The day was October 3, a Thursday. 2013. I was getting ready to start work. I had everything loaded and just decided to add some logs to the fire since it was cold that morning. I decided to "lock" the kids in our room that day. Boy am I glad I did! I put the baby gate up and put some movies on for the kids while I worked. I had not done this before so I am so grateful I did that day. I start work at 9:30 so I am guessing this happened around 9:28. I went to add some logs and a few pieces of paper to light since the fire had died down. When I added the papers I got feedback from me lighting them up. HUGE feedback. A mini fireball around my face and hand basically. A split second but weeks to recover from. I went into a panic. I looked down at my hand, it was black. I remembered in that moment of people who had lost fingers because their hands swelled up so badly around their rings. I ripped the rings off as fast as I could, and from what the ER doctor said, if that was the only thing I did smart that morning I did a good job! I started to scream, the pain was unreal. The smell of the fire/smoke is something I will never forget. I will still get a whiff of that when I am adding to the fire and it will take me back. I called Richard, freaking out and he said he was on his way home. I then called my Boss and told her what happened and I wouldn't be at work, obviously. I was screaming from the pain it was horrible! The kids leaned over the gate to see what was the matter, I gathered up what courage I had to say, Mommy's ok just go back to watching your Movie only to turn around again and started to scream again. Richard called his Step Mom........duh.....she lives just down the street from me and she's a NURSE. She came over and quickly realized I needed to go to the ER. So we packed up the kids and headed to the ER. I got there and shortly after Richard got there. I was a wreck. I felt Sooooooooooo stupid for letting this happen. I felt horrible because Richard was really busy with work and I knew it and I felt bad for pulling him away from there. I texted my friend Lisa and asked her to pray for me I had been in an accident and I would text her later with details. The ER doctor looked at me and got my pain managed. It took 2 dosages of Morphine but I finally was able to calm down some. Richard took me home and I attempted to get some rest. The pain came back, the burning pain that I just couldn't shake. Thankfully Richards friend from the area brought me over some Lavender oil. All I can say is that stuff works! Best stuff EVER! After that I was able to finally calm down a bit and get some rest. Thankfully I don't work Fri-Sun at this point and I took Monday off so I could heal some more. My mom came up on Friday and took me to my dr apt and brought me some food and helped me cook a few meals for future nights. It was so nice of her! My dad and step mom came over on Monday and brought some food and spent some time with the kids. It was nice they came! It took a few weeks but my hand finally started to heal. The weeks following the accident my hand was really sensitive to anything and everything. I got a few blisters by simply picking up a heavy bag or pulling my hand out of my pant pocket to quick. And when the accident happened and I was wearing my rings you can see where my rings were on my fingers. To this day I can still see where they were but just not as obvious. I am so thankful it wasn't worse. I am so thankful my kids were not in the room or standing next to me. I am SOOOOO thankful it healed as nicely as it did! I am Soooooo thankful for the people who came to my aide when I needed it the most. Here are some pictures! Sorry for being so graphic! Note to self. Don't try and catch yourself on fire again! Thanks!
From the time is happened till present
This was the next day you can see how red it was
Thankfully my face didn't really get burned very badly more like a bad sunburn
This is when the skin started to peel.....yucky!
Freddy's sister's hand! haha
Face is healing up nice! Tip of my nose was the worse part! OUCH!
Showing off the "claw"
Ta Da! You can still see where my rings were but it is healing so nice!