Burns

Today turned out to be a horrible day. I took Sammi to her music class that she has on Thursday mornings at my friend Hillary's house. After class was done, she was playing outside and went up to their back door. Their back door is painted black and because it was so hot outside, the door burned her. She put both of her hands on the door and was leaning on it to see if it would push open. Once she realized it was hot, she tried to push herself away from the door, but she couldn't and got burned really bad. She started screaming and I ran over and yanked her from the door. Then she became hysterical. My friend, Hillary, felt so bad (don't feel bad Hillary, it was just an accident). We took her inside to try and run her hands under cold water. She was screaming so bad and didn't want to be held. She just laid in a heap on the kitchen floor. I didn't know what to do and starting crying, too. We tried to give her a cool rag to put on her hands, but she didn't want it. Hillary gave her some children's Ibuprofen hoping to help her with the pain. Her palms were bright red and she had a blister forming on her right hand. I called Kyle and told him what had happened (luckily he was home and hadn't started his new job yet). I took her home and called her doctor. Sammi was still hysterical and screaming. She was in so much pain she didn't know what to do. Her doctor told me to bring her in immediately so he could treat the burns. We took her to her pediatrician and the experience just got worse. Kyle and I had to hold her down while they broke the blisters, cut the burned skin off, washed the new skin clean, and apply ointment. Then they had to wrap both hands up with gauze. She looks like she has boxing gloves on. The process took about 50 minutes and Sammi was screaming so bad the entire time that she was shaking. It was horrible. I was crying with her and felt so helpless. All I could do was try and comfort her during the process. The doctor told us that she has to wear her mits until Monday. Then I have to go back so they can look at the burns and bandage her up again. She will then have to wear them for another 4-5 days. We took Sammi home and she just kept staring at her hands. She didn't know what to think of her bandages. And the worse part is that she won't really be able to play with her toys, feed herself, or pick things up until they are off. It was a horrible experience, especially as a parent. It is so hard to watch your child in pain and know there is nothing you can do about it.