Cat TV
Dean Robert of Canterbury Cathedral offers a simple service of Morning Prayer with reflection from a location around the Cathedral, always with a pot of tea nearby. 🫖 Often it's in a garden among the flowers, but sometimes, as in this case, it's in the Cathedral meadow, among the animals. Many chickens and some pigs here! 🐓🐖
A friend sent me the link and I was checking it out, when I realised both Mizzen and Spinnaker were glued to the video. LOL! I do not worship alone. 🌿 Thursday's offering was Morning Prayer in the Deanery Garden with a cat named Leo, and prayer for Vancouver cut off from the world by the rains. 🌎 Small world.
6 of our 8 grands have now had the covid vaccine. The first three have had two doses and the younger 3 are newly vaccinated with their first dose, so far. The three older girls took it in stride. Our 5 year old Grandson was super pumped to get it, and was even still enthusiastic afterward. Our 6 year old granddaughter was fine with it and it took just a few seconds. But our 8 year old Grandson kind of freaked out about the idea of a needle, such that it took 45 minutes to get him to get the shot. He is kind of sensitive on sensory issues, but this was really over the top. I wonder if he picked up some fear after his Dad had to be taken to the ER with heart inflammation issues after his 2nd dose. (I'm not sure how much he knew about that event.). But the poor kiddo. And his poor parents. I'm sure it took 45 minutes because they didn't just hold him down and make him do it, but talked him through it. He was okay but NOT happy. Second dose in 3 weeks should be interesting. They're going to do dose 2 through the pediatrician's office instead of a pharmacy.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was working as a medical technologist we would have to draw blood from an unwilling child every once in a while. There are ways of doing it quickly without anyone getting hurt, but you need to know what you are doing; proper equipment certainly helps. By about ten years of age, they are too big for that. It was my observation that the phlebotomists at the children's hospital where I once worked were exceptionally good at getting kids' cooperation--I couldn't figure out why; it was something about their demeanor, I suppose. Another thing I noticed, in the hospital where we had at least half "Mexican" patients, was that the Mexican kids never put up a fuss; if Mom said it was OK, it was OK. I think there was something about their child raising practices that resulted in the kids trusting their mothers more than did the Anglo kids. I remember one dear little girl who had a tear roll down her cheek as her blood was being drawn, but she didn't move a muscle. [She got two little toys from the treasure chest instead of one, and shared with her sibling.]
DeleteCorrection: There are ways to safely pin a twelve-year-old in place while their blood is drawn, unless they are big for their age. One would prefer not to have to do that, but just getting it done safely and quickly has a lot to be said for it. I've taught people to draw blood by practicing on me, so don't think anything of it. But pain-sensing nerves are not everywhere on the skin, which explains why some people feel that tiny vaccination needle and others don't. I remember one doctor stabbing himself with one of those little needles on a tuberculin syringe and leaving it hanging there as a demonstration for a nervous child. "See? Nothing to it." It worked.
DeleteI'm pretty needle phobic, and discovered pretty young that I did better (not that it in any way hurt less) if I sent my mother out of the room. Watching her on the verge of panic only added to the tension of the situation. And I didn't have to worry so much about humiliating myself.
DeleteHad a good friend whose first born was big. Very big. In kindergarten he broke down on the way to school, sobbing that his teacher hated him, and he couldn't go back. She regularly stood him in front of the class and berated him, using him as an example of what not to do, and saying he shouldn't act like a five year old. He pointed out the he *was* a five year old. Which seemed to enrage her more. My friend pulled him from school and he didn't go back until she had changed teachers for him. He looked to be about 12.
Yes, it does generally work better if the parents step out of the room; but if they insist on staying, of course they must be allowed to do so.
DeleteI strongly disagree that it's better for the parent(s) to not be present. That's only true if the child is more self-confident than the parent. When our 2.5 year old had to have x-rays on his elbow the evening he broke it, it was several hours past his bedtime when the x-ray tech was ready. I just calmly said, "I will remain with him." She set him on the x-ray table in the center of the large room and told him to hold still. I was beside him wearing a lead apron, and she went over to the light switches to turn out the bright lights to do the deed. Only, she accidentally turned off the red lights too, turning the room pitch black. Had I not been there to reassure him, he would have panicked and moved. But all went well.
DeleteThen those stupid guys came in to make his half-cast (at 1:00am!), and as one guy took his arm he began to cry. Had I not been there when that fool told my 2.5 year old, fully 6 hours past his bedtime with a stranger touching his hurting arm, to quit being a baby, what would that have done to his self image?
I do think Grandson is extra sensitive. And that needs to be taken into consideration, because we tend to settle for average and let the chips fall where they may. And here we have a nation of broken people who might have done better had they been accepted as they are as children.
Back to the topic of needles, though. When our daughter needed blood drawn from her arm, as a toddler, I brought along a stuffed Koala Bear, sat Daughter on my lap, and just as the jab was about to happen, I distracted her with the bear. All went smoothly, and we named the bear "Labby"...!
We just need to think like a child (as those phlebotomists Alan spoke surely did). It doesn't have to be all clinical and frightening. Definitely harder with a bright 8 year old who does not want a shot.