Feel the Heat

I was so excited to try this awesome new recipe. I got it from my friend Jenny on facebook and I had made a few tweaks. I cut up the red bell pepper into spears. I cut the chicken (Jenny's recipe was for turkey, but when I saw the price was over $5.00 a lb, no thank you, I will stick with my chicken) into thin sections and then salted them and sprinkled them with fajita seasoning and then pounded the heck out of them with the butt of my knife (perhaps I should invest in a meat mallet?). I place the spears in the center and roll them up in the chicken. I turn around to move the frying pan with oil back onto the hot burner (it was starting to smoke earlier and so I moved it partly off) when I felt the MOST extreme heat I have EVER felt. OH MY GOODNESS. My hand is on FIRE! But how can that be, I think, I didn't even touch anything! I can't have seriously burned my hand on RADIANT heat from an electrical burner! I quickly place my hand under running water. I don't yell when I get hurt, I like hold it in until my blood vessels are about to explode. Adam notices something is a little different in the kitchen and asks if I'm okay. I think about it. Am I? I've burned myself often, but the worst of it could maybe be considered a first degree burn. This feels worse. . . A LOT WORSE. WAY WAY WORSE! So I try to convey this to Adam but I'm not sure how, so I just keep responding to his question of "Are you okay?" with the word "No." And I actually manage to run my hand under cool water AND get dinner in the oven (actually I alternate between the two activities). I sear the chicken rolls in the heated olive oil on all sides and then put them in the oven heated to 350 degrees (for those of you who are gleaning the recipe from this post) When the chicken is cooked I eat with Adam and a wet towel resting on my now blistered burn. Later Adam gets me some Aloe Vera sunburn gel and though it helps, I still suffer a couple of hours while we watch Biggest Loser. I continue to apply the gel every time it starts to hurt again. Probably every 5 minutes or so. Thankfully, my advil kicks in right as the show is ending so I easily fall asleep at 10pm.

Wednesday I wake up and remember the burn on my hand. It doesn't hurt at all, I can only feel it if I think about it. However, I don't have a lot of gauze or band-aids to hold it on with (I don't have any medical tape, so I just did what I could) so to spare my bandage I shower with that hand it the air. I can do everything but wash my hair. Well, I probably could if I had time, but I don't. I value my sleep too much. So once I'm out of the shower I no longer have to worry about the bandage getting wet and I can do my hair and makeup using both hands.

Later that day at school I have to use the bathroom. Its right before the last period of the day so I hurry to make it back before my students arrive. As I go to wash my hands I forget about the bandage and I stick both hands into the water. Oh well, I think. Probably needed to be changed and I have a first aid kit in my classroom with all necessary equipment. So I rip off the bandage and FREAK OUT. Why is my burn blister GREEN!?!?!?! That has got to be a bad thing. Oh wait, aloe vera gel. I didn't wash it off my 23 applications of it last night before bandaging my hand.