Today Kyle had a doctor's appointment to see if we can figure out why he keeps complaining of knee pain. He did great with the x-ray and then we had to do some blood tests. We hadn't really talked about this beforehand like we did the x-ray so I was worried he'd have a hard time with it. Kyle and Emily just seem to like predictability and to know what's going on... So just before we went in for the blood draw, I told them that the nurse was going to take some blood and that it may pinch a little bit. Kyle responded, "it's not gonna be tickle Mommy?" I said, "no, it may pinch a little bit." And we sort of left it at that.
Fast forward (long waiting time) and we get back to our turn. Emily is standing in the chair next to us. Kyle is on my lap. The nurse puts on the rubber band thing (sorry don't know medical term) around his arm and asks me to hold his other arm down and hold the banded arm up by the band - basically holding him and preventing him from messing with the blood draw. Now I know that when I get my blood drawn I can't really watch, it just makes me squeemish. And I also always make sure I get the smallest butterfly clips because those seem to hurt the least and you don't feel the changing of the tube, even if it takes longer to do the draw (go ahead say it, I'm a wimp). So I asked the nurse if she was going to use the butterfly clip and then pointed out some things (there were a ton) for Kyle to look at on the wall so as not to watch the draw. I'm checking out the wall and calling out things for Kyle to look at and Kyle proclaims, "that tickles!" Thinking that the nurse had just wiped off his skin with the alcohol pad to prep and he was just feeling the cooling nature of the alcohol pad, I look at his arm and see that Kyle is checking out the needle in his arm and watching his blood being drawn. The needle was in! And he said "that tickles" again as she changed the tube. He was pretty fascinated and didn't even care he had a needle sticking out of his arm drawing out the blood! And it seemingly didn't even hurt!!!! No tears, not upset, just totally mild and interested in what was going on!! What a champ!
The nurse told us that in her 6 years of doing this, she has never had a kid say a blood draw tickles! They've of course said that hurts or that didn't hurt, but never, that tickles! All I know is that Kyle is a champ! And I think the power of suggestion is well, powerful! And Kyle sure has his mind right about it!
Fast forward (long waiting time) and we get back to our turn. Emily is standing in the chair next to us. Kyle is on my lap. The nurse puts on the rubber band thing (sorry don't know medical term) around his arm and asks me to hold his other arm down and hold the banded arm up by the band - basically holding him and preventing him from messing with the blood draw. Now I know that when I get my blood drawn I can't really watch, it just makes me squeemish. And I also always make sure I get the smallest butterfly clips because those seem to hurt the least and you don't feel the changing of the tube, even if it takes longer to do the draw (go ahead say it, I'm a wimp). So I asked the nurse if she was going to use the butterfly clip and then pointed out some things (there were a ton) for Kyle to look at on the wall so as not to watch the draw. I'm checking out the wall and calling out things for Kyle to look at and Kyle proclaims, "that tickles!" Thinking that the nurse had just wiped off his skin with the alcohol pad to prep and he was just feeling the cooling nature of the alcohol pad, I look at his arm and see that Kyle is checking out the needle in his arm and watching his blood being drawn. The needle was in! And he said "that tickles" again as she changed the tube. He was pretty fascinated and didn't even care he had a needle sticking out of his arm drawing out the blood! And it seemingly didn't even hurt!!!! No tears, not upset, just totally mild and interested in what was going on!! What a champ!
The nurse told us that in her 6 years of doing this, she has never had a kid say a blood draw tickles! They've of course said that hurts or that didn't hurt, but never, that tickles! All I know is that Kyle is a champ! And I think the power of suggestion is well, powerful! And Kyle sure has his mind right about it!
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