This Just In...Boiling Water is HOT!

Warning....picture to follow is pretty gross.  You can decide for yourself if you wish to continue.  So, this past Sunday, the boy was making his own dinner of Ramen noodles.  Well, he was doing what any 17 year old boy would do, he was eating his dessert of homemade vanilla bean cheesecake FIRST and he allowed his water for his "entree" to boil rapidly.  He made his noodles and was pouring it into a bowl while holding the bowl over the sink* and water/broth sloshed over the rim of the bowl and onto his left hand.  He called me and I told him to do what I knew to do for burns...run it under cold water to cool down the burn as quickly as possible.   I got him a cup of ice water for him to submerge his fingers in. He did so but he claimed to be in A LOT of pain.  Now, ever the sympathetic mother who rushes to console my children for all their bumps and bruises *pause for those who know me to stop laughing*, I said C'mon Bud, it's a burn, it hurts.  I get it.  Man up.**  I did get him a super strong pain reliever so that he could sleep and I allowed him to miss his first hour the next day when he left a note for me that he didn't get to sleep until late and could he miss his study hall in the morning. (see...I'm not COMPLETELY heartless).  He had wrapped his pinky, ring and middle finger for the night and for Monday.  He said that his ring finger was all shiny but somewhat numb.  Tuesday it blistered, he drained the blister then pulled at the skin and it came right off.  Wednesday morning I got my first look at it and I became alarmed.  It didn't appear to be infected but OMG it looks HORRIBLE.  He had been really good about keeping antibiotic ointment on it but still...UGH...So I asked him to have his school nurse take a look at it and maybe dress it appropriately.  I got the text from the boy saying the nurse said it really  needs to be looked at by a Dr.  Followed by the phone call from the nurse telling me that she responded as I had...initially.  A little over exaggeration until she saw it.  Hence, the phone call saying please, Please, PLEASE get him in to a Dr.  Some of the worst infections she's ever seen came from burns.  So, I called, got him in, picked him up, took him to the Drs and this was the pic as he removed the bandage we had put on that morning:

 

Nasty right?  He lost several layers of skin all the way around his finger.  The good news (if you can call it that) was the Dr said that while it looked bad (a deep 2nd degree burn), it looked good.  Meaning that everything we had been doing was right.  She said continue to keep it covered with antibiotic cream for a couple more days so that the new skin growth will be protected, then by Saturday he needs to start leaving off the bandage.  The only "issue" is that he needs to start bending the knuckle (which he can't) so that he retains flexibility in the new skin growth.

The other good new is that it shouldn't scar horribly.  He'll have a pink discoloration for a while but that should eventually fade.  WHEW!

Let's recap:

1. Pouring boiling hot water into a bowl while holding said bowl...bad.

2. Potholders..good.

3. Mother appears to be missing the compassion (or at least empathy) chromosome.

4. Boiling water is hot.

*I give him credit for doing this over the sink.  It DID save me from having a mess of broken pottery, Ramen noodles, and chicken broth all over my floor and base cabinets.  Well done son!

**NO...I did not actually tell him to Man up.  At least not out loud.