The Birthday Incident

We tried to make Peanut's 4th birthday as fun as possible, despite the freezing rain and the fact that both Daddy and Mommy had to go to work for a bit.

We gave her presents in the morning (yes, she got up with us, as excited as could be, at 6:30AM), sang to her, put on her "Birthday Princess" button, declined the shots at her four-year check-up (seriously, I'm not going to make my kid get shots on her birthday!), took her out to dinner (her choice: Chinese food), and took her shopping for a new outfit. All in all, I think she had a fun birthday, despite the mid-morning madness.

Ooohh, yes...the mid-morning madness. Our neighbor was babysitting Caedon while I had Danae at the doctor's, and during that short time, my little man managed to touch their wood-burning stove and burn his right hand. Badly. Just five minutes before I got there. Five. stinking. minutes. Just imagine the things flowing through my head: if only I had not stopped at the house before picking him up, if only I hadn't asked the doctor that extra question, if only...

So, through my poor boy's screaming, we managed to get him home and let me look at his hand, only to discover big blisters had already formed on all five fingertips and one big one on the palm. After a tearful call to Hubby and a call to his doctor, Birthday Girl headed over to the babysitter's and Caedon and I headed in to the ER.

The ER took us right away, saying that burns to the hand are the absolute most painful. The nurses quickly asked how much he weighed and gave him Motrin, Tylenol with Codeine, and one other thing to help with the pain. They put on saline, bandaged the hand, had to re-bandage it after he ripped the gauze off, and had me hold him until the meds kicked in. After a short 30-minute nap, the screaming and thrashing was much less. One more re-bandage, and we were sent home.

His pediatrician saw him this morning, opened the bandage, saw that the palm blister was massive and hadn't broken open, and re-wrapped his hand. Overall, Caedon seems to have gotten used to the bandaging and the fact that he will have a club for a hand for a few days.

Yup, back to his old climbing, boyish ways! :) Please pray for continued healing and no infection!