A long week...

So it's been a long week...

On Friday, Jan 26th, Julia and I were home alone at Grandma's house in St. Cloud. Daddy was gone for the quilting retreat at Camp, Grandpa and Grandma had gone to the Cities to pick up Grandpa's new truck. I was assigned to make baked beans for Great Grandpa's birthday party. Since grandpa and grandma have a brand new kitchen with new appliances and granite countertops, this sounded like it would be an OK way to spend the evening. The kitchen is so classy that even the garbage can has its own drawer. Just pull it open and toss away.

Julia was crawling around as usual, ignoring her toys and going for more interesting destinations such as the doggie water dish; I was keeping one eye on the frying bacon at the stove and one eye on the "toddler." I drained the first batch of bacon, poured the grease into an empty microwave popcorn bag, and put it in the garbage. I closed the garbage drawer and went back to the stove. Just as I finished putting the next layer of bacon in the pan, Julia came cruising into the kitchen. I greeted her and went back to the stove. A few seconds later, I heard a blood-curdling scream from behind me. I turned around: Julia was standing up next to the garbage drawer that she had just pulled open. I checked her fingers because I assumed one had gotten pinched in the drawer mechanism. Fingers OK. Why was she so upset...?

I picked her up and looked at her. I saw hot bacon grease on my daughter's face.

I instantly plunged her into the kitchen sink and sprayed water all over her. Off went the clothes, more water. There was grease on her chest, right over the sternal notch running down to the epigastric area. I held her to my chest and tried to comfort her crying. I knew this was very, very bad. My mind started to race: how bad is she burned? Is this ER-bad? Intensive Care Unit-bad? HCMC burn unit bad? First degree burns turn red, second degree burns get blisters instantly, third degree burns are through the dermis.... Her screams continued. I grabbed the diaper bag and wrapped my wet, burned daughter in a quilt. We jumped into the front seat of our Honda and drove straight to the ER. It was the first time Julia had ever been in the front seat.