We went camping as a family to the Beautiful Yosemite on June 5th 2015. It was absolutely gorgeous. Perfect weather. We had our awesome camping van. We met up with Joel and Mary Lou. Things were just great. We were spending some nice quality time together, hiking and just being unplugged from the outside world. Things were great. We even got a permit to go hike half dome (just Pehrson & I) we were going to leave the kids with Grandma & Grandpa. We left at 5:00 am and hiked for about three hours and realized that we wanted to head back because we wanted to spend time with our kids on our family vacation. Half dome can happen another time. We got back to camp around 8 am. There was a little fire in the pit (just coals, not a wood burning fire) I honeslty had no idea it was even going until I noticed Val with a long stick sticking it in the fire. He lifted his stick up and the end was smoking. So I stuck to him like glue and tried to get him to do a different activity. i had him distracted for a little while and he was playing far away from the pit. Then Jade kept begging me to help her get her blanket that was in the van. I started walking towards the van and out of the corner of my eye I saw Val start walking back to the fire. I quickly went back to him and in two seconds he tripped and fell hands first into the fire pit. I grabbed him instantly. He was crying and we took him over the the Yosemite first aid center. They didn't open until 9. So we called 911 and a guy showed up immediately. They emerged his sweet little hand in a bucket of ice. He was screaming bloody murder in my hands while I watched my poor baby (14 month old) suffer. It was all i could do but just cry with him. I thought for sure they would just wrap it up and we would continue on our camping trip. But they had other news. We had to drive down to the Fresno burn center immediately, which was about 2 hours down a winding mountain road. It was torture. His little hand had swollen up and they admitted me to the hospital for the night so I could keep his hand elevated all night. Pehrson ended up driving back up the mountain and spending time with our other two. (which later told me he had a really fun night with them, I was happy the trip wasn't ruined for them) Meanwhile, Val and I had a hard night! Hardly slept at all. I was still wearing the clothes I had been wearing from our 3 hr hike that morning. I was stinky and a nurse would come in every single hour, while he was asleep, unwrap his hand and redress it. Waking the poor guy up and then I had to get him to fall back asleep each time. He was a trooper and i said A LOT of prayers to get me through the night and through our future months. They transferred us to the UC Irvine Burn Clinic so we could be home. I won't go into detail about our 8 hour drive home, but just imagine heat, throw-up and a slow moving car. Needless to say we were so happy to see our house when we got home.
I had NO idea how serious this injury was, His poor little hand had to be dressed every night for weeks. Then he had to have surgery because there were parts on his hand that were third degree. So on June 17th (11 days after the actual burn) he went into the hospital and they did a skin graft on his diaper line and put the skin on his palm and right under his pinky finger. He went into the doctors weekly and they would cut off the extra skin and clean it up. I will never get over or ever forget how brave and tough and stong this little boy was. I know he was surrounded by guardian angels because he was the best patient. He would hold out his hand and just watch the nurses and doctors do what they needed to do. I on the other hand could barely watch and always ended up in tears.
Pehrson went to his surgery and the poor guy had no idea what he was about to get into. Look at that happy face. Pehrson said that he was very low energy and didn't really make any movement all day....until his siblings came to visit. He was so happy to see them and they him. It really is the best thing to see the love between these little people in my life. They teach me something daily.
It was THE hardest thing that I have ever had to do as a mom. We are 8 months out from his surgery and we are still having to visit the doctor and he has to wear a fitted glove every day. His index finger started curling, so he can't straighten his finger all the way by himself. So we have to massage it and stretch it out daily. He might have to have another surgery to soften it and help it to stretch it out. As I said before I never realized how much work this would be and it makes me sad to think about it. He has been so so so amazing through this all and I still am just in AWE of his strength, I can't wait to find out what this boy will become when he grows up. Pehrson & I and Beck & Jade can't love this boy enough. He is our hero! There is not a prayer we don't say with out thanking Heavenly Father for helping Val with his hand and letting it feel better. I am grateful it wasn't worse. It could have been both hands or his face, or eyes. It is hard watching your kid be in pain. We love you Valzee!
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