Yet another ER visit

I have had it with trips to the ER. Since November of 2007, I've been to the ER for the following reasons:

1. Campbell's head injury.
2. B's broken heel.
3. Campbell's possible ingestion of pills.
4. B's second heart episode.
5. Campbell's penis incident.

Last night I added trip #6 to the list.

Elizabeth doesn't crawl; she does this funny little crab-like scuttle, and she is surprisingly fast at it. As I was getting dinner ready, she scuttled over to the oven, which was on, and managed to pry open the broiler drawer. She started screaming like I've never heard her scream. I swooped her up and immediately put her hands under running water. Despite the cool water, blisters started forming on her fingers immediately.

I called my pediatrician's office, and the receptionist put me right through to the nurse. I'm glad they know me well there, because I was barely able to form coherent sentences. The nurse told me that since the burns were on Elizabeth's hands and forming blisters we needed to go to the ER.

After I interrupted B's business call to tell him what was going on, I headed out with Elizabeth, who still hadn't stopped screaming. She was so frantic that she refused to nurse.

Elizabeth screamed the whole way to the hospital, which is about 15 minutes from the house, and the whole time I was checking in. She calmed down a bit while watching the fish in the big aquarium, but each calm period only last about 5 minutes.

It took us two hours to see the doctor, and Elizabeth cried most of the time we were waiting. The child-life specialists who work the ER brought Elizabeth toys, and those distracted her for a few minutes at a time. I also resorted to letting her play in the water in the sink.

The doctor looked at Elizabeth's hands and said that everything was fine - the burns aren't deep tissue, so unless infection sets in, no further treatment is needed. He didn't put any bandages on, saying that the blisters are nature's bandages. He did tell me to put neosporin on the burns, but I'm not sure how to do that given that Elizabeth sucks on her hands when she's not scuttling around.

The poor thing passed out as soon as I put her in the car and slept the whole way home. She had a rough night, waking up every time the motrin wore off, but she woke up this morning like nothing had ever happened. She's even scuttling around with showing any signs that the burns are hurting her.

I was a wreck when I got home, though. If I hadn't been on the verge of a migraine, I would have been next door, bumming wine from my neighbor.

Unfortunately, Elizabeth doesn't seem to have learned from last night's trauma. When I set her loose today, she bee-lined for the kitchen and the oven. She's the third baby we've had in this house, but the first who has shown any interest in the oven. I'm going to have to find some sort of latching mechanism to keep her out of it.

I've informed all family members that I'm done with visits to the ER. The next time anyone gets hurt, he or she is responsible for finding a ride to the hospital.