Most blisters will heal themselves, if left alone. However, if you need to walk on a blistered foot or more quickly use a blistered hand...you can speed the healing process.


Steps

1. Wash the area completely with soap and warm water.
2. Using a pin or needlenose tweezers that have been sterilized in alcohol and/or by boiling water, pierce the outer edge of the blistered skin in 2-3 spots. Gently push down on the blister with a clean tissue or cotton to drain it.
3. Mix 1 cup of Epsom Salts with a Gallon of warm water and soak the blistered area for 15-30 minutes. Dry the blister and pierce it again if it has refilled with fluid or salt water.
4. Many large blisters involve more than the top layer of skin and need to be pierced deeper, and drained again. Soak the blister in alcohol for fifteen minutes with the skin peeled off the foot or it won't work. Soak the blister with Epsom Salts 3 times a day. For the first day or two and keep it bandaged loosely and try not to walk on it or use the blistered hand. By the second day there should be almost no swelling and the dead skin of the blister should be getting dry and hard. Leave the skin alone. It will often reconnect to some degree or slough off in a couple of weeks...but protects the area from further damage.
5. If the skin of the blister has begun to tear off, be sure to keep the area clean, and trim away the loose skin with small clean scissors. Only cut off the skin that is already torn. Do the same soaking with the Epsom Salts (any drugstore carries it). You may want to apply an antibacterial cream (Neosporin) for a day or two and also keep it loosely bandaged to protect it.
6. If you're plagued with foot blisters from shoes or socks rubbing, there is a rub-on lotion (glide, slide, blister-free) that you apply to your feet before exercise that keeps socks and shoes from rubbing hot spots on your feet. It works great. Also try thinner, seamless socks and newer, well fitted shoes.

Tips

• Keep it clean.
• Except for periods of soaking, keep the blistered area dry.

Warnings

• Do not use a match to sterilize the instrument that you will use to pierce the blister --fire will oxidize any coatings on the metal and leave black, sooty particulate that can cause an infection.
• If the blister oozes anything except clear fluid, see a doctor immediately. Very serious infections can start with a little blister.
• Never pierce/pop a blood filled blister. See a doctor.
• Blisters from burns need the immediate attention of a doctor. These types of blisters are more prone to infection.
• Don't scratch, peel, or rub your blister, that can cause an infection.