Connor had a good day today!
The meeting at school this morning was very productive and went well, and Connor had a fantastic day at school, which I'm sure was much appreciated by everybody as we didn't really need any more excitement. He came home and had his hour of "quiet" time, which he spent happily yodeling to himself at the top of his lungs in his bedroom. Then we loaded up the car and, along with my parents who are visiting right now, took a trip up to Pike Place Market.
The market, while busy, wasn't terrible for a sunny Friday afternoon, and we ate lunch there and then had fun killing time by walking around looking at all the vendors, sitting in the park munching on those ridiculously good apple cinnamon rolls from Piroshky Piroshky (seriously, if you ever come to Seattle and you don't try the apple cinnamon rolls from this little bakery than I am very, very sad for you) and just having a good ol' time in general. Around four in the afternoon we hopped back in the van and drove over to Children's Hospital so that Connor could get his medication levels checked.
I always do my best to prepare Connor for the fact that he's getting his blood drawn-- making sure to tell him when it's about to happen so he's not surprised, and then telling him what a good job he did and comforting him afterwards. He likes having his blood drawn about as much as the next four year old, which is to say not at all. Usually many tears are involved.
Well I did the preparing part, but I didn't have to do the comforting part this time because we had the BEST phlebotomist (the technical term for the blood drawing guy) I have ever seen in my entire life, and believe me I have seen a whole lot of phlebotomists at this point. Connor is an extremely hard stick because he's had blood drawn so many times, but this guy took a quick look at both Connor's elbows, slapped a quick tourniquet on his left arm, and before the little guy even had the chance to get upset about the tourniquet the needle was in and the two vials needed had already been drawn. I swear the whole process took forty seconds from start to finish, and Connor didn't cry at all! It was pretty awesome-- I've had way, way too many trips to the laboratory where the phlebotomist has to stick Connor four or five times, and even when they get him on one stick it usually involves a whole lot of preparation. This guy just ran a quick finger down the inside of Connor's arm. So now I know who to ask for the next time we need levels drawn!
We headed back home after that, ate dinner and watched a movie. It was a good end to an all-in-all good day. We'll hear back from the neurologist either tomorrow or Monday, and hopefully we'll get the problem solved!
~Jess
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4 years ago
3 comments:
When my son was an infant, he had to have a whole bunch of blood draws. And I, too, will never forget the time when I watched a female phlebotomist do such an amazing job that the kid didn't even flinch. I looked at her and said, "What, did you find the space between two cells and put the needle in there? Because he doesn't even KNOW you just stuck him!"
Sadly, we never saw her again. Maybe she was an angel! ;-)
I hate having blood drawn! I have generally uncooperative veins and unfortunately seemed to have passed that on to my daughter. Watching her get an IV or have blood drawn is like torture for me (and not so fun for her either!). I am so glad that Connor's experience went well.
I think I know exactly who you are talking about. I think his name is Hector, and he is fabulous! He has lots of fluorescent-colored coband for the kids and is calm and kind. Hooray for a good blood-draw!
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