Baby Easton Hospitalized

Beautiful Eyes...Our Brave Little Man!!!

Well let's add some more anxiety to my (our) life. On Wednesday 1/28 we got a call from our friends Roni & Ronnie who watch Easton on Wednesday's. Easton was burnt. I was at work in Seattle, when the call came in from Brett who was up in Everett at Comcast Arena. We talked and agreed he'd pick up Easton from them and I'd meet him at Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland.

I beat Brett to the hospital by about 15 minutes, I was a wreck since I didn't know the extent of his burn(s). I told the front desk in the ER that our 8 month old was en route with 3rd degree burns (our sitters husband is a Children's Hospital ER nurse and told us it was blistering).

When Brett pulled up I was curbside waiting, I had the door flung open before Brett could get out of the car, the wet towel that was protecting his wound fell down and I saw a partial glimpse of his burn, I freaked. I had to have Brett take him out of the car seat. I grabbed Easton from Brett and ran into the ER. They waved me back to the Triage room, when the whole towel fell off his arm and I saw all off his burns, I went into hysterics and was starting to hyperventilate. They got me called down by reminding me he was gonna feed off of my emotions.

They took his vitals and by then Brett was running in through the ER doors to where I was sitting. They then took us back to wait for the Dr. While we were waiting I had Brett run out to the car to get the diaper bag (since the clothes Easton was wearing were soaking wet from the towel that was protecting his wounds). While Brett was at the car the Dr. came in and took one look at Easton's burns and said we needed to go to Harbor View. He left the room. In the meantime Brett had come back into the room to me crying hysterically again telling him that they wanted us to go to Harbor View... just then the nurse came in and said a ambulance was on the way for him. They drugged Easton up pretty good for the ride and to stop the pain.

Ok...can I say that I was freaking at the point as was Brett. Easton was passed out by the time the ambulance arrived 40 minutes later. Brett followed us to the hospital in our car.

We arrived at Harbor View in about 30 minutes (got to love traffic from the Eastside right at rush hour). We pulled up to the ER....ok for anyone like myself who does not know the reputation for Harbor View, this is the place where the die hard druggies go, the gun shot wounds, etc. go. I walked in through the doors to a lobby full of police officers, ambulance drivers, Doctors, nurses, it was absolutely crazy. I was freaking out once again.

They led me and Easton back tot he Triage room, where I was met by about 7 people all questioning me to what happened, then more people were coming in asking what happened, I felt like a broken record at this point and Brett still had not arrived.

(ok I love Grey's Anatomy and I totally felt like I was on this TV show, you know when they are waiting outside the doors for an ambulance to come, and it's crazy with people everywhere, etc)

I was then told that this was a "teaching" hospital I made the comment "Oh like Grey's Anatomy" and the cute Pediatrician says "sort of, we are cuter and there's less sex", thank god for humor at this point.

By then Brett had shown up with the "social worker", he was freaking about that. LOL...protocol.

Needless to say the CUTE plastic surgeons (yes they are as cute as Dr. McSteamy)...LOL took a look at Easton and told me what "could" happen, our friend Ronnie also kind of let us know what we might be in for. They told us they wanted to keep us overnight. By this point it was now 8 pm and Easton's arm was still exposed to the element. Nothing was happening so I sent Brett home to take care of the dogs, get Mitchell settled with our friends, pack up stuff for Easton and I and then head back.

By 8:15 we were on our way up the Burn Clinic. We got up to the 8th floor, and were put in a room only to wait again. A nurse came in and FINALLY took care of Easton's burns, they put cream, gauze, and 2 hospital socks taped around so he couldn't put his hand in his mouth.

By 9:15 I was finally able to get into a room and nurse Easton and put him to sleep (they gave him more meds). Brett arrived and kept me company and cried with me till about 11 pm and then he had to get home to the dogs.

We both tried to sleep that night but neither of us had much luck with that.

1/29 - The next morning they came and got Easton and I to give him a bath and do "wound care", this is where you get to see the wound and they show you how to take care of it. She had me "try" to remove the bandages, but I just couldn't do it....when the nurse got it off I was able to give him a bath and see the damage. Once again I freaked as it was worse than the day before and you could see where the 3rd degree burns were (the white part). She showed me how to re bandage him and that too I had trouble with. So she again helped me with that.

They wanted to know if I thought I could take care of it, I was freaking out as Brett still hadn't gotten there. When he did arrive we were told we were going to be discharged around 1 pm. I was like I can't do the wound care, and they overheard me telling Brett this and so they pulled him aside and told him that we could stay as long as we needed to and until we were comfortable with handling his care.

Easton also had slept for 14 hours straight and only had 1 wet diaper in over 24 hrs, so the were concerned that he was getting dehydrated. So we stayed another night. I told Brett he had to be here in the morning (Friday) so he could help me with Easton as I couldn't do the wound care by myself again.

1/30 - Friday morning, time for wound care - 11:30 am...I took the sock off Easton's had and you could see all the discoloration of the wound through the bandages, I carefully pulled the next layer off, to be met with more gauze "mess", and I starting to freak yet again, and Brett was welling up, we removed the next layer, and the next and by then we were both crying. It looked worse than the day before - more white (not pink which is what you want)....

Brett gave Easton a bath while I cried some more and prepped the new gauze to be applied. Brett held Easton while I put the gauze on and the nurse helped show us what to do, I was having a hard time, and so was Brett it just looked so painful for Easton. About 30 minutes later (oh and yes they drugged him to the hilt before all of this), we were back in our room, and I was nursing him until he fell asleep.

They wanted to discharge us today, but Brett and I were so freaked out at the thought of having to do the wound care by ourselves that we told them we wanted one more day and one more day of practice.

We go back to the Dr. on Wednesday next week to determine if Easton will have to have a skin graph. It appears that he will, but we are not Dr.'s or experts. They say children are resilient and that he could heal without it, but they want to wait a week and see how it heals and if they will need to help it along.

We will keep everyone posted hopefully on here or via phone calls. Please pray for him and for our strength to get through this.

Heather & Brett

P.S. We are very greatful that Easton was with "The Roni's" when this happened as he was in great hands, just an unfortnuate accident - he crawled or rolled over to their gas fireplace and his arm got burnt on the glass & vent. Then "Mr." Ronnie went into nurse mode - thank GOD!!!