Well a rush to the ER does seem inevitable with children. Though in our defense we have gone 6 years accident free.
On Sunday, August 9th my dad had come over to our house to pick up Ajax for a few days since he was feeling under the weather and Dave and I both had to work. After they left Noomi and I played in the garden and then came in for bath time around 6:30 pm. Dave had just finished straining the bones from my homemade chicken stock that had been simmering all day and the broth was sitting in a large bowl on the counter. In the two seconds it took for me to open the door for Dave to take the bones to the trash can Noomi reached up onto the counter and asked what was in the bowl. I couldn’t get to her fast enough before some of the broth spilled onto both her arms. As I went running toward her I slipped in the broth and we both went down. I then scooped Noomi up, stripped off her clothes as we went sprinting to the bathroom and I put her straight into the tub under cold water.
Dave came into the house and sat with her as I ran next door to get our neighbor, Mrs. Oliver, who was a nurse. As soon as Mrs. Oliver saw Noomi she said, you guys need to get to the emergency room. Mrs. Oliver wrapped up Noomi’s hand as we buckled her into her car seat and we sped off through a terrible thunderstorm to Sparrow Hospital in Lansing.
The doctors looked at Noomi’s poor little blistered hands and arms and said, you need to be transferred to the burn unit do you want to go to Grand Rapids or U of M? What kind of question was that? U of M of course! Dave hustled back home to collect some clothes (as they told us we could be in Ann Arbor for 2-3 days) and I rode with Noomi via ambulance to Ann Arbor. Now at this point Noomi was heavily medicated and pretty doped up. She was pretty loopy on the drive down and talked throughout the entire hour drive to Ann Arbor. She was fascinated by all the lights inside the ambulance and the paramedic who sat in the back with us was the nicest guy.
Around 11:30 or so we rolled into Mott Children’s Hospital and received the best care. The nurses and doctors were all wonderful. The burn nurse cleaned Noomi’s hands and arms which was extremely difficult to watch and I’m still surprised that they let Dave and I inside the room while it was happening. Dave ended up getting sick and almost passed out. Afterwards they wrapped up her hands in little mittens.
Around 7:30 am on Monday we were released from the hospital. By the time we got home Grandma Dara and Papa were over with food and hugs. We asked Grandma Mary and Grandpa Gordy to keep Ajax so that he wouldn’t be too upset.
Over the next week and a half we took Noomi to the U of M burn clinic three times for debridement treatments which were also pretty terrible ordeals. Aunt Emily accompanied us one visit and Grandpa Gordy another time. Grandma Dara and Papa also came back down to babysit as I had to go into the office two days and by Friday Ajax was pretty homesick.
Noomi got her bandages off on August 19th with the doctor’s saying her arms were “all healed” – meaning she no longer had any open wounds, though her hands/arms still looked painful. The doctors told us to keep her hands lotioned and apply lots of sunscreen and to keep her arms covered for at least a year. After just four days of being bandage free her arms and hands look wonderful! She’ll have no scars and no surgery needed.
Today was her first day back at Kindercare and she did wonderful! She was so happy to be back at school and really missed her friends. She had a great drop off and was doing well when I checked on her after lunch.
We were so fortunate to have family and friends sending us well wishes and support and Noomi loved all her get well gifts. Thank you very much!
