It was a stressful day at work today. I had to start an IV on a 6 year old girl. I've never started one on a kid, babies but not kids, and it's always hard on me when I have to give kids needles. I hate making them cry, but this little girl was braver than most adults. She's here on vacation from England with her parents and had been throwing up all night. Since their travel insurance is responsible for paying for their visit, we do everything we can for out of country patients. I think I've started more IV's in the clinic than I ever did in the hospital. So I settled the little girl on our stretcher with a comfy blanket and told her to look at the cartoons we have on the wall and when I put the needle in her arm, she barely even flinched. Her parents were both leaning over my shoulder watching and I didn't hit her vein right away and I'm thinking, "oh dear where's her vein, I really don't want to have to poke her again!" I'm starting to get nervous cause I can't find her vein, her parents are leaning over me and all the while she's telling us about the butterfly cartoon on the wall, while I'm digging around in her arm with a needle. I couldn't believe it, I was so proud of her. She was so brave. We gave her some Gravol, some fluids and she had a little nap on the stretcher and she was cured. I gave her a Winnie-the-Pooh sticker and she walked out of the clinic with rosy cheeks, telling her parents she was hungry.
Then this afternoon, I had to give another Gravol injection to a 6 year old girl. This one was not quite so easy. She was crying before I even gave her in the injection. I had her mom hold her tightly in her lap and even though, she managed to jump so high that the needle came right out of her and I ended up having to poke her twice :0( She was wailing at the end of it all. I felt so bad! The Tinkerbell sticker when she left made her feel better though. Poor kid, I felt terrible.
Last week I had to do immunizations for a family going to Mexico for vacation. An 8 year old and a 4 year old. Not fun. The 8 year old cried for a minute afterwards but then turned into a hero when it came time for her little sister to have her injection. She held her sisters hand and gave her a hug afterwards to console her, it was so cute. The little sister screamed at the top of her lungs the entire time though. That's my least favorite part of the job. I love working with the little ones but I hate it when I hurt them. I need to get some suckers at my desk for them. We have stickers but sometimes I think suckers would be better. I'd rather have a sucker than a sticker :0)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment