Yesterday at 10:30 am Emmy had an accident with my flat iron hair straightener. I get ready on the floor in our bedroom and have always thought in the back of my mind that I need to move everything up high so that she doesn't get hurt.
Emmy was playing in our room while I was getting ready yesterday. She was on the other side of the room and I turned my head for two seconds to grab something out of my makeup bag and all of a sudden she was next to me and started screaming. I instantly knew what had happened.
We quickly ran cold water over her arm and then wrapped her arm in a cold towel and rushed her to the pediatrician. She got burned on both sides of her left arm from her palm to her elbow.
The doctor gave her some pain medication and then dressed the wound, gave us a prescription, and referred us to the Hennepin County Medical Center Burn Unit. We stopped at the pharmacy to get her medication because the doctor recommended that we give her another dose before we got to the burn unit. The pharmacy took FOREVER. The quantity wasn't written on her prescription so we had to wait for them to contact the doctor and get back to us. It took over an hour.
We got to the burn unit at 1:45 pm and had an appointment at 2:00. They were backed up with other children who were also burned. Emmy's pain medication must have been working really well, because she was giggling in the waiting room with another little girl.
When it was our turn to go see the doctor, we went into the exam room and the nurse told one of us to put on a gown while we held Emmy. I decided to put the gown on as Brad was having a hard time watching.
The nurse removed all of the blisters on Emmy's arm & palm and then cleaned her wounds. The physician came in to examine Emmy and explained the differences between 1st, 2nd & 3rd degree burns.
1st degree burns are basically any sunburns.
2nd degree burns are burns with blisters AND pain.
3rd degree burns are burns that turn white and do not have ANY pain.
They explained that burns take up to 72 hours to change in appearance and can get much worse within that time frame. Emmy had two blisters on the top of her arm and on her palm which was the size of a golf ball. On the bottom of her arm from her wrist to her elbow was a burn that was pinkish-white. The physician was really concerned about that burn and said that she has deep 2nd degree burns, possibly 3rd degree burns all over her arm. They will monitor the burns daily.
We have to bring her in daily to the burn unit for dressing changes. They will teach us how to do the dressing changes so that we can do them at home. On Wednesday, we will find out if Emmy has to have any skin grafting surgery. The doctor mentioned that if she will need surgery, they will take a skin graft from her scalp because her hair will eventually grow back and you won't see a scar.
They said she has to keep her bandages on for up to 14 days or more. They mentioned that it could take several weeks for her to heal...more if she needs surgery. We are praying that she won't need the surgery.
Right now Emmy is not in much pain and is sleeping. It's kind of a good thing and a bad thing. Good because you don't want to see her in pain. But bad because her burns may have gotten worse...or her pain meds might be working really well. She woke up last night at 2:00 am but didn't need any pain medication. We gave her a bottle and she went back to bed. We tried to give her a dose of meds, but she refused.
The doctor recommended that we put her on a high protein diet as it will help speed up the recovery process.
We have an appointment today at 2:00, so I will post more updates then.
I keep playing it over and over in my mind and saying "What if" and "I should have done this."
I could really kick myself for not moving my flat iron to higher ground. I am fealing so guilty. I would trade spaces with her and take all the pain away if I could. She's my angel and means everything in the world to me!
Mommy...look what I did!!
