Is green tea really good for you?
It was a normal morning in early January. Amber and I had recently resolved (as many do in January) to begin drinking green tea instead of coffee because we had read about its health benefits, and I had a fresh insulated cup of just-boiled green tea steeping on the end table (my first mistake). Aleah had a dirty diaper, so I plopped down in the middle of the living room to do the changing--we do most of our diaper changing on the floor. I was almost finished with the diaper when I scanned the room for the other girls and saw Bella crawling toward the end table where the shiny cup of green tea was waiting.
I turned my head back to Aleah to quickly finish the job (my second mistake), and by the time I turned around, hopped up, and got to Bella, she had reached the table, pulled up, and, literally half-a-second before I reached her, pulled the cup of scalding tea onto her chest and arm.
I scooped her up and immediately removed her shirt (my first non-mistake) and I was horrified to see a good bit of skin slough-off. I panicked, took her into the bathroom and called for Amber, who also panicked and told me to take her to the ER. She would join us as soon as she could get someone to watch the other girls. Bella's chest and arm already looked very red and angry.
The drive to the ER was no fun; Bella was crying in the back in her rear-facing car seat, and I was trying my best to comfort her from what seemed like miles away in the driver's seat. I wanted to just rewind the clock by just a few minutes, that's all. Where's Superman when you need him?
When I arrived at the ER with Bella wrapped in a blanket, the nurse at the desk saw me coming and picked up the phone before I even walked in. "What's wrong with the baby?", she asked as soon as I entered the door. I explained the situation. She spoke into the phone and then said, "We'll get you right back." And they did.
The ER staff was very kind, and treated Bella -- and me, a freaked-out, frightened, first-time-parent-in-the-ER -- well. They did have trouble with her IV, and I almost passed out because of the bleeding due to a failed attempt to find a good vein, but other than that I suppose the experience was as good as an ER experience can be. Amber arrived after about 30 minutes. Having her there made me feel much better. Once Bella had received morphine and they had treated her burns, we found out that our pediatrician had ordered that we be admitted to hospital. Bella had recieved 2nd and 3rd degree burns on 20%-25% of her body, so the doctor wanted to be sure she was hydrated and in a sterile environment for the next couple of days.
We left the ER -- which was at another hopsital -- and drove to the other hospital in town. We got settled into a room and the staff got another IV going. We spent the rest of that day and the night taking turns holding Bella. She would not be put down, and she couldn't sleep for more than 5 or 10 minutes. The first 24 hours after a burn are the most painful, so we kept the morphine going, but it seemed to make her irritable and itchy. The next morning, we decided to stop the morphine, and she finally slept. So did we.
While we were in the hospital, family and friends held down the home front and took great care of Aleah and Clara. When we arrived home the girls enjoyed a little family reunion; it was the first time the girls had been apart since they came home from the NICU.
For a couple of weeks after the incident, Bella required daily debridement (removal of dead tissue from her wounds) at the hospital. Once we were dismissed from the physical therapist, we continued the debridement and dressing change at home for several more weeks. Bella still has a scar on her arm, but her chest looks perfectly normal.
Despite kind and encouraging words from family and friends, I struggled for a while with blaming myself. And the truth is, I did make some mistakes. I could've done things differently and avoided the whole mess. I also know that it could've been much worse; that this burn is a relatively small event in the life of the world and it is certainly no tragedy. But this is how I've come to terms with this small-big thing and my part in causing it to happen: I did make mistakes, but mistakes only mean that I'm human; they do not mean that I don't love my children. I will always be human, and I will always make mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes will cause others pain, even people I love dearly. My goal is to learn what I can from mistakes and continue the job of loving and caring for the people in my life who need that from me.
Needless to say, we no longer enjoy the health benefits of green tea, but we are certainly satisfied with our moderately-warm cups of Community Coffee Dark Roast every morning. And we keep the cups up high.
I turned my head back to Aleah to quickly finish the job (my second mistake), and by the time I turned around, hopped up, and got to Bella, she had reached the table, pulled up, and, literally half-a-second before I reached her, pulled the cup of scalding tea onto her chest and arm.
I scooped her up and immediately removed her shirt (my first non-mistake) and I was horrified to see a good bit of skin slough-off. I panicked, took her into the bathroom and called for Amber, who also panicked and told me to take her to the ER. She would join us as soon as she could get someone to watch the other girls. Bella's chest and arm already looked very red and angry.
The drive to the ER was no fun; Bella was crying in the back in her rear-facing car seat, and I was trying my best to comfort her from what seemed like miles away in the driver's seat. I wanted to just rewind the clock by just a few minutes, that's all. Where's Superman when you need him?
When I arrived at the ER with Bella wrapped in a blanket, the nurse at the desk saw me coming and picked up the phone before I even walked in. "What's wrong with the baby?", she asked as soon as I entered the door. I explained the situation. She spoke into the phone and then said, "We'll get you right back." And they did.
The ER staff was very kind, and treated Bella -- and me, a freaked-out, frightened, first-time-parent-in-the-ER -- well. They did have trouble with her IV, and I almost passed out because of the bleeding due to a failed attempt to find a good vein, but other than that I suppose the experience was as good as an ER experience can be. Amber arrived after about 30 minutes. Having her there made me feel much better. Once Bella had received morphine and they had treated her burns, we found out that our pediatrician had ordered that we be admitted to hospital. Bella had recieved 2nd and 3rd degree burns on 20%-25% of her body, so the doctor wanted to be sure she was hydrated and in a sterile environment for the next couple of days.
We left the ER -- which was at another hopsital -- and drove to the other hospital in town. We got settled into a room and the staff got another IV going. We spent the rest of that day and the night taking turns holding Bella. She would not be put down, and she couldn't sleep for more than 5 or 10 minutes. The first 24 hours after a burn are the most painful, so we kept the morphine going, but it seemed to make her irritable and itchy. The next morning, we decided to stop the morphine, and she finally slept. So did we.
While we were in the hospital, family and friends held down the home front and took great care of Aleah and Clara. When we arrived home the girls enjoyed a little family reunion; it was the first time the girls had been apart since they came home from the NICU.
For a couple of weeks after the incident, Bella required daily debridement (removal of dead tissue from her wounds) at the hospital. Once we were dismissed from the physical therapist, we continued the debridement and dressing change at home for several more weeks. Bella still has a scar on her arm, but her chest looks perfectly normal.
Despite kind and encouraging words from family and friends, I struggled for a while with blaming myself. And the truth is, I did make some mistakes. I could've done things differently and avoided the whole mess. I also know that it could've been much worse; that this burn is a relatively small event in the life of the world and it is certainly no tragedy. But this is how I've come to terms with this small-big thing and my part in causing it to happen: I did make mistakes, but mistakes only mean that I'm human; they do not mean that I don't love my children. I will always be human, and I will always make mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes will cause others pain, even people I love dearly. My goal is to learn what I can from mistakes and continue the job of loving and caring for the people in my life who need that from me.
Needless to say, we no longer enjoy the health benefits of green tea, but we are certainly satisfied with our moderately-warm cups of Community Coffee Dark Roast every morning. And we keep the cups up high.
posted by drb at 3/12/2005 12:03:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home