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mamajoanOMG, this morning was made of trauma. :(
8:15 a.m. or thereabouts. We were lying in bed cheerfully playing and Ruthie was trying to pull herself up on the headboard, and all of a sudden she's SCREAMING a hysterical scream of pain. And wouldn't stop! She NEVER cries like that, never.
So I took her to the changing table, stripped her down for an inspection, and found that her right hand was red and puffy. I couldn't figure out what had happened. A splinter from the wooden headboard? But I couldn't SEE a splinter, albeit it's hard to really examine the flailing hand of a baby in pain. I paced back and forth. I jiggled her. I ran her hand under cold water. I tried to nurse her. She continued to scream. Nothing helped.
Finally after 15-20 minutes of nonstop inconsolable screaming, I called the doctor's office. The doc on call said that I should give her Tylenol and if it didn't seem better in a few more minutes I should take her to the ER to be evaluated, since we had no clue what was going on and of course he couldn't really diagnose over the phone. I was skeptical about the Tylenol, just because she was screaming so hard I didn't think it would go down; but I managed to force some of it into her and then raced around getting myself and Isaac dressed so we could go.
Then I took another look at Ruthie's fingers and thought that what it really looked like was a burn. But how is that possible? I went to look at the bed area again. And that's when I saw it...the stupid damn pipe! This big pipe that leads from under my floor, along the wall behind my bed, and up into the ceiling -- presumably taking heat to the apartment upstairs. That pipe does get very hot sometimes. I touched it, and it wasn't hot at that point, but it had by then been almost an hour since Ruthie started crying so maybe the heat had just shut itself off.
So I called the doctor back and said that I had deduced it was a burn, and he said in that case I could skip the ER and try to ice it and see how it developed.
And you know, within a few more minutes, the Tylenol must have kicked in, and Ruthie calmed down and started eating Cheerios totally happily. Until I was stupid enough to try to put ice on her hand! Whereupon she started screaming again! But settled down again fairly quickly.
UGH.
So then we had a quick bite to eat and, since we were already dressed, went off as planned to the open house at the daycare/preschool where I went when I was a kid. Which is perhaps another post for another time. We didn't stay long because Ruthie was of course totally exhausted, so then we came home and now she's sleeping and I'm trying to recover from the trauma. OMG.
8:15 a.m. or thereabouts. We were lying in bed cheerfully playing and Ruthie was trying to pull herself up on the headboard, and all of a sudden she's SCREAMING a hysterical scream of pain. And wouldn't stop! She NEVER cries like that, never.
So I took her to the changing table, stripped her down for an inspection, and found that her right hand was red and puffy. I couldn't figure out what had happened. A splinter from the wooden headboard? But I couldn't SEE a splinter, albeit it's hard to really examine the flailing hand of a baby in pain. I paced back and forth. I jiggled her. I ran her hand under cold water. I tried to nurse her. She continued to scream. Nothing helped.
Finally after 15-20 minutes of nonstop inconsolable screaming, I called the doctor's office. The doc on call said that I should give her Tylenol and if it didn't seem better in a few more minutes I should take her to the ER to be evaluated, since we had no clue what was going on and of course he couldn't really diagnose over the phone. I was skeptical about the Tylenol, just because she was screaming so hard I didn't think it would go down; but I managed to force some of it into her and then raced around getting myself and Isaac dressed so we could go.
Then I took another look at Ruthie's fingers and thought that what it really looked like was a burn. But how is that possible? I went to look at the bed area again. And that's when I saw it...the stupid damn pipe! This big pipe that leads from under my floor, along the wall behind my bed, and up into the ceiling -- presumably taking heat to the apartment upstairs. That pipe does get very hot sometimes. I touched it, and it wasn't hot at that point, but it had by then been almost an hour since Ruthie started crying so maybe the heat had just shut itself off.
So I called the doctor back and said that I had deduced it was a burn, and he said in that case I could skip the ER and try to ice it and see how it developed.
And you know, within a few more minutes, the Tylenol must have kicked in, and Ruthie calmed down and started eating Cheerios totally happily. Until I was stupid enough to try to put ice on her hand! Whereupon she started screaming again! But settled down again fairly quickly.
UGH.
So then we had a quick bite to eat and, since we were already dressed, went off as planned to the open house at the daycare/preschool where I went when I was a kid. Which is perhaps another post for another time. We didn't stay long because Ruthie was of course totally exhausted, so then we came home and now she's sleeping and I'm trying to recover from the trauma. OMG.
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no subject
Date: 2007-01-20 05:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-20 05:21 pm (UTC)But yeah, pipe insulation is cheap, and useful!
no subject
Date: 2007-01-20 05:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-20 05:15 pm (UTC)Home Depot (and probably little local hardware places, too) sell these foam insulator things; they're basically a tight circle of foam with a slit down the center, sort of like a bracelet, only for pipes.
I'm in the middle of making my own Home Depot list for this weekend's projects, so the place is on my mind. :)
no subject
Date: 2007-01-20 08:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-20 10:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-21 01:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-21 06:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-22 01:08 pm (UTC)