***What would an injury post be without graphic pictures?! Be warned, they are below!
Monday was the start of life as usual. Kevin went back to work and I had plans of working on laundry and getting the house in order. The day went well until dinner time. We ate outside and when everyone was done, the kids got up to run/play and Kevin and I were trying to talk. I had a spider crawl up my leg and another bug fly in my face and we decided to just go inside and let the kids keep playing. No sooner did the back door shut then we heard Austin shriek. We knew it wasn't good. Kevin quickly opened the back door and Austin and Allie were running towards us. Allie told us Austin had stepped in the fire. (On Father's Day Kevin started burning limbs we had piled up in our yard. We had kept the fire going about 24 hours, but Monday afternoon we let it die down. There was no open flame but the embers were still smoking.)
I heard what happened and raced to the bathroom to get the cold water running. (My niece had a bad burn to her hand just over a year ago and I remember learning a tad bit about burns then, and knew you were supposed to immediately put them in cold water.) Austin was in a lot of pain. We held his foot under the cold water and he got immediate relief. He stopped crying about 30 seconds after his foot was in the water and declared, "I all better!" We hadn't assessed the burn yet so we took the opportunity to do that after he said it wasn't hurting. We thought maybe it was small, and maybe it really was all better? After turning his foot over he began screaming (basically as soon as the cold water stopped) and we realized the burn covered a big section of his foot. It took about two hours to get him calmed down. He'd bite his blanket, start shaking his other limbs as a result of the pain, and just scream. I've never seen him in so much pain and it hurt me. We did a cold compress and Kevin ran to CVS to get hydrogel burn pads. That's finally what settled him down.
{I have to add that I love how all the other kids rally in and help when one is down. We praised Allie for being so alert and being able to immediately tell us what happened. Hayden and Krissy were constantly finding his favorite things and bringing them to him to try and comfort him. Hayden was bringing snacks and drinks over trying to help calm him down. It just warmed my heart to see them caring for Austin.}
Surprisingly, Austin slept all night that night. We gave him ibuprofen immediately after it happened and Tylenol before bed. We had plans to be gone all day Tuesday that I ended up not changing. We spent most of Tuesday at Christmas Lake and the kids played inside and watched tv. It worked out perfect for him to have a lazy day there (I knew if we were home it would be harder for him to rest because he wants to be outside all day, everyday.). I carried him everywhere and he didn't mind one bit.
We scheduled a doctors appointment for Tuesday evening and the doctor confirmed 2nd degree burns and prescribed him some antibiotic cream.
The blister popped Thursday night and he's been able to walk unassisted for short periods of time. He also started running a low grade fever Thursday evening that got us worried. After a quick Google search we read that was common. There seems to be no sign of infection, so we are thankful. We are also thankful that the injury was on the bottom of his foot where we don't have to be too concerned about scarring.
We are changing bandages twice a day. The doctor told us to expect to do this for 2-4 weeks. He always says it tickles when I change them, and again, I'm thankful for that!
This was our first major burn we've had to deal with. Between me and you, Austin is probably the toughest 2 year old ever. And he's the happiest kid. I hate this happened to him but I'm sure he's learned a lesson about fires and so did all the other kids!
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