Monday, September 14, 2015

A New Reason to Slow Down

Soooo......I love being in the kitchen. It helps relieve stress and I love cooking up good, healthy food for my family. For my birthday two years ago, my hubs got me an electric pressure cooker. It's been a delight to use, especially when cooking up our dried beans from the garden.

Rewind to Friday evening. I was cooking some Calypso beans from last summer in the pressure cooker for some homemade baked beans. I had the chicken cooking all day in the crock pot and everything was ready to go for the baked beans, except the beans weren't quite ready. I released the pressure from the cooker and *thought* that there was enough released to open the lid. My first indication that the lid was still on somewhat tight should have made me stop. But, it didn't. I had two hungry kids and it was a beautiful day and I wanted to get dinner on the table so we could play outside until bathtime. Well, turns out, the cooker was not ready to be opened. As the lid released, boiling water spurted out all over my chest, arm, and thighs.

Fortunately, my kids and husband were playing in the living room and were nowhere near me. They also had no idea what happened until I screamed and was ripping my clothes off to run to the shower. I tried to run cold water on it, but it hurt too bad. When my husband realized what had happened and looked me over, he quickly ushered the kids ready and we got in the car to go to Med Express.



Luckily for me, the water did not hit my face or eyes. I do have 1st and 2nd degree burns, but it could have been far, far worse. I was prescribed pain medicine and some antibiotic cream and sent home with instructions to focus on "pain and protection." Since it hit the front of my legs, pants are out of the question. Luckily, I am a skirt and dress wearing fan for the summer and so, I've been ok so far. The pain medicine was really unnecessary as well (after my c-section, I only used Tylenol...).

I was reluctant to share this because it is somewhat embarrassing to make such a foolish mistake. But, as I spoke to my friends over the weekend and they saw the damage, not one person told me it was foolish or stupid. Everyone was relieved that it was not any worse and wished me well in my recovery. And while I hope to not have any major scarring from the incident, I will use any scar I have as a reminder to slow down. Life moves fast enough as it is, I don't need to rush things.

 

6 comments:

  1. You have been blessed, your family needs you and you've been given another chance

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    1. Thank you Linda, I am indeed a lucky woman.

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    2. Thank you Linda, I am indeed a lucky woman.

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  2. oh, no, never be embarrassed. (Your experience can help someone else). Just glad you are ok and sorry for your pain. I know how it feels. :( I hope you get better very soon.

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  3. Heidi, I am so sorry that this happened to you and I am glad that it wasn't worse! Please don't be embarrassed, we have all done things at some point in our lives that affect us. I appreciate you sharing this, because I have never had a pressure cooker but now I am relieved I don't. You are fortunate that you were not hurt anymore than you were.

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  4. This happened to my mother once. The force was so great that there were potatoes on the ceiling. She picked up a towel to dry her face off a bit and the towel peeled some of the skin off her face. It's definitely important to share stuff like this so we can all learn without having to experience. There are a few examples on my WV blog "Rustic Life Journal" over at http://www.eiss.net if you're interested.

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