Public Service Announcement

My little Meggie (should stop saying that, she’s almost 18) works in a restaurant and is very competent and clever. She kicks arse in the kitchen, and has been working a brunch shift for years. This has been of tremendous use to our family, as on holidays, Meg and Amanda (who works as a server in the same place) can whip up a truly awesome Christmas/Mother’s Day brunch and slap an eggs Florentine in front of you like they were born to do it. Meg’s been working there so long that she thinks that making your own hollandaise sauce is like pouring yourself a bowl of Cheerios. Simple and straighforward. Meg know’s what she’s doing and she doesn’t make many mistakes at all…

Until this weekend, when she made a big one. The restaurant has new pans, and these new ones have metal handles. Meg’s used to the old ones with the plastic handles, so she took a hot pan out of the oven, removed the food, and tossed the pan into a stack. Two minutes later, she went to pick it back up again. Now, with the old pans, the handle would have been cool enough to touch…but with the new ones,

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Oops. That’s 1st degree burns to all her fingers, and 2nd degree burns to most of her palm. You can imagine how much that hurts. We didn’t find out that she’d burned herself until hours later, after she had mostly finished her shift (she’s a tough cookie) and we picked her up and took her into Urgent Care so that they could look at it. She’s got those fancy bandages for a while, but there should be no permanent scars or “contractures”. (Not sure what those are, but they sound bad, and I’m glad she won’t have them.) Now for the public service announcement.

When Meg got burned, a bunch of people gave her “first aid” and advice. Meg took some, and not the others. Unfortunately, some of the advice she accepted made things worse, so Meg’s about to be signed up for a St. John Ambulance course so that she knows what first aid to give herself. The bad advice she didn’t take (thank goodness) was to put toothpaste on the burn to dry it out. (I know. Try to control yourself.) The bad advice she did take, was to put butter on the burn. Joe and I were shocked that this old fashioned advice is still out there, but it is, and we couldn’t believe that we were meeting people yesterday who were surprised to learn that butter on a burn is dangerous. For the record, butter on a burn makes the burn worse, seals in heat and promotes infection – plus it has to be cleaned off by medical staff and that’s really, really painful. If you don’t believe me (and I know some of you won’t. When I learned that sugar doesn’t make kids hyper I couldn’t believe it either, and was incandescent with rage that they would suggest such a thing) then google “butter on a burn” and see if you can find anyone (qualified) who thinks it’s a good idea. Then maybe read this page, on what to do for a burn.

For now, the worst part for Meg is that she has to suspend her training for the Friends for Life Bike Rally. Some of you will remember that Ken did this last year to support the People with AIDs Foundation, and in so doing, he inspired Megan and her boyfriend Pato to join him this year. The ride goes from Toronto to Montreal, and begins July 26th. It’s about 600km (372 miles) in six days – so the training is pretty intense. (Meg was scheduled to ride 100k today, but it will need to be put off for a little until she can put weight on her hand and the blisters are healed a little. Probably a week) If you were so inclined, I bet that Meg, Pato and Ken would love your support this year.

(You can click on their names to give to them. Every little bit helps, since all of them need to raise at least $2200 to ride. Also, anybody who raises more than $6000 before June 30th, gets a gold jersey, which… although none of them would say it… they all crave deeply. Don’t tell them I told you.)

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That’s Megan and Pato before they went to Prom on Friday. How can you refuse such cute kids anything?

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(Actually, if you have 17/18 year olds yourself your resistance might be quite high.) I’d love it if you did these two a great favour and sponsored them, but even if you don’t want to, the I’d really love it if you did everyone a favour and took a minute to read that burn first aid stuff.

(Edited to add: A lot of you are asking, so I’ll answer here. Yes. Megan and Pato are indeed the youngest riders taking part this year, and yes. I’m stupid crazy proud of both of them.)

Tomorrow, we return you your regularly scheduled blanket. (I know. The excitement must be overwhelming.)