Vacation

I have no horse updates because the girls and I are at my parents house for a week's vacation. I know that taking a week off right before the show is not the best idea, but I made these plans back in February and there was no way I was canceling. I think Skyy will be okay at the show. Kaswyn could use the time off and I think Albert's been out and about doing parades and demonstration rides at a local large horse show.

We've been having a great time at my parent's house in Maryland. There has been fishing and boating with their cousins -





There have been ferry rides -



And, unfortunately, there was a trip to the emergency room.

While we were getting ready to go out somewhere, Macey grabbed my mom's hot curling iron by the hot end. She started to cry and I grabbed some ice immediately. I also got some Tylenol into her and tried to calm her down. In about three minutes I noticed that blisters were forming and then decided that we had to go to the emergency room. My dad drove me over there, since Craig stayed home and didn't come with us on vacation so he could work.

Luckily it was Tuesday morning so it wasn't busy so they got us right into a room. Having a screaming child helps a lot too. And I mean she was screaming, kicking, arching her back, and pounding her fist from the pain. I did my best to try and soothe her, but there was really nothing I could do. She didn't want the ice on it for too long because I don't think she wanted anything to touch it, but then when she took the ice off it started to burn again.

We got into the room and in about five minutes a nurse came in to clean it. That wasn't very fun because it hurt to touch it at all. However I grit my teeth and held my poor kid down and it got cleaned. Then they gave her some Tylenol with codeine and we had to wait for that to work.

Well thirty minutes later and she still had not stopped screaming. I kept trying to keep the ice on her hand but she didn't want it touching her, so we'd go two minutes off and then about five minutes on. She was so upset and screaming that I was putting ice and cool paper towels on her neck and face to try and cool her down. The doctor then came in and took a look at it, and said that they would get some numbing cream for it.

A few minutes later two nurses showed up with the cream. Since Macey did not want the hand touched I had to hold her arm down again so they could spread the cream on it. Then they put a pad over it and said we could put ice wrapped in a pad over that.

We kept waiting for the cream or the codeine to work, but my poor little Macey just kept screaming. She was still kicking and writhing and fist pounding an hour later, so my dad went out and got a nurse, who got the doctor to come in. The doc said that the next step would be a shot of morphine, but I really didn't want to do that since they would have to start an IV. I didn't even think they would be able to get one started with Macey in so much pain and not able to sit still. The doc said that there was one more thing they could try. It was another topical pain medication but this one was sort of a runny gel-like stuff that we could just pour over her hand.

The doc showed up in another few minutes and we poured this runny jelly stuff over her hand. Then Macey's hand was wrapped in a non-stick pad and gauze. They got ready to send her home because there was nothing else they could do for her. We tried to distract Macey with the TV or other things in the room but she was just not having it. Finally, after about two and a half hours of non-stop screaming, the codeine finally worked and she crashed. She fell totally asleep, blissfully out of pain.

We waited for them to give us the prescription for more Tylenol with codeine, and instructions to clean and wrap it twice a day. I tried not to wake the little bunny when I moved her to the car, but she woke up anyway. On the way out the door of the hospital, she had her head on my shoulder. She lifted her head and started to kiss me on the shoulder. Then, amazingly, she started to pat and rub me on the back with her good hand, like she knew the whole thing had been hard for me also. What a sweet little dear.

As you can see, she wasn't exactly a happy girl on the way home.



And her hand blistered very badly by the next morning.



Since the risk of infection is high when those blisters break, Macey can't go swimming with her cousins. I feel really badly about it because the city pool is very cool and fun for the girls. Lily has been able to go though.



Macey has been a little trooper about the hand. She's been protecting it very well, hasn't tried to use it (which is hard since it's her right hand) and has not complained about it at all. I've been letting her sleep with me, which has been hard for me because every time she turns over I wake up. And since she doesn't seem to be in pain (unless you touch the hand) I've stopped giving her the codeine, mostly because it made her sleep so soundly that she peed the bed. Well, not just the bed - she peed all over her, me, her blankie, a pillow, the blankets... you get the idea.

Anyhow, I think we're still going to have a fun vacation. At least it shouldn't get any worse.