Serrano Chile and Jalapeno Hands =(

So last night we had an India 2k6-Fish Taco Night Hangout, and first, let me say, all the food was DELICIOUS and the company was AWESOME, of course. (YAY)














So we were making Jon Kang's Green Sauce, and as Gina mashed the avocados, I chopped up some cilantro, 2 jalapenos, and 2 serrano chiles. I really didn't think anything of it at the time, especially because I had cut some jalapenos the night before and I was perfectly fine.

But about 5 minutes later, as I squeezed some lemon and lime into the sauce, my thumb was starting to tingle.

It was tolerable, but soon, it started spreading deeper into my nails (right where the nail and the finger meets). I brushed it off and continued to help cook, but within the hour, my index and middle finger started to tingle too. So I rubbed my fingers together to distract myself from the pain.

I decided to try some remedies. First, as most of us know, when you eat something spicy, you're supposed to drink milk, so I tried dipping my fiingers in milk... didn't really help.
Then I tried ice... helped while I kept my hands on the ice, but.. once my hands were off, no help.

So I went home, and it was still relatively tolerable, but when I got home, the pain initiated in my left hand as well. So by now, both of my thumbs, index, middle, and ring fingers were BURNING with pain. It was getting worse, so I googled some solutions, and I hated the ones that said "use gloves." Because obviously, it's too late for that one. I knew that time would end up being the only solution, but I had to do something, so I went on and tried them all.

1. Washing my hands over and over -did nothing.
2. Lotion- nada.
3. Aloe Vera -accentuated the burn.
4. Antibiotic Ointment -that kind of burned too.
   
5. Vegetable oil -made it feel like my hands were being COOKED.
   
6. Vinegar -worked VERY temporarily, but made my hands smell and didn't really do much.
7. Warm Water -(acc. to Jon Baik:) to try to open up my pores to let the chile oils out... oh, they came out all right, came out to burn me even worse. Lukewarm water felt like BURNING HOT WATER to my fingertips
8. Sour Cream -worked for about a minute, but the moment I washed it off -pain, yet again.
9. There were some remedies involving bleach, rubbing alcohol, and acetone, but heck no, I KNEW that those would just eat away my skin and make things worse, so I avoided that one.

So each "solution" only aggravated my fingers even worse than the last one, and it was hurting so bad that I had to turn off my computer because typing hurt so much.

It's hard to describe the sensation, but it felt a little bit like I was being forced to keep my fingers on a hot iron skillet, and there was no way to pull away from the burning, searing pain. Seriously.

So I tried to go to sleep, and thank God, I did. So I ended up waking/getting up at around 11:30, and YAY! It didn't hurt!

But as warned by the blogs I read, "I thought the sensation/pain was gone, but after taking a hot shower, the irritation was back with a fury." But it was only a warm shower, but.. same effect.

So, it's definitely not AAAAS bad as it was last night, but it still hurts and I read that capsaicin (the oil in the peppers) has a half-life of about 24 hours, so... I shall have to suffer until tonight. It definitely is getting better though. It kind of comes in waves (of mutilation. haha). But yeahhh... be warned, everyone. Gloves are a necessity.

Stupid chiles. =(