First ER Trip

We had our first trip to the ER with Madelyn on the Big Island.   After a rather epic day of horrible behavior, it ended with Madelyn burning her hand on the radiant stove in the condo.     I was cooking her some pasta and had stepped to the sink to rinse it off.   She was behind me and put her hand on the stove, as it was black in color and didn't look hot.  The danger of radiant stoves is this exact feature.  Once you turn the power off, they turn black, but the surface is still very hot.   The burn didn't set in immediately and took a couple minutes.   She started screaming that something hurt her on a chair in the condo.  I looked at the wound and was confused as it looked like a burn but since I hadn't seen her at the stove, I had no idea what happened.




Stickers help heal any wound.  Its a well known fact among 4 year olds.

The screaming grew louder and more out of control.  By now, Michael and I were piecing together what must have happened.    We calmed Madelyn down with lollipops and a cold water to soak her hand in, and she finally admitted that she had touched the stove.   Four fingertips were white with blisters and her thumb was the worst with a huge blister across the side of her thumb joint.  Michael ran to the store for band-aids and first aid stuff.   I sat in the condo, realizing we probably needed to get it checked out.    We looked up the nearest ER and loaded Maddy in the car with her hand in a cold water bucket.   Of course this all happened at bedtime, so I took Maddy up to Waimea to get it checked out.    The Big Island is exactly that... Big.  30 minutes later we arrived in the upcountry and the small community hospital.    They were so friendly and helpful, and got us right in.  She stood out in the waiting room as all the locals stared at the haole (white) girl with her hand in a bucket of cold water.   

2nd Degree burn, but not too bad.  The doctor and nurse just gave us advice on how to care of it and plenty of bandage supplies.    We probably didn't need to go up, but it calmed me down and it gave Maddy a reason to sit in one place and soak her hand in cold water.    After we got back to the condo, I tenderly bandaged it up and finally the day was over.  



Moments before she dug at some rocks and popped that big blister on her 4th finger.

The last day of our trip, we let Maddy go swimming.  The ER Doctor had said not to, but I met a Pediatrician in our resort complex who said she really thought she'd be okay.    And she was...until after swimming and her hand was all wet, she accidentally popped one of the major blisters.   YIKES!! If the screaming from the burn wasn't bad, the sound coming out of Maddy when that blister popped was heard through the entire resort area.  

I am happy to report that her fingers are just about healed up.   No bill from the hospital yet, we'll see if the smile is still on my face when that shows up in the mail.