Gracie's bandaged owie. We went through a lot of princess bandages.
Kenny had to head back to Oregon around lunch time on Memorial Day. He was in the bedroom finishing up his packing and I was making Cup a Noodle for the kids. It's one of those meals that I don't make very often and they were so excited. Gracie's soup was sitting on the stove in it's little cup waiting for the 3 minutes it takes to cook. I was doing dishes in the sink and Gracie was so excited she got on the stool and grabbed the cup before I even noticed. Being only 3 she's not very smooth in her movements and the cup, full of hot water, immediately splashed all over her hand.
She didn't seem in pain, more just mad that she had spilled the water. She did drop the cup which shot hot water and noodles everywhere. This is where my steller parenting skills came in. I actually got mad at her. I was so frustrated with the kids, I was exhausted (story of my life) and I knew Kenny was leaving again for at least 2 weeks and I was just in an all around grumpy mood. Not that any of that is an excuse, but I have to think of some of the reasons I got mad at her in order to change that behavior, right!?! Anyway, my first instinct was to get mad at her. I yelled and asked why she picked it up after I had told everyone to leave them alone and stay out of the kitchen while I cooked. Then the thought came to me that the cup a noodle was probably pretty hot. I backtracked quickly and asked if it hurt. She said a little, but never cried. We ran it under cold water while I got her a baggy full of ice. I made her another cup a noodle and she ate it at the table with her ice pack on her hand. After lunch she took her ice pack off, said it didn't hurt anymore and went on her way.
The next day she woke up complaining that her finger hurt. She had a gigantic blister on her middle finger. I popped it to release some of the pressure, put a band-aid on it, and then we headed to the dentist for her appointment. She didn't complain about it the rest of the day, but that night before I put her in bed I took the band-aid off to find the blister back and bigger than ever. I popped it again and re-bandaged it.
Her poor hand was so swollen.
The following morning she woke up crying because her arm hurt so bad. I took a look at it and notice she was red starting at her finger and going halfway to her elbow. The blister was back, but she complained that her wrist (where it was red) hurt the most. I knew something wasn't right so I called the doctor. Turns out the blister had gotten infected (probably because I kept popping it.) The doctor wrote up a prescription for the infection and then drew a line around the red/infected area so I could watch it and make sure the infection didn't spread. Gracie thought is was really cool that the doctor drew on her. "How silly," she said.
After a few days on her medicine her infection had gone away and she was feeling much better. I kept the burn covered until just a few days ago when we were finally able to take and keep the bandage off. She was such a good girl throughout all of it. I, of course, feel like a horrible mother. Instead of immediately running her hand under cold water I chose to yell at her. I'm working on controlling my stress and learning to accept that I have a lot to learn. I'm glad she's doing much better, but man, did it look awful there for awhile. She's a brave and tough little girl.
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