning it out of the woods around the house. I'd saw through a central trunk of it, come back and yank it out of the tree--one time I was buried in a haystack of it as the whole plant tumbled down on top of me. Not a scratch, so to speak.

Now, different story. Somewhere, sometime, I became sensitive to it. I have to watch out when I pet the dog, if he's been rolling in it.

[BigDon]

Local urban legend: somebody from out of state liked using wild greens in a salad. Thought poison ivy looked nice and tasty, so this person included it in a salad. Urushiol is not broken down by the digestive tract, and the person had contact dermatitis in an inconvenient area. Non-legend: most urushiol does not break down in a typical bonfire; it gets dispersed in the smoke cloud. My wife got caught downwind, and had a very serious case of poison ivy: mucous membranes, eyes, bronchial tubes, inside her mouth, and over much of her skin. Had to withdraw from all her classes that semester.

Serious advice for BigDon: Consider a visit to a urologist, or at least your internist. They may be able to prescribe something better than Bag Balm or Aveeno cream, and I suspect you would rather avoid infections.

Grounds keepers at one of our local schools burned a bunch of dry brush that contained a quantity of poison oak and killed one of the track students who had been doing a long distance run. Back in the early 80's.

That is no joke.

[Swift]

Non-legend: most urushiol does not break down in a typical bonfire; it gets dispersed in the smoke cloud. My wife got caught downwind, and had a very serious case of poison ivy: mucous membranes, eyes, bronchial tubes, inside her mouth, and over much of her skin. Had to withdraw from all her classes that semester.

As BD said, that actually can be potentially fatal.

I'm happy for all of you who aren't bothered by it; me, I look at the stuff and feel itchy.

[swampyankee]

Grounds keepers at one of our local schools burned a bunch of dry brush that contained a quantity of poison oak and killed one of the track students who had been doing a long distance run. Back in the early 80's.

That is no joke.

I believe it. People can go into anaphylaxis from almost any kind of allergen, and most people are allergic to urushiol. That some have a fatal allergic reaction to inhaling it is, alas, not a surprise.

The grounds keepers around here -- or anywhere with poison ivy, poison oak, or poison sumac -- should know better than to burn brush that is likely to contain any of these. The grounds keepers where my wife was going to college were burning, specifically, poison ivy. Luckily, they only made a couple of people sick and didn't kill any of them.

[NEOWatcher]

Bag Balm is udder cream, hence its name.

Thanks. I suspected it was, but never heard the name "bag balm" which is why I asked.

Worse. (Oh, you know I can always come up with worse.)

Maybe not worse, but different than some situations so far...
I know someone who repotted thier indoor cacti and scratched an itch while doing so. It probably doesn't need to be said, but it did make the itch worse, and last longer.

[publiusr]

There was a poor lady here in Alabama in the news who had pulled her Garden clear of the stuff and burned it not knowing what it was. The smoke didn't get here though. Just being bare legged and getting in the barrel with it to stamp it down.

[danscope]

You would think that every elementary school would teach every living soul about poison ivy and it's relatives.
They certainly did in my school and put emphasis on it. No question. And the plants are just about everywhere in the US .

[Nowhere Man]

Bag Balm. Mostly petrolatum, some lanolin, and a touch of antiseptic. I use it against chafing.

Fred

[grapes]

You would think that every elementary school would teach every living soul about poison ivy and it's relatives.
They certainly did in my school and put emphasis on it. No question. And the plants are just about everywhere in the US .

O they do. Schools, newspapers, scouts, forest service, parks and recs, all showed me pictures and warnings.

I still had difficulty recognizing it, partly because my area of the country had so little of it. And, I wasn't sensitive to it. When I moved here, I went to the local natural botanical garden and asked to see their poison ivy. Their specimen was a pathetic plant with four or five leaves--they'd eradicated and controlled it to almost nothing.

Now, I can see it a long ways away, and I can show people how to identify it--and show them, and show them, and they still walk right into it.