Hot, Hot, Hot!

When I was 15, the day I was getting my drivers license to be precise, I was in my room getting ready. I had a desk with a mirror with my curling iron plugged in. I had been in and out of my room, all while leaving the curling iron plugged in and hot. On one of my re-entrances to my bedroom, my baby sister Tara had followed me in, she was about 15 months old, and just barely walking so she would still crawl around a bit and pull herself up on things. She had followed me to my desk, where I wasn't really paying attention to her, and she reached up and grabbed the hot end of the curling iron. I felt horrible! I yelled for my mom, who was incredibly ticked at me...and rightfully so...who took Tara for some first aid on her hand. I don't really remember any other details of that day except that I got my curling iron taken away for like a month which felt like a great tragedy at the time, looking back I was quite the idiot!

In the healing of her hand, Tara contracted a staff infection, it was awful! For several months, her hand would barely get healed and then the staff would flair up again and she would have blisters on her hand for weeks at a time. Once staff gets into your body it never goes away, the outbreaks got further and farther between, but for years she would have re-occuring staff infections. I think the last one she had was when she was 12, but what a nightmare!

Flash-forward 14 years, Garry and I had gone to a dance for Tuxedo Junction, I usually dress the kids up and take them, but Natalie has been so active recently that I decided to get a babysitter and enjoy a night out without the kids.

We had been gone for less than an hour when the babysitter sent me a text saying that Natalie had climbed up on a chair while she was making mac and cheese and had touched the stove top. We have a flat top, which I think at times is a little more dangerous for little kids just because it looks like part of the counter there are no "burners" per say. The babysitter didn't think there were any blisters on her hand, so I told her to just run it under cool water, and try to get her to leave an ice pack on it.

After about 20 min or so, Natalie was still hysterical so I came home to try and get her to bed, intending that I would go back to the dance after she was asleep. She wasn't having it, she continued screaming for about an hour, and I finally sent the babysitter home and came to grips that my night out just became my night in. Natalie cried for well over 3 hours, Garry made it home just minutes after she had fallen asleep, and she woke up and cried for another 40 minutes. We finally got her calmed down with some burn cream that took the sting out, and she finally gave up for the night.

After my previous burn experience with Tara, I was so afraid that she was going to get some nasty infection, so I was super vigilant in keeping it covered up. Thankfully, she didn't get any infection, and in about 3 weeks her hand was miraculously as good as new, you can not even tell she got burned now, it is amazing.

I took these pictures about 3 days after she got burned.

It really made me re-evaluate my experience with Tara, I felt really bad, but I didn't get that, my child is hurt and I can't make it feel better right now feeling.

I know this was a complete accident with the babysitter, and could have just as easily happened if I were at home with the kids. As an adult, I try to keep all things in perspective, did she get burned, yes. Is it really bad, yes. Can I take it back, no. So no matter how or why she got burned, she is still burned and now we just have to deal with it. This mind set has really kind of helped me deal with several different traumatic experiences, and I'm thankful that healing can occur, and this time there are no scars to remember.