Blood Blisters

sydneybound

I'm running my first marathon in a couple of weeks and noticed a blood blister getting bigger just below the outer ball area of my foot and wondered what have other people done in this situation, burst it or let nature take its course? Besides with a couple of weeks to go I'd prefer to deal with it now and try to get rid of it or reduce the size at least but I still need to taper down training in this 2 week period.

I can't say it's causing me major pain yet, maybe tomorrow morning it might be different but I do have a slight discomfort when walking and at the end of today's run.

Mods I know this might border on a medical question but I'd really like runners input and experiences as I'm sure many have had his problem crop up before a marathon.

TFBubendorfer

Never burst a blood blister as there is a danger of infection.

Marthastew

TFBubendorfer wrote: »

Never burst a blood blister as there is a danger of infection.

+1
I had quite a horrific blood blister on my heel a couple of years ago after a long run where my sock had slipped down. After some initial tenderness in the first couple of days it didn't bother me at all. You may want to cover it with Compeed or similar but do not burst it. Good luck!

spurscormac

Interesting feedback on not bursting in case of infection.
I once had a blood blister under a nail. Pain was so severe after a few days I went to the doc. She told me had I come sooner, she could have drained it and saved the nail, instead I got pain killlers, it dried out fully, nail eventually fell off & then slowly grew back again.

I guess it depends where its located and how much pain there is.

hot to trot

AFAIK its ok to carefully drain a fluid filled blister but not a blood filled one.

sydneybound

Thanks all for your replies, i will be leaving it well alone. I was feeling worried last night as this will be my first marathon and I don't want anything to go wrong hoping for sub 3.30, we'll see how that goes on the day!

meijin

You may find this useful: http://fellrnr.com/wiki/Popping_Blisters

TFBubendorfer

Mod post: Closing this thread now because the OP's question has been answered and any further discussion might be getting a bit too close to medical advice.