Decorating is fun, but can wear you out...

Jerrel loves to help "det-o-wate." On Thursday, December 18th Jerrel was staying with Nana and Papaw (Krista's grandparents) and decided that they needed more "det-o-ray-shuns" and so Papaw said that they would need to go explore the attic to see if they could find more decorations to put out. (Is it any wonder that Papaw stays side-to-side with the great-grandchildren?) They climbed up the ladder and into the dark attic with only one light on an extension cord. As they were searching through the boxes and bags, Jerrel found something soft and thought that he might try it out for comfort. Being past his normal nap time, the following is what Krista and I returned to find. (The flash from the camera makes it look really light up there but it was not.)

A picture is worth a thousand words...

It's dressing time and that means that mommy has to do "range of motion" exercises with my hurt finger.

Need I say more???

Patrick vs A Candle

This post will have pictures at the bottom. The pictures are somewhat sad and so if you have a weak stomach just read about the burn and don't look at the pictures.

On Monday evening, December 1st, Krista and the boys went to Mimi's house to "det-o-wait (decorate) for Christmas." I was in class and therefore the boys and Krista could have fun and help Mimi all at the same time. A long story short (kind-of like a preacher saying, "in closing"), Patrick was roaming the house for just a few moments before being put in his bed. Krista and her mother (Mimi) were in the kitchen when they heard Patrick scream and Krista turned to see Jerrel running out of the den area. Krista thought that Jerrel may have taken something away from Patrick and that was the cause of the sudden loud outburst. Not so. She and her mother said "CANDLE!!!" at about the same time and they raced into the den where Patrick had extenguished the fire in a jar candle with his left index finger.

This is the part where I really shorten it.

Krista thought she saw wax on his finger and attempted to remove the wax. In doing so she removed the burned skin. Relax... The doctors told her that was probably the best thing that she could have done at that point.

She or her mother called our pediatricians after hours # and they recommended that they take him to the Childrens hospital ER to then be seen in the burn unit due to the fact that there was skin loss and it was on his hand (finger).

Krista called me. Thankfully I was on a short break from the 4 hour class.

They (Krista, her Daddy, and Patrick) headed to Children's and I headed to Children's. Jerrel stayed with Mimi, to take care of her. :-)

Patrick had finally calmed down by the time they arrived at the ER. I got there just a moment after they did. It was sad. He's a Daddy's boy and when he saw me he reached out for me and started to cry again. Well great, now there were two of us crying.

Finally, we saw a doctor in the burn unit. (I know I'm getting old. The Dr. did not look like he could have been out of H.S. let alone Med. School.) The doctor stated that Patrick had a third degree burn on the tip of his left index finger and second degree burns on most of the rest of that one finger. As bad as that may sound, and it is, it could have been a lot worse. He was wearing long sleeve P.J.'s and the doctor stated that sometimes the clothes catch on fire and that could have resulted in a much worse situation.

We were given all the necessary items to dress the wound at the house and the doctor expressed confidence in Krista's and her mother's (a former R.N.) capability to handle the dressing at home and to be alert for any signs of infection.

Needless to say, there has been much prayer about this situation. The pictures may look rough but to anyone who deals with burns they will see that God has been good to us.

The plastic surgeon at Children's (who specializes in children's hands) indicated that he does not feel like any skin grafting will be necessary. Praise the Lord.

Here comes the pictures. We took these each time we would change the dressing. The ones that look the worst are from a time when he had pulled the dressing off during the night and the wound dried out a little.

If you have a weak stomach this is where you stop.