A week ago today as I was preparing for my favorite day of summer - hosting the summer interns for dinner - a freak accident happened. The oven was on preheating, I had sorbet base warming on the oven, MJ was helping prep vegetables and we were getting ready to roll out some pizza crust.
I noticed that I had moved the large can of cooking spray over to the top of the oven. Realizing that it shouldn't be there I picked it up to move the can. The can was hot to the touch and as soon as I placed the can on the counter it exploded.
The rest is somewhat of a blur but MJ and I ran to the door - yelling for Lane. She ran to the door, I turned and looked into the kitchen and saw the fireball above the refrigerator. I screamed for Micah who was outside with Grant and Tate. Micah ran in the house - we are blessed that Micah was off that day, he ran inside and put out the fire and called the medic at camp. We are blessed to have a doctor and medics on staff during the summer. MJ ran barefoot up the hill toward our neighbors house screaming for her to come help - we are blessed that she is a retired nurse. I remember knowing I was burnt, but not sure how bad. I took off my shirt (didn't know if it was on fire), my watch and rings and began to pace around the yard. Before I knew it there were 2 fire trucks and an ambulance at my house and a helicopter was on the way. Even though we live an hour from the nearest town we are blessed to have an amazing volunteer fire department. I remember the medics working on me and our neighbor taking our 4 precious kiddos up to her house. The ambulance hooked me up to all kinds of things, ran an IV, gave me pain medication and took me to the helicopter. The helicopter landing site is in the big field at Woodleaf, we are blessed that the helicopter lands where we live. At this point I was more nervous about flying in a helicopter than going to the hospital. Had a front row seat in the helicopter and it was a beautiful flight - but I was scared.
I was flown to UC Davis Hospital in Sacramento and was seen by the Burn Unit doctor. He told me I had 2nd degree burns to my arms and face. A chest X Ray was taken and an exam done making sure I didn't ingest any of the oil that had exploded. The doctor couldn't believe that I didn't have any damage to my left eye and repeatedly asked me if my eye was ok, if I was seeing double, if it felt like I had something in my eye. I'm blessed to have vision, to have some eye brows and eye lashes left. I'm blessed to have hearing in my left ear. Micah arrived to the ER and apparently I was a "Jane Doe - my hospital band actually said "Winsloe Doe", they identified me by the fact that I had a kitchen burn with a can of cooking spray. We are blessed that Micah was driven to the hospital by our friend. The doctor proceeded to clean my burns and I was moved to the trauma floor - fun fact I get car sick in hospital beds. Rested over night, as much as you can in the hospital, and in the morning the nurses came in and taught Micah and I how to do my burn care at home. Then they told me I could go home! While waiting to be discharged Brett, Julie and Evelyn came to visit us, we are
My parents had driven over, we are blessed that they live 3 hours away, and picked up the kids. Friends brought us dinner our first night home, and all I remember is trying to sleep and visiting with the kiddos one at a time. Sweet Tate would walk into my room and peak over the foot of the bed and say "mom, mom, mom". It took him a while to be ok with how different I looked those first couple of days. The doctors instructed me to clean my burns (I won't go into detail here) every 12 hours for my arms and every 6 hours for my face. Micah had to help me with this and y'all - it was hard. I would turn on worship music and we would talk and laugh and I would cry. Through the pain the Lord reminds me of all the blessings: I have vision, I have hearing, I have hands... it could have been so much worse.
We had our follow up appointment yesterday - it went well and I was told to resume all regular activities and that my left arm was swollen and hurting because I hadn't been using it. Still in shock a little but as I exercise my arm and do more and more the better it feels. In the next 7 days they said I can expect to be healed - all new skin growth should be complete and I won't have any scaring. The new skin will be pink and that will take time to fade. What an amazing report!
A week later I'm feeling all kinds of emotions - mostly just an overwhelming sense of thankfulness for how much the Lord protected and provided.
Meals have been brought to us and are still coming and that is such a huge help! One less thing to think about when my brain is trying to process so much and by the end of the day I'm pretty worn out.
Thank you to all of you who knew and have been praying, God is good and He answers prayers!
Thank you to all of you who have provided meals, or picked up groceries.
Thank you for the cards, flowers, texts and calls.
May the Lord open our eyes to the see that Everything - big, small, loud, quiet, life changing, or even mundane is a gift from Him. He is in control and our life is for His glory and our good. Romans 8:28
PSA: Don't put cooking spray - or any oil on the stove top... ever... for any reason. :)
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