Words to live by. (Margie's okay, but it made for an exciting afternoon.)
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Ouch!
The official story involves leaning back against the counter while the teapot was on, waiting for said teapot to boil. Add flame + a baggy Polartek top, and a safety lesson ensues.
Yes, kids, "stop, drop, and roll" really *is* a good strategy when on fire. Yikes!
After the flames were out, and I helped her get the sweatshirt off, things were not as horrifying as they might have initially seemed.
Total burn area totals about the size of an 8x11 sheet of paper. Mostly first degree, a slightly blistered second-degree area (ruptured when she did the dropping and rolling), and a few small third-degree spots where burning/melting fabric stuck.
(Interestingly, they are no longer called, by the In Crowd, by those degrees. They are now called "superficial," "partial depth" and "full depth" (referring to how deeply the fire penetrates the layers of skin. These kids and their crazy new medical nomenclature.)
After getting the bits of fabric off her, I slathered the whole thing in Silver Sulfadiazne, which immediately comforted the burning. We consulted with Her Brother The Doctor, who recommended we head into the doctor's, so we did. The Trauma NA (who had experience in a burn ward or something like that) said we'd done a good job, it didn't look very bad, and better cleaned, re-creamed, and dressed the wound.
Margie's actually doing pretty good. She slept comfortably last night, etc., and aside from not being huggable or back-pattable seems okay -- i.e., the problem is more logistics of redressing and dressing.
Katherine was actually a bit more traumatized. I don't think she actually saw Mommy on fire, but she did *hear* it. She ran off "to get out of the way" but very scared, and was a bit shaky about the whole thing for the rest of the day. We had some good talks about it.
First - Yes I'm doing fine. Actually, doesn't hurt much.
Second - It's embarrassing to repeatedly answer the question "How did it happen?" with "My shirt caught fire."
Third - The biggest challenges are keeping the dressings in place for more than 5 minutes and finding a way to dress appropriately when all versions of female undergarments are off limits.
Finally - Yes Mom I really am fine
Glad to hear it. Burned my arm pretty good on Monday (partial depth in the lingo), but small surface area. Just have a really ugly looking scab. Take care.
Yikes! Glad Margie's OK-ish.
Ack! I'm glad to hear that she wasn't hurt more than she was...
Glad you are "fine". Hugs (but not where it hurts) and love.
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