I had the ladies over for tea today. We were waiting on the last two to arrive, but went ahead and made tea since they were late. Hannah asked for her own tea, so I let her pick one from the cupboard (lime-mint 'mojito'), and poured her a glass. "It's hot hot hot," I told her, "let's wait for it to cool down." I went and set it at her place at the table, and went to get the piano bench to make up for a missing chair. I was halfway back when I heard the mug fall to the floor, and Hannah screaming and yelling.
I looked over her, scooped her up and took her straight to the tub to splash cold water on. She was holding her pajama top away from her chest, and I saw why: dark pink skin, with the upper layer peeling off. Oh, poor baby. Andrew came up and took over while I called 8-1-1 (nurse hotline, instead of emergency). Luckily my two friends were both there, who each had first aid training. It also helped to have someone to hold Benjamin when Hannah called for mama. We did our best to cool her down, cold towels on the burn, but as she went into shock she felt too cold and wanted to be wrapped up. It took about half an hour of panic, crying, and yelling for her to calm down. We all tried to stay calm. I told the ladies to carry on as best they could with tea time, because what else could we do?
It was a first degree burn, much like a sunburn. Hannah's been calling it the "tea" on her, because of how it happened. The nurse gave some ideas of pain relief and ways to assist healing, even interesting home remedies like raw potato. Maybe we'll try that tomorrow.
One friend zipped to the store to pick up children's Tylenol for Hannah. It took a bit to coax her into taking it, but she's good with it now. It helped a lot. She lay on the couch all afternoon watching TV and asking for fresh cold towels.
Hannah didn't want to look at the burn. She would close her eyes whenever we came to check it.
She napped on the couch.
Later in the evening, Andrew comes and quietly suggests we get her a little present to take her mind off things and distract her. I had just the thing.
I was at Superstore last week, without the children. I knew it was the perfect time to pick up a Christmas gift for Hannah. I am still not sure if she prefers Anna or Elsa, but I picked her up an Anna doll.
And it did the trick. She wanted us to help her unwrap the present and open the package, but it certainly made her happy. I tried out some lines from the movie and made her 'talk'. We took her hair out of the braids because Hannah wanted to see how long it was, and to practice brushing it.
Ben was concerned for his sister. He kept trying to see what was wrong, pulled the blanket. Talked and smiled at Hannah. When I called Andrew upstairs, Ben echoed my calls, "Aanh! Aanh!" And when the burn first happen, and she was crying, he was crying too.
We wrapped her up in gauze, to protect the burn while she sleeps tonight. When she gets up, we'll unwrap it and let it dry for the day. She got THREE stories at bedtime: Arthur's Christmas, All By Myself (Mercer Mayer), and Jenny's in the Hospital.
The funny thing is, we've been reading Jenny's in the Hospital all week. Hannah has been very curious about the book and we like to discuss it. I even read it backwards the other night to make her laugh. I really love these books that take kids through real life situations where they may be a bit unsure or scared. I feel it helped today, even though we didn't go to the hospital. But it gave Hannah some of the building blocks in her mind, to understand the injury. I wonder if there's a book equivalent of what happened today? If there isn't, maybe it needs to happen. I don't seem to remember Arthur or the Berenstain Bears ever having medical emergencies.
No comments:
Post a Comment