This morning the whole family woke up sick, so we called Lucy in sick to school and spent the day on the couch watching a marathon of Dora the Explorer on Netflix. After our second nap, we went outside for a little while to play, where Lucy got filthy. But none of this is what brought us to the E.R.
Later on in the evening, I decided to do something productive and cook dinner. Lucy usually helps me cook dinner (it's one of her favorite things to do) so I pulled up a chair and she helped mix the pasta in the pot. We have a ceramic cook top that is smooth on top, and even though still very hot, it doesn't light up or give any signal of its heat. When I went to pour out the pasta and mix it in with the sauce, Lucy leaned with her forearm onto the burner.
As soon as I heard her scream and looked to see her coming off of the burner, I went into emergency mode. We both started crying, and as the burn turned white I knew it was bad. I got a bag of frozen corn out and used scotch tape to affix it to Lucy's arm. With tears streaming down both of our faces, I tried to explain to her that her arms hurts a lot, and it's very scary, so we would have to go to see a special doctor. Thank God we had our Dora marathon this morning, because the episode titled "Doctor Dora" did a load of good in putting terms to what was going on.
I drove us as fast as I could to the University of Virginia Pediatric Emergency room. I called Caleb, who was at work, and he agreed to meet us there. I also left tearful messages for my parents, and our church small group.
As I pulled up to the emergency room, at 6:30 p.m., I realized how white trash we looked. I was unshowered, teeth and hair unbrushed, still in my pajamas. Lucy was covered in dirt from our playground outing, with a bag of corn tapped to her arm. And of course, by the time we got to the E.R. Lucy was her normal chirpy self, chatting up the E.R. nurses.
Because of her bounciness, you could almost see the eye roll of the medical professionals, "another kid in the E.R. with over-reactive parents, who's not really sick", until they saw the burn and were in disbelief she was even lucid. They did a thorough check of the rest of her body to make sure we weren't secret child abusers.
It turns out it's a deep 2nd degree burn, possibly a 3rd degree burn but they wont know until the skin starts peeling off. We have to set up an appointment with a plastic surgeon to look at her arm on Thursday morning to make sure it doesn't scar too much. For the time being, Lucy is on codeine and has a fancy bandage (complete with Handy Manny stickers). She was so excited that "they fixed it! They fixed my arm!"
On the way home (post-codeine) I talked to Lucy about why it's important to listen to mommy when we're cooking. "There's lots of dangerous things in the kitchen, hot things, sharp things ..." Lucy added, "and Ferris wheels." Yes, sweet girl, yes. And Ferris wheels.
No comments:
Post a Comment