Everyday Systems

Yikes! Last night, after a loong day of gardening and a soothing hot shower, I reached for my deodorant and instead grabbed the Icy-Hot setting next to it on my dresser. As I was applying it, I thought, "This seems like a different texture!" but continued to slather it on! Then..POW...it hit! Oh did it hit! Like a fool, I tried wiping it away. That just added to the pain... I ran for a wet washcloth..foolishly using hot water...only more pain..switched to cold..a bit better. Looked at my underarm (the pain luckily hit just as I was bout to "do" my other arm!) ..it was bright red and still stinging. Luckily I thought of aloe and grabbed a bottle of aloe gel and layered it on. (I had remembered that cold yellow mustard is really good for a burn but didn't want to spread mustard on my underarm.. just didn't seem right to me! ) I spent the next hour or so with my arm propped on my head so my underarm could get air and I could get relief. Lessons learned: Do not keep Icy-Hot solid on dresser! Aloe gel is a good thing. If this saves one of you from this fate, than admitting it here is worth it!

Ooooh Grammy, that sounds nasty! I'm not sure what icy-hot is - I'm assuming it's a muscle rub type of thing.

But just to show you're not on your own - I once tried to remove my eye make-up with nail polish remover. Like you, the 2 bottles were together and I grabbed the wrong one....

Wow Grammy I'm sorry you had that happen to you!!
Another danger of using liniments is when people combine them with another source of heat or cold... you can really burn yourself that way.
I had once given a massage to someone who had a big brown rectangular mark on their back. I asked what it was, as it seemed to be a bruise and it's not good to work on a bruise unless it's healed sufficiently.
They said they had a sore muscle and put some kind of deep heat cream on their back and then also put an ice pack on it, and just left it there.
It ended up causing "freezer burn" on their back.

If you use a cold or heat pack, never ever combine it with a heat or cold liniment.

and omg, I don't know, you're lucky that you didn't blind yourself!!

Hopefully your post will save someone some pain in the future Grammy.
I hope you feel better.
Debs

IDK, I think your story is a lot more serious than mine! Maybe, our two stories together will encourage readers to make better plans than we did for storing cosmetics and/chemicals! You are sooooo veeery lucky!
Deb, what good advice! Too many people think if one cure is good, using two together must be wonderful! ..and. thank you, I was fine in a few hours. That Icy-Hot container will stay in the bathroom from now on.

Grammy, oh no! Thanks for the reminder about storing chemicals & cosmetics.

Oh my! What an experience! Those muscle rubs can be dangerous.

I will never forget the time my grandmother went camping and in the dark somehow managed to grab the wrong bottle when she went to brush her teeth. The poor old dear, instead of finding the toothpaste, she found the Bengay.

We found her sitting next to the campfire fanning her mouth saying, "Ooo, oh, that is hot! Ooo!" After we figured out what was going on I fully admit that there were grandchildren rolling on the ground laughing. Grandma was laughing too.......once the hotness went away.

Oh jeepers!!!

Not as bad as yours but I almost put my hair gel on as face moisturizer.

It's easy to do when you are tired or distracted with thoughts of the upcoming day.

You may have discovered something new! Who do yo think tried hemorrhoid medication to reduce eye puffiness? Probably someone distracted with thoughts of the upcoming day! ...and she met that day and every day after that without eye-puffiness!
You may have ended up looking like you just had expensive bo-tox treatments..the gel would keep your skin from moving don't-cha-know.. or not.. we will never know now!

My mishap was using a creamy shower soap as lotion for several days before realizing it. I could not figure out why I had this itchy rash all over my legs. My girls still tell that story ..

In college we smeared Icy Hot in a guys briefs. I'll leave it at that.