...or Alternative Paediatric Analgesia.
Following up on my earlier post, a couple of days we were called to a Kiddie who had got his finger stuck in a door. Screaming his head of when we arrived, he calmed down a little once I got down to his level and introduced myself and told him we're going to make his finger better. Distraction part one, we're getting there.
My colleague then begins to bandage his finger, after taping it up she draws a big smileyface on the tape hlding it together. "Show me your teeth!" Kid give us a big gappy grin, my collegue draws little teeth on the smiley.
"Stick you tongue out at me!" Kid is laughing by now, pokes his tongue out at us. Smileyface gets a big tongue drawn.
We're ready to go to hospital. En route our patients finger is only "a little sore", but he is in good spirits. To keep it that way, I make him a toy elephant out of a rubber glove, and let him draw eyes, mouth and hair. Kid makes trumpety noises and plays "charging elephant on an african savannah" in the back of our van. But the fun doesn't stop there: Hairy the elephant (I encouraged Kiddo to give the elephant a name) and Kiddo get dressed up in swine flu masks and safety glasses, dad takes a picture for old times sake.
By the time we're at hospital Kiddo is happy, has a new toy and a story to tell at school next year. And I didn't have to give any chemical pain relief :-)
