catastrophic oopsie 😔

[u/y2_kat]

dinner is hospital food - roast chicken with green beans, mashed potatoes, & gravy. was actually very yummy, the nutrition dept here is fantastic!!
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TW for discussion of injury (burn/blisters, NO blood/broken bones/etc)
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TLDR; a millisecond innocent oopsie fucked me up. i spilled some dip, got a full depth 2nd degree burn on my dominant hand, ended up staying at the hospital for 2 weeks, & needed 2 surgeries including a skin graft from my hip.
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2 weeks ago, during movie night with my friends, i was heating up some trader joe’s spinach & artichoke dip. it was my first time trying it. as i pulled it out of the microwave, it slipped.

about half the container of boiling hot dip poured all over the back & parts of the front of my right (dominant) hand. it was the worst pain i’d ever experienced!!!!! omfg. (little did i know, it’d get worse.)

still, i didn’t realize how bad the burn was. we just dressed my hand up with some burn bandages & gauze, ate what was left of the dip (it was good, btw!) & finished our night as normal. i had some tylenol & a beer for the pain. it was blistering bigger than i’d ever seen but not crazy when i went to bed.

the next morning, my whole entire hand & parts of my forearm were covered in the hugest blisters i’d ever seen. like, i didn’t even know it was possible. the biggest was on the back of my hand, about the size of a water balloon, & it burst - it was SO much fluid that it could’ve passed as a piss lol. i could barely move my hand.

my roomie/bestie took me to urgent care. they turned me away. i went to the ER. they said i needed a specialty burn unit. i was transported by ambulance to a trauma 1 hospital (the best in miles & miles).

kinda gross - they gave me a ton of IV pain meds but i was awake. then they literally YANKED & peeled all the blisters off. my whole hand, skinned, right before my eyes.

even after all that, i was shocked when they said they’d keep me overnight. i just figured the “special” doctors had already left for the day since it was later on a friday.

turns out i had a full depth 2nd degree burn. that overnight stay turned into a 2 week hospital stay and 2 surgeries - debridement of a ton of dead skin & an allograft (cadaver skin over the affected area because my skin was so damaged, it needed a temporary graft to encourage the wound bed to heal up some so it could actually take a real graft) on the whole back of my hand/part of my forearm then an autograft (skin graft from somewhere else on my body). i was especially sad about the autograft because it meant a second injury & further scarring. i actually boohoo sobbed about it. plus all of it hurt so much!!! i have a really high pain tolerance. i didn’t even outwardly react to the initial burn, but i cried like a baby after both surgeries.

it was my first time in a hospital (& the longest stay that anyone i or my loved ones know). first ever surgery (well, surgeries!). first time in an ambulance.

kinda gross - i’m missing a huge chunk of skin on my right thigh. my right hand looks so freaky & gory - they took a VERY thin layer of skin, so you can see everything underneath, & then the sutures ofc. i’ll need ongoing follow-up care - 1st appt is next week. i can’t shower like normal because i can’t get my right hand or thigh/hip wet. i’ll definitely have scarring. both my hand & donor site hurt. walking & sitting down is weird because the donor site is basically right on my hip joint. i’m still working on regaining full ROM in my right hand, which sucks because i love to draw & write, & i need my hand for my job/school. everything in my life has been thrown off during a pivotal part of my education (i’m in my final semester of my B.S. before i do my internship & graduate). plus i found out i probably have early onset hypertension despite being young & in great physical health.

also, i just aged out of my mom’s health insurance a couple months ago when i turned 26. i was approved for the hospital’s charity care program cuz i’m broke af, but the bill is easily gonna be $20k+ & the charity care isn’t guaranteed to cover 100%.

luckily i have a good support system; i love love LOVE my friends & family!!!!! and my job/profs have been understanding. but still holy shit this SUCKS!!!! all because of microwaved dip??? wtf.

anyways, take this as a cautionary tale i guess, lol. and FML.

[u/Obvious_Bag7296]

Holy hell, girl!! Any chance you qualify for Medicaid now that you're off your parents insurance? If so then they'll retroactively cover medical bills. So you could register now and get your previous bills covered. (Caveat - that was the case previously, I'll admit that I don't know if that's changed with the current administration or if it's the same for all states. But worth looking into.)