Cunning Blood, a post on ImpactEDNurse.com made me laugh - and reminded me of an incident involving one of my sons.
He'd been admitted to the hospital to have his tonsils out. His surgeon had ordered a bleeding time test prior to surgery. This involved pricking the arm with a special lancing device and timing how long until the bleeding stopped. It's not terribly painful, and on an older child or adult, is quite a simple test.
Not so with this child. A simple finger-stick in the pediatrician's office generally required 3 adults. The pain didn't phase him, it was the loss of blood. His language delays made it impossible for him to explain WHY he was so distressed by the loss of even a drop of blood, but he had no difficulty communicating his utter dismay.
I tried to explain this to the phlebotomist, but she simply did not believe that 2 adults (her and one nurse) could not manage one small child.
Consequence: she learned just how far a few drops of blood can travel when projected by a panicky 3 year old. He shed nowhere near the 10 ml of blood impactEDnurse describes, yet he managed to thoroughly spot his sheets, the nurse, and the phlebotomist.
2 comments:
:lol: I guess this is a lesson in listening to the parents. We sometimes do know best.
Your poor little boy though, not being able to explain why he doesn't like things.
After the first couple of months of speech therapy, I could understand nearly everything he said. After the tonsillectomy, his hearing improved enough that he made rapid progress and was able to better communicate his distress.
He's grown now, and while I don't always understand his reasoning, I always understand what he says.
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