Proper Blister Care

[Midshipmanjosh]

One thing i have noticed over and over in all the posts from the guys who have already gone to OCS is to take care of your feet.

This may be a stupid question, but what do you do to your feet besides change socks and put mole skin on the blisters? Also, how long do you leave the mole skin on(until is falls off)?

Also, one candidate mentioned to hydrate your feet? What does this mean?

What EXACTLY do you do to your feet to keep then in good working order.

 

[skidkid]

Put mole skin on before you blister. If you know you are prone to blistering in a certain part of your feet mole skin it before a hump. change the mole skin daily and at each rest stop i you ahve time. Actually duct tape on your feet works pretty well too but THIS MUST BE DONE BEFORE THEY START BLISTERING. As for socks get one very thing silky dress sock and wear that under a large padded sock like the the thor-lo kind.

I have no idea waht hydarting your feet is make sure you let the air get to them whenever possible. Try online searching for adventure runners and eco challenge types, they have good gouge on blister prevention and care

 

[mules83]

I have done a lot of backpacking in my day and the most important thing to do is get proper socks. If you go to any store that sells hiking boots, they are sure to have the proper socks. The inner sock should be a liner (like dress socks but for hiking) and thick wool or cotton socks for padding to put over the liner. Im sure the person at the store can show the right types of socks to buy.

As for hydrating your feet....
This happened to me sometimes backpacking. Your feet tend to get dry (from the liners whisking away the sweat (good thing)). It is important at the end of every day to clean and wash your feet to prevent them from cracking and then blisters.

You can wear your underwear for many days but socks have to be changed every day.

 

[PSno23]

How do you prevent blisters? Easy, just tell your platoon staff you don't feel like going out on the hump and would rather hang out in the squad bay. I'm sure they'd be more than happy to accomodate you!

 

[handjive]

My 2 little pearls of wisdom concerning blisters at OCS:

1. ALWAYS prepare your feet (socks, moleskin, etc.), don't just do it for you scheduled "big humps". I never had a problem on the major humps, but they decided to really kick our butts on an "admin move" one day and my feet were blister city because I wore my alternate set of boots & didn't really prepare my feet. From then on, I just had to suck it up, because there is never time for your feet to heal.

2. When you get a blister: clean the area around the blister. Then take a needle, swab it with alcohol, and put a hole in each end of the blister. Roll out the fluid with a round object (pen or your finger), clean it up, and then keep it as dry as possible. Some folks will tell you not to pop your blisters, but I think that is a bunch of crap. If you keep it clean, it will hurt less and heal much quicker if you pop it.

*An even better treatment is right before you go to sleep, take a sewing needle and actually thread a piece of string through the blister (use your sewing kit). This will allow it to drain all night instead of closing back up. Pull out the string in the morning and dress up the blister. It sounds crazy, but it worked great for me at TBS (although it freaked my wife out).

 

[Crowbar]

I have some pretty gnarly callouses on my feet so blisters usually aren't a problem for me, but I will offer this. Gold Bond will become a great friend to you. I took the Extra Strength medicated powder. This was good for more than feet, we had days we would sweat completely through our cammies multiple times in one day. So anytime we went into the squad bay I would strip my shirt off and cover myself in powder to prevent chafing. But good for feet, too.

I also took the Gold Bond foot spray. Same thing, sometimes I had a few minutes to do something but didn't want that powder to form a paste in my socks because my feet were sweating so bad. So I would dry them off real quick, hit them with the spray and back to business.

My favorite, though, was the Gold Bond foot cream (blue tube). This was one of those things that was only good at night. It's like the powder, but instead of being powder it's cream. So you can rub it on your feet and it won't come off. Of course, that meant I only used it right before I got in the rack so my feet could air out a little and have that cream on them.

Also, take a large container (or two) of epsom salt. I'm pretty sure it's not "contraband". Once your feet get nasty, you should have tubs in the squad bay you can fill with water and epsom salt and soak your feet in. If you're going to do this, it may be worth it to go ahead and take a small plastic storage style container so that you and 50 other people aren't soaking your funky foot sores in the same tub.

Like I said, that isn't necessarily blister prevention but just good foot care in general.

 

[snow85]

you'd have to check to be sure these things aren't contraband, but you can also use:

skin lube and desitin.

skin lube is like super think vaseline, i used to put it inside my shoes, (works on any pair), and then over my socks where i'd get blisters-- so that the sock and shoe slide past each other, while your feet stay dry.

desitin-- baby rash stuff-- get the real thing, not the creamy kind. after you drain your blisters, you can put it inside, under the skin. the zinc oxide works wonders on healing all sorts of cuts, scrapes, blisters, sunburn, post-surgical incisions.... miracles, i tell you.

 

[Taxman2A]

I would be very surprised if your platoon staff would consider any over the counter footcare medication contraband. Things like that are usually safe.

 

[NickPollock19]

How do you prevent blisters? Easy, just tell your platoon staff you don't feel like going out on the hump and would rather hang out in the squad bay. I'm sure they'd be more than happy to accomodate you!

why do you even post

 

[Midshipmanjosh]

thanks for all the tips guys. I still have a huge blister from a 5 mile hump 2 weeks ago so im probably going to use some of the advice soon. :icon_mi_1

 

[VAmookie]

Green gold bond is the best. spray on your feet before putting socks on, then some more inside your shoes. Also, salt down your boys with that stuff at night, helps with the jock itch and gives a nice cool feeling

 

[KBayDog]

why do you even post

Talk about the Pot calling the Kettle "Black":

http://www.airwarriors.com/forum/showpost.php?p=115410&postcount=9


He posts because he's been there, done that, and most likely spent over $20 on the T-shirt. Yes, he's being a smarta$$ (which is a prerequesite to joining the military), but he's also making a good point: Don't expect to get any special consideration from the staff because you have a blister.

 

[KBayDog]

Gold Bond should receive the Medal of Whatever - the stuff works. I used to carry a little bottle of it with me on garrison days; I'd powder my feet and junk any chance I could get.

All of the above advice is good. The important take-away is to keep your dogs clean. If you have an open blister, and you go through the IMC or Quigley, you are celulitis waiting to happen. Before you go through any of those events, coat your blisters with ointment and clean dressings, and clean them as soon as you can afterwards. A guy I knew was on LD for a day or two after getting celulitis from Sr Quigley, and he was in danger of going home because of it.

I have never tried this, since I have good feet, but calluses are your friends. It might help to try and build as many calluses you can on your feet before you ship out. Again, just an idea, but it makes sense.

 

[Schnugg]

Blister care

Ouch that's gotta hurt. This guy ended up in the hospital because he didn't take care of his feet.
Mole skin early and lots of GB foot powder...two things you gotta have.
r/
G

 

[PSno23]

Who are you USMC_Candidate? That's right, you're still a candidate. I'm not going to start a pissing contest here. Now, I've gotten a few comments about my post. Honestly, I didn't think it would ruffle that many feathers - apparently I was wrong. It was purely a JOKE. Sorry if it detracted from the conversation, but lighten up. A sense of humor is okay once in awhile and vital if you're going to survive OCS and TBS.

Now, to seriously add to the conversation, I've been trying these blister bandaids that I bought at the PX last week (10 mile hump destroyed my feet last week). They've at least helped the blisters heal after the fact and reduced the amount of pain when walking. It's called Band Aid Advanced Healing Blister Block. I hardly ever got blisters at OCS, I would just wear a white cotton athletic sock under my black boot socks. But since I've been at TBS, my feet get ripped up whenever we go on a hump, so I don't know what's up.