It could have been much worse.

There is another reason why I didn't post much during August besides the fact that we were having a crazy busy summer.

I burned myself.

Not just a little one on my finger, or the side of my hand, from touching the oven rack when I was taking out a pizza or something.

This was second degree burns. On 25% of my body.

It was the night before the Swim Team Awards Banquet. It was our first evening in two months that we hadn't had either evening swim practice or a swim meet. We were going to have dinner, at home, with everybody.

So I decided to cook up some of the green beans that I had picked from the garden, just that day. I put a quart or so of water in my dutch oven, and let the water boil, and then I threw the green beans in for a couple minutes. My kitchen is TINY. (Have I ever mentioned that? LOL) And there really isn't even a full step between the stove and the sink. So I took the handle of the pot and was just going to drain the water off the beans into the sink. This is where everything went wrong.

As I turned to the sink, I splashed some of the boiling water on my right hand. In reaction to that, I dropped the pot. On the top of my right foot. The water then splashed up on my right shin and then the pot tipped over on the linoleum floor. Now I was standing in boiling hot water. I went to move out of the water, and I slipped. And fell into the water. On my right hip.

It was SO hot. I got up immediately and stood up out of the water. I think I started screaming next. By that time, Mr. Simple had heard the pot drop and came to investigate and saw me. He took me and put me in the bathtub in cool water.

It would feel better for a second when the skin was in the water, but if I lifted my foot or leg out of the water, it would feel like it was burning all over again. And it would start to blister. I knew my hip hurt, but I thought it was just bruised from the fall. I asked Mr. Simple to look at it and it was then that he decided that we needed to go to the hospital. (If you ever get burned on your hip, and are wondering what to wear to the hospital, I'm telling you, the best thing is a swim suit cover up. I was able to be modest, and yet, I could hold the material away from my hip.)

The trip to the hospital was not one that I would like to relive ever again. Especially because I couldn't even sit, and I was in SOOO much pain. But we live very close to the hospital thankfully, and so the ride was short at least.

We got there and if you ever want to get quick service at the hospital, say that you have been burned. Wow. They got me back to a room and gave me a shot of pain meds right away. Then a dr. came in and accessed the situation, and then after the pain meds had kicked in, they put the burn medication cream (Silvadene) on everything. And then gave me more pain meds. After 3 hours, they sent me home with more pain meds and instructions on how to change the dressings.

The next few days were a blur. I slept a lot. But then by Friday, Mr. Simple had to go out of town and I had to watch the kids on my own AND change my dressing on my own. As it turned out, I had to have a good friend (very good! She had to look at my burn and my half naked body! ACK!) change my dressing on Friday and then on Saturday, I ended up back at PromptCare because my hip area was starting to get infected and so I had to go there and have them look at it and change the dressing. Plus, they gave me a heavy duty anti-inflammatory, which actually helped more with the pain that the opiate medication I had been taking.

I had a burn check with my regular dr. a week out and two weeks out. After a week, my foot was doing very well. By two weeks, both my shin and foot were almost completely healed. My hip area, on the other hand, was deeper and a much larger burned area, and so even after two weeks, was not that healed. But he said that he thought that it would be by a month out, and sure enough, at the one month mark, I was dressing and pain free everywhere, including my hip.

I will always have scarring on my hip, and probably a little scarring on my shin. (I joked to my dr. that my swimsuit model career is over now! LOL) I have to keep all the burned areas out of the sun until next June.

But it could have been worse. It could have been SO much worse.

I have the best family and friends. That is CERTAIN. I had so much help during this time. I could not have done it without them. And I have a whole new respect for cooking and have and will be more careful. I have a very tiny glimpse of what it would be like to have a major burn and for those people, I am so sorry and you are AWESOME because there is just so much to have to deal with when it comes to burns.

Please be careful. Be extra careful. I have been cooking for years and even done canning and yet I burned myself with just a small amount of boiling water. If I had ever imagined how I would burn myself, I never envisioned that it would be because I was cooking some green beans.