8-30
Sunday's activities were completely cancelled when we jumped out of bed after sweet Alanna let out the longest and worst scream of her entire life. Matt and I had just woken up maybe 10 minutes prior and were laying in bed listening to Molly chatter when we heard the scream. It was 8:03. We looked at each other to figure out if it was Alanna or Josh. I jumped out of bed and went to the bottom of the stairs to listen (we were sleeping downstairs in a spare room of their split level house and Charlie and Alanna were sleeping on the floor in the play room, also downstairs). Once I realized that it was indeed Alanna now hysterically crying, I raced back to the bedroom to put on pants before bolting up the stairs. I ran upstairs to find Alanna sitting on the kitchen counter next to the sink with her shirt off crying hysterically (what's the next level up from hysterical crying? that's where she was at) while Karen was putting cold rags on her chest. I'm not sure if I asked what happened yet or not, but I just grabbed an extra rag and started doing the same. At some point within the first few minutes I was upstairs, I asked what happened. Alanna was able to squeeze out "Abigail spilled hot water on me" and Karen confirmed that that is indeed what happened. I'm not sure how much water, and I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but Karen said that she had just heated up water for 45 seconds in the microwave for Abigail's oatmeal. 45 seconds in the microwave probably means that it wasn't more than 1/3-1/2 cup of water in order for it to get boiling hot in that amount of time. Alanna said later that Abigail bumped it with her elbow so I'm guessing that Alanna was sitting at the table when Abigail spilled the hot water making it run towards and ultimately on Alanna. Her burns were all across her chest from nipple to nipple and above as well as a huge spot on the inside of her right arm. The burns are pretty level on the top, so I'm guessing that she was sitting up at the table with her chest and elbows/arms touching the table when Abigail spilled the water. I wasn't nearly as concerned with getting all the details as I was about trying to help our daughter in any way I could.
The poor girl was nearly convulsing because of the pain. She was screaming crying (you know the kind) and I was crying while I was trying to cool off her skin with the cold rags. Maybe 5 minutes into the whole ordeal I told Karen that I wanted to take her somewhere - urgent care, emergency room, whatever. Matt thought to run a bath of cold water to try that but Alanna wouldn't lay down in a bathtub of cold water. Of course not. The water was as cold as we could get it. It makes sense now but at the time it seemed like a good idea. Probably 30 minutes passed between when the accident happened and when we tried the bath and ultimately pulled her out of the bathtub. She was sitting on a stool in the tub but she was just shivering from the cold so we had to quickly change our tune. I think I was drying her off when Matt came in with some ibuprofen for her. I'm not sure if he asked Karen for it or if Karen suggested it but when we were at the ER later, a nurse seemed super relieved that we gave her the ibuprofen as quickly as we did. I'm glad about that, but it still didn't take away the burns on Alanna's chest and arm. :(
Our next step was to get Alanna dressed and warm while still trying to keep cold rags on her burns. She was still crazy crying at this point so we moved to the couch in the living room where I got a bowl of ice water and kept changing out her rags; arm, chest, arm, chest. About as fast as I could wet the rag, ring it out, and replace it on her arm/chest was about the amount of time the cooling effect of the rag had to work. Does that make sense? In other words, the rags required new colder water about every 15 seconds. At this point, lots of blisters were forming, especially on her arm. Not just regular blisters, but blisters on top of blisters. The spot on her arm probably had blisters that stuck out 3/4 inch. I could not pull myself together and stop crying (which I'm sure didn't help Alanna out at all), and every time Alanna saw her arm and how big the "bubbles" were getting, she becamse more and more alarmed. It was horrible. Yes, she called the blisters bubbles. It's more sad than funny.
Meanwhile, where were our other kids?!? Charlie and Caleb were playing nicely downstairs during all of this and Molly was eating breakfast and playing upstairs. Kurtis was managing Josh and Abigail while Karen was helping out with Molly, Charlie, and Caleb so Matt and I could focus and think about what to do for Alanna. Once we decided to take her to a stateside ER, we got things together as fast as we could. Matt took a shift changing rags while I showered and threw our stuff in the suitcase. Literally threw. I piled up our stuff on the bed so Matt could load up the car while I was changing Alanna's rags some more. Kurtis checked border crossing times while Karen wrote down directions to an ER in Bellingham, WA, a 45-minute drive from Abbotsford. It was the nearest urgent care/emergency room and therefore our best option. It obviously made sense that since we were leaving that day anyway, to just head down to Bellingham with our whole family, stop at the ER, and then finish the drive home from there - especially since I had no idea how long a trip to the ER would take and/or how Alanna would travel that day. We took a bowl of cold water, a baggie of ice, several washcloths, and Karen's whole GPS unit along with us. Alanna was wrapped up in one of our blankets and just wearing pants when Matt carried her out to the car. We put just the lap belt around her hips and pushed the shoulder belt behind her car seat. I sat in the back with her thinking I was going to need to change rags some more, but thankfully the drive distracted her a ton and she managed to stop crying. We left Karen's at 9:45, an hour and 45 minutes after we heard the first scream.
So, after our hasty goodbye, we hit the road and headed for Bellingham. Unfortunately, we took a wrong turn and got a bit lost between leaving Karen's house and finding the border crossing in Sumas, WA which added about 25 minutes to our drive. We made it to the ER about 11:15 and Alanna was sitting on a bed by 11:18. I gave some very basic info at the front desk and they sent us right back where a nurse greeted us and assigned her to a bed. I was so, so impressed with the efficient emergency room staff. Two minutes after Alanna sat down, a nurse came over to inspect her burns, form a treatment plan, and to offer Alanna a popsicle. Once Alanna got going on the popsicle, she was only 3/4 of the way through it when the doctor came in to talk to us and the nurse returned with some cream and bandages for wrapping. Honestly, it was a record fast emergency room visit. I don't have a ton of experience with emergency rooms, but it seems that unless your leg is hanging by a thread, expect a decently long wait time to be seen. The doctor said that hot water burns hardly ever get infected (whew!) and aren't likely to scar (another sigh of relief!). He instructed us to wash the burns, apply Bacitracin cream, and change the bandages twice a day and to follow up with our pediatrician in a few days. We got some written instructions and a few prescriptions and were out of the ER around noon.
Alanna didn't cry about her burns anymore once we got in the car for the drive to the doctor. She was so, so brave! I teared up a few more times later in the day simply because I was so upset that it happened in the first place. I could and can still picture the wild look in Alanna's eyes desperate for me to help her, to take away the pain, to DO something for her. Why was I not upstairs with her? I said that outloud a time or two right after it happened and Alanna repeated it back to me unintentionally making me feel even worse about not being there. I understand that even if I would have been upstairs with her and Charlie that it still could have easily happened and that I wouldn't have necessarily been able to prevent it or protect her. I get it. I guess she and Charlie had only walked upstairs maybe two minutes before the accident happened. Whatever. It doesn't matter. The fact remains that I wasn't there when it happened. As I was running upstairs that morning, I heard Alanna telling Karen "I want my mommy and daddy!". Worst. Moment. Ever.
After we left the ER, we headed to Walgreens to fill the prescriptions and got some lunch at A&W while we were waiting. We probably left Bellingham around 2 by the time we went to Walgreens, ordered and ate lunch, picked up the prescriptions, got some coffee for the road, and went BACK to Walgreens for a syringe to administer Alanna's meds on the road. We still had a 7.5 hour drive in front of us. It was about 3:30 when we were passing through Seattle and since everyone was awake and in good spirits at that time, we opted to stop down by the waterfront in Seattle for a stretch break. We also wanted to stall a bit to try to avoid running into horrible Portland traffic. We ended up spending 3+ hours at the market and by the waterfront before leaving Seattle around 6:45. We stopped again for a Subway supper south of Tacoma before doing the rest of the drive in one shot. We were home by about 12:45 making great time. Molly and Alanna were sleeping by 9, Charlie was up until about 10:30, and Molly woke up around 11:15 and was awake for the remainder of the drive. She did well considering she has a bit of a reputation in our family for her not-so-great car travelling. I managed to get some rest in the back seat while Matt powered through the nearly 5-hour stretch from Tacoma to Roseburg.
What a day.
8-31
Here are some pictures of her burns the morning after it happened.
9-1
This is 48 hours after it happened. She had a follow up doctor appointment the next day, the 2nd, where the pediatrician prescribed a different silver cream to put on it. We are supposed to follow up again in another week.
A few pictures from our time in Seattle on Sunday afternoon before driving home. The kids did not want to pose for a picture. They were much more interested in the giant M&M cookies we purchased for them. :) Oh, and seeing the live crab.
Alanna was hitting a wall about now. She had one dose of her ibuprofen (a stronger one than the over the counter stuff) a few hours prior and the bottle clearly stated that it may cause drowsiness so I wasn't surprised when she started dragging.
She managed to perk back up to chase birds with Charlie in the park. We had a nice time in Seattle despite what happened earlier in the day.
