Hot Pipes!

Back at the beginning of September, Scott rode his motorcycle to work, which he tries to do when the weather is nice. He enjoys the ride, and it helps to shorten the time of his commute because he can ride in the car pool lane. On those days, Adam and I listen for the motorcycle to come around the corner so we can open the garage door for him and he rides the motorcycle up our steep driveway and parks in it the garage. On Thursday, September 2nd, we did just that! Adam was so excited that dad was home (which is pretty normal around here!) He ran out the garage door and was dancing around the motorcycle while Scott was getting his helmet off, and putting stuff away. Usually, Scott reminds Adam that the pipes are hot, and that he needs to be careful. This time, the warning wasn't heeded, and I heard a scream from the garage! Apparently, Adam got a little too close and the side of his leg briefly touched the hot pipes! Scott picked him up and carried him inside. At first, I thought there was a huge blister on his leg, but after looking more closely, we found that the top couple layers of skin had burned off and must have torn loose when Adam pulled his leg away from the motorcycle. It wasn't a blister, just shrivled up, burnt skin. Adam was beyond comforting, so I held onto him while Scott grabbed some sharp scissors and cut away the skin that hadn't pulled completely loose, and then we started the ice/cold water routine. I was worried that we wouldn't be able to pull all of the heat out of the burn, and his leg would just continue to burn and burn. For awhile, I wondered if we should take him to the ER, but Scott has had lots of experience with pretty bad burns, being that he works around a very hot wood burning pizza oven all day! So, he helped calm Adam down, like only Scott can, and convinced him to keep ice on it, and then sit on the side of the tub with cool water running over his leg for close to 30 minutes, and then put ice on it again. Amazingly, by the time it was bedtime Adam said that it didn't burn anymore.

This is what he leg looked like that first night. The burn was very big, and eventually, all of that red skin peeled off.

Here it is about a week later. We wrapped it up with gauze and neosporin at night, and Adam wore shorts during the days to let fresh air help to heal it.
Here it is after all the skin had finally peeled off.

Now, he just has a big red spot on his leg. I wonder if it will be a permanent scar, although it does seem to get lighter and lighter. We think Adam has definatley learned that those motorcycle pipes are very hot! He reminds Scott of that fact every time he sees the motorcycle!