So, as I was taking the picture of my lovely flowers, I heard this hideous wailing like Magoo’s arms were being cut off. My first feeling was annoyance, “Give him back the toy already and we can all carry on to lead productive lives!”
I openned the door to find Magoo standing, supporting himself with his hands against the electric wall heater. As I ran over, he dropped to the ground and wouldn’t stop wailing. Laylee has never been burned by one of these heaters. But then, she’s a girl.
I ran his hands under cold water, put a wet washcloth on his palms and called the Urgent Care Facility 10 minutes from our house. Nope. They don’t mess around with hand burns on little kids. I’d have to take him to the hospital ER 30 minutes away.
I’m usually pretty good in emergencies and tend to break down AFTER but this was not one of those times. I kind of started freaking out. I called Dan at MegaCorp and he said he’d meet me at the hospital. But what about the car trip over there? Who would hold the cold cloth on his hands?
I had this picture in my mind of his hands curling up into permenant fists as the skin contracted and healed taut on the drive over. As I was voicing this concern to DYD, the doorbell rang. It was my mother’s helper. This week we’d changed the day and she was here to help with whatever I needed.
“Get in the car. We’re going to the ER and I need you to hold a wet washcloth on Magoo’s burns.”
“Um……I brought you these sugar cookies.”
Helper sang songs to Magoo as he screamed bloody murder the entire way. The singing was good as it camouflaged the nasty things I was saying to the incredibly lame and insensitive drivers I was passing in the retchin’ fretchin’ rush hour traffic.
I would like to take this moment to yell at the lady who drove in the fast lane, boxing me in at 62 mph on the freeway while the lane in front of her remained clear as far as the eye could see.
WHAT IN THE NAME OF CHEESE IS WRONG WITH YOU!!????? I FLASHED MY BRIGHTS. I WAVED YOU TO MOVE OVER. I VERBALLY AND GESTURALLY BEGGED YOU TO MOVE OVER…IN MY MINI-VAN! YOU WERE DRIVING THE SAME SPEED AS THE PEOPLE IN THE SLOW LANE! YOU JUST SAT THERE, SHAKING YOU SHAGGY HEAD OF 80’S HAIR LIKE YOU WERE GONNA TEACH ME A LESSON!
I LEARNED A LESSON. I LEARNED THAT YOU SHOULD HAVE YOUR LICENSE REVOKED ON ACCOUNT OF HAVING NO MERCY IN YOUR SOUL.
Aaahhh. I’m glad I got that off my chest. There should be some universal symbol for “I’m not just a wacko who’s driving like a crazed maniac because I’m late for a tennis lesson. I’m taking my kid to the EMERGENCY ROOM. Kindly move out of my ever-living way.” She had me blocked in for fully 5 minutes people, all the time shaking her head and maintaining a constant 62 on her speedometer, all the while I’m sure my son will never have the use of his poor disfigured hands again.
So eventually we got there. Helper ran in the front doors with Magoo while I went to find a parking spot. She then sat in the lobby with Laylee while DYD and I went back to triage.
Magoo got to splash in some water.
This was the first time in his life he didn’t want to splash in some water.
But, being the over-prepared-for-usually-all-the-wrong-things mom that I am, I had a measuring cup and water toys in my diaper bag, along with a change of clothes for after the splattering.
They wrapped his hand in a bandage with ointment and told me to try to keep it on. Ha HA! It didn’t last 2 minutes in the car.
I had him back in to the pediatrician’s office this morning to check in. We go back on Friday and on Monday to check for infection. In the meantime, I’m supposed to keep him bandaged, while he pulls at the gauze with his fingers, teeth, toes, charred gimpy stump, etc.
Really, it’s not that bad. He has 4 long skinny blisters on his palm. What the doctors are really worried about is the chance of complications caused by infection because he crawls on all fours like a dog, licks the bottom of shoes, and splashes in the toilet if I ever leave the bathroom door open a crack. I think they’re also worried about that poor lady and what happened to her to make her such an unfeeling wench.
We drugged the Magoo with Ibuprofen, put the kids to bed and finished a lovely Valentine’s Day with a game of cards and some shnuggling.
Poor wittle hand! I send so many kisses: smooch smooch smooch smooch smooch smooch smooch smooch smooch smooch smooch smooch smooch smooch smooch smooch smooch smooch!
I am so so so sooo sorry. I have been reading and enjoying you and your commenter’s for months, but this is the first time I am utterly compelled to respond.
My heart was in my throat while reading this post. My son split his forehead open shortly after turning one and I was at home alone too. I swear I couldn’t think beyond, apply pressure, much to his displeasure.
After a few minutes of non-functional idiocy I finally figured out to call a relative who lived not so far away. We had just moved to our area, my husband works an hour away, I knew no one, and had no idea where I needed to take him; much less, how would I be able to drive and keep him from bleeding everywhere at the same time.
My cousin came likety-split, scooped the two of us up, and took us to the ER we needed to go to. My son ended up with 8 stitches above his eye, considering he was only one year old, that’s a lot of stitches, they were tiny though.
He’s now 18 months and the scar is invisible, by the time he’s ready for school it will be impossible to tell he was Frankenbaby for a time at all. I still carry guilt about the incident, but hubby and I both agree that our son now has a James Deanish bad-boy scar so anything else he may take-on after this is just gravy.
I read your Magoo manly post and had to laugh because that is so my son as well. I am currently three months pregnant with our second, I would enjoy a girl but I don’t know what to do with them, I can’t help but wonder, are girls really so much less “take no prisoners” in style than little boys? My son has been attacking everything with gusto since he first started trying to hold his head up at two days old. However, he’s been so focused on his physicality, he is still not talking. He’s said a few words, but seems disinterested in the verbal process as a whole just yet. Yet, he understands everything we say and will follow directions.
I say the above only because Magoo may be more physical and much less productively vocal than Laylee, don’t let it concern you please if he is still not saying anything at 18 months either.
Thank you so much for bringing a smile to my face every day, I love your site.
Sorry so long.
Thank you so much Gulf Coast mom. I so appreciate your story and words of encouragement. I kind of laugh my way through things but I feel really guilty about his poor little hands.
If only I hadn’t been taking pictures of the flowers – for my BLOG. But then again, if I wasn’t doing that, I probably would have been doing something else selfish like making dinner or something. I’m sure good at beating myself up about stuff. It’s a good thing DYD is so nice to me.
I KNOW it’s not my fault but he’s just so little and he was in so much pain.
Oh, and I never mind the long comments. I love them, in fact.
I keep telling myself not to expect much out of him verbally and then I’ll be excited with whatever words he churns out.
Thank you!
Oh, lots of kissies, too, for the boo-boo!!! And DYM- accidents happen- especially with kids! You can’t be present every single second of the day… try not to worry…
Aww, poor little guy! Don’t beat yourself up over not being right there–accidents can happen right in front of you. Like the time that my oldest shut the van door onto her younger brother’s hand while I was literally standing right there! Keep in mind that things like this are a million times harder on us than they are on them.
oh GOSH!
so damn sad…I am so so sorry.
gosh gosh gosh.
prayers to him and you!
Check into getting some kind of screen or mesh cover to put over that heat grate. I’ve seen them before, but I just don’t know where to get them. Try the Home Depot.
Oh, retchin’ fretchin’, indeed….
Glad little Magoo is doing well. Sending healthy thoughts–
Whats with burns? My niece and Brother in Law had a sterno explode on them, second degree burns all over their faces, hands and chests. The baby is only eight months old. They have been in the hospital since Sunday night and are not sure when they will get out. Heidi’s post Life Changing Seconds says it all.
Oh NO! I was expecting Part 2 to be all sweet and mushy and wonderful, not sad and scary. Poor Magoo! Poor DYM! I hope he heals quickly and without complications.
Oh girl, I can empathize with you! Last year on mine and hubby’s anniversary our 5yo dd accidentally slammed the door on 2yo dd’s index finger, ripping the tip of her finger almost completely off. No kidding. It looked like a Pez dispenser.
We spent the evening in the ER and came home with 11 stitches, lots of drama and mucho sympathy for her giant, bandaged hand. Believe it or not, all is well now. Small scars remain and that is all! 🙂
Poor baby! Give him lots of hugs and kisses. I mean Magoo, of course. But DYD can have some too!
Oh, DYM! That is too sad. Has Magoo shown a preference for using one hand or the other yet? I started out life as a right-hander. Then at age 5, I disobeyed my mommy big-time. She told me not to touch the iron, but I did not believe it was really hot, so I flattened my palm on it. Had to wear a glove with ointment underneath for weeks. I’ve been left-handed and heat-averse ever since! 🙂
Katy http://www.fallible.com
Oh the pain. Seriously. I had a hard time reading this because little hands should just never have to get all red and burnt and sore.
Poor little one. Poor Daring Mom.
I hope you don’t feel guilty too much because things like that happen. It’s shitty, and painful, and it hurts us mommies probably more than our little ones, but it isn’t your fault (like you said). We can’t be everywhere, all the time.
You are a wonderful mommy and i bet your healing smooches and hugs do magic for him and his little hand.
Oh NO!
Oh poor Magoo! I hope his hand heals quickly and without any infection or other not fun stuff. Hugs to you and your family!
Poor Guy!!! My oldest reached up and plopped his hand on the stove burner when he was about 1 1/2 or 2. It was so traumatic for me because I felt so helpless. He was in so much pain and there was nothing I could do to help him. When we would bandage his hands, we went much further up his arm than necessary and then put a sock over it. We also put a sock over his other hand just to slow up the removal process. We glue gunned little pom-poms and those little wiggly eyes on the socks so he thought they were actually fun to wear.
Anyway, that really stinks!!!
My husband got me a spiral book that has big signs in bold print so you can choose what you want to say to the idiots in cars around you. One actually says something about getting out of my way because of sick kid or something. But much more clever wording…
sucks for poor magoo!! good luck with the charred gimpy stump!
Poor little,
It is always sad when they are hurt. What a tough life sure can be tough some times.
Poor Sweet Magoo! I tell ya, that Mother’s Helper is an angel from heaven. Extra jewels in her crown for sure.
When Cool was barely two he touched the hot lawn mower engine just after it was turned off while we were chatting with the neighbors in the yard. Major burns. I feel your guilt pain. So sorry.
Poor baby!
Wow you reacted better then I think I would, lucky for you the Mother’s helper was there.
I am glad he is feeling better.
Ooooooohhhh! Poor little guy! And poor you, too, because stuff like that is so traumatic on moms (we remember things – kids don’t)!
I hear you on the retchin’ fretchin’ rush hour traffic whilst in an ER emergency mode (happened to me whilst in full blown-6cm dialated-labor-praying the whole way-while gripping anything my hands could grab onto-without touching the manly man driving).
I’ll be praying for his tiny hands to heal quickly and completely, and that God will remove the ten years you’ve added to your life with worry and guilt.
You are such a good and loving (yet daring) young mom.
First of all, I hope your little one recovers quickly.
Second, do not worry, we all “freak out” for various reasons. My middle girl got out of the house when she was around 1-1/2. I was washing dishes and just thought, I need to go check on her. We had just gotten home a bit before and apparently, I did not shut the door very well and the dog opened it and she decided to follow him.
I went into the living room and saw the door wide opened. I looked around the house, duh, and could not find her. I also suddenly remembered before we came in that I had seen the known child molester in our area riding his bike and I started freaking out.
I dashed out of the house and started running around the block yelling like a crazy woman for her and could not find her and I was bawling hysterically. I called my husband at work and screamed at him on the phone how I could not find her. I kept screaming what should I do, what should I do?!!!!! He calmly told me to hang up and call 9-1-1.
He later told me that his first thought was to tell me to look at the apartment behind our house and over by where they keep their dogs, but I was so far into hysterics that he just told me to call 9-1-1 and came home.
I called 9-1-1 and screamed loudly at the dispatcher (bless her soul) that I could not find my baby. She was so calm. I kept thinking, “How can you be so calm?” They sent the poice and a fire engine. It was quite the scene. By this time, my older daughter had walked back to the dog run at the apartment behind us and found her with the help of our other neighbors.
I am normally a calm person in situations like this, but I had never had it happen with my child. It can be so scary when an emergency comes up. It sounds like you handled it very well. On other hand, I probably have a permanent voice recording of one of my worst moments. I should find out how long they keep those and then ask them if I can have it so I can burn the tape.
You sounded a whole lot calmer than I would have been. I dread the day that Audrey starts to get mobile. I am a total worry maniac and will probably hover over her constantly.
Sorry to hear about his poor hand and hope he’s healed up soon!
Poor Buddy! I have no children, but I did but my hand on a kerosene (sp?) heater when I was little…on a dare from my cousin. Little twerp. Anyway, my hand healed fine, and no scars or anything.
Health to Magoo!
Poor Magoo. I hope he feels much better REAL soon. And I hope you do too.
Poor little guy. Hope he’s back to splashing in the toilet very soon.
Magoo’s lucky to have such a quick-thinking mama; bless both of your hearts and hands. Hooray for DYM’s dad for providing a possible solution to prevent a repeat performance. For those of you who shared horror stories–ya know, that may not be helpful just about now…
Poor little monkey. But actually, don’t you think that there’s a chance Magoo did this to get some street cred with his other boy baby friends, as they sit around knocking back breast milk and telling scar stories?
Magoo to babies: DJABR Duureeee blatttt.
Magoo to babies (translated): Dude, I totally put my hand RIGHT ON the heater. Naw, I didn’t even cry. Got some sweet blisters, though. Yeah, the chicks loooooove a tough guy.
talk about ying and yang, huh? ouchie ouchie! poor baby! high hopes that he recovers quickly!
My Love, Sadly things like this happen. We who love you and know how careful you are with your kids, know that if this could happen in your home, it could happen absolutely anywhere. Thank the Lord it wasn’t worse and that you and DYD and your helper did all that you could to make it better. We’re sending good thoughts and prayers your way. It will be ok.
Jenna – you are hilarious.
Everyone else. Thanks for the support. You rock.
My Love, Sadly things like this happen. We who love you and know how careful you are with your kids, know that if this could happen in your home, it could happen absolutely anywhere. Thank the Lord it wasn’t worse and that you and DYD and your helper did all that you could to make it better. We’re sending good thoughts and prayers your way. It will be ok.
OWIE!Noooooooooooo!
socks and duct tape over the bandage…. on both hands like linsey said, cause it slows ’em down. But I hadn’t thought about pompoms and fun things to distract, always good to add stuff to the arsenal!
sadness to the extreme for Magoo and you. hope your follow up goes perfectly sans infection.
and as for that lady in traffic – curses on her head!
I love him, I love him. I want to kiss him. I can’t believe that happened on Valentine’s Day.
Poor kiddo! Fortunately, the recuperative powers of the very young are astounding. I”m sure he’ll heal in no time. Oh, and I wanna kick the butt of the lady who kept shaking her head at you in the slow lane. Ack! What did you do to her when you finally passed her? I’m afraid there would’ve been a hand-gesture of some kind if it were me, and I’m generally not the hand gesture kind of girl. Well, usually not.
Ow. Ow ow ow ow.
For both Magoo and you.
Ow.
It hurts just thinking about it.
As several people have mentioned, being a mom doesn’t make you omniscient or omnipresent. You can only do the best you can do. Sometimes that doesn’t seem like enough.
I hope the burns heal rapidly.
No fun! You all have my sympathy. I hope it heals up soon.
On the bright side, though, now when Magoo grows up he can entertain his kids the way my dad does. “And this scar is from when I fell down the stairs at age three… and this is when I fell off the roof at age five… and this is where my hand got smashed in the door when I was ten…” and so on. Hopefully, Magoo won’t be quite as intent on self-destructive behavior as my dad seemed to be. 🙂 But then, my dad also had three older brothers so that may have had something to do with the high number of scars now…
Oh, so sad for you and the Magoo. Trauma, but I think it will heal, especially since you are trying so hard to keep it clean. It’s amazing kids grow up to be adults, actually. You are a wonderful mother. I am surprised you didn’t realize that lady in the slow car had a brain tumor??? 🙂
Also, peter, if you happen to read this, could you tell us how in the dickens the sterno can exploded. I have a few and don’t want it to happen to me. Thanks
So so sorry for Magoo and his mommy. I know your pain, I left the door down on the wall oven once when my son was eighteen months old. I turned my back and he laid his arm on it. Urgent care doesn’t mess around, they wanted him in right away. Big blister on his forearm and weeks of healing. Today we don’t even know which arm. Best of all he still thinks I’m a great mom. Hope he heals quickly!!!!
Poor little guy! It just hurt my heart to see his hand in that picture!
Hey, thanks for putting me on your Blogosphere! Yay for me!!!
Poor Magoo! And his poor Mommy! I’m so sorry.
My cousin had to take her son to the ER a couple of years ago, after he fell out of a tree and broke or cut something (sorry, the details escape me, but there was both bleeding and loud, long wailing). Because her husband is in the military, she had to take him to the base hospital, which required going ON the base, through the checkpoint at the gate, with all three kids and the dog in her mini van. The guard asked where she was going and she said, ‘I’m taking my son to the emergency room.’
He looked RIGHT AT HER and said, ‘Ma’am, is your son with you now?’
‘No,’ she said, ‘I thought I would bring the OTHER kids first and then go BACK for him later.’
Sheesh. Hope you all feel better!
Poor Baby! Poor Mommy!
I would have laid on my horn for that entire 5 minutes. Seriously.