What do you do if you can't stomach changing the dressing on your child'!
Question: My son crushed the tip of his index finger in the door at school. We went to the ER and he received 10 stitches. I'm usually okay with most of what I see, but he really did a number on himself and its pretty gory. I changed the dressing on Sunday, and nearly passed out! When I say nearly, I really mean it! As soon as I looked at it I was having hot/cold flashes, my hands were shaking, got dizzy and extremely nauseous. I'm not sure I can do it again, so what do I do? My son is already nervous about how his finger will heal, and seeing me that way just makes him more nervous, not to mention that I have to have my younger son keep him from looking at it, because if my son looks at it, he's going to panic! Dad is out of the picture totally, so there's no help there, and my family lives nearly an hour away. If I bring him to the doc to have it changed, will they charge me for it?
Answers: My son crushed the tip of his index finger in the door at school. We went to the ER and he received 10 stitches. I'm usually okay with most of what I see, but he really did a number on himself and its pretty gory. I changed the dressing on Sunday, and nearly passed out! When I say nearly, I really mean it! As soon as I looked at it I was having hot/cold flashes, my hands were shaking, got dizzy and extremely nauseous. I'm not sure I can do it again, so what do I do? My son is already nervous about how his finger will heal, and seeing me that way just makes him more nervous, not to mention that I have to have my younger son keep him from looking at it, because if my son looks at it, he's going to panic! Dad is out of the picture totally, so there's no help there, and my family lives nearly an hour away. If I bring him to the doc to have it changed, will they charge me for it?
Call your doctors office and ask them. Some don't charge. You are so right, our children are looking to us for courage. I often backed out and their dad had to take care of things, but that's because I could. Don't know if I could get past it if I would have had to. I'm OK when it's not my own. I've been in the medical field a great part of my life, so I think it must have been a mommy thing. I'm much better now that they are older. Try to do it for their sake though. Be strong.
Find a friend who can do it for you, I know this because my mother did the same thing when I had stiches as a kid. She would always call her sister.
i am the same way.. call and ask them (doc), tell them that you have a weak stomach..
defiantly ask them if they will charge you
or
ask a family member or a friend to help you out
yuckkkkky, don't blame you
Get it together and soldier up girl!!!! There is no one there to do this for you, your son needs you to change is dressing, take a deep breath! You actually need to look at it and make sure it is healing ok and is not infected.
cant answer about the charging as i live inthe uk where we would see a nurse for this stuff but just remember you have had a lot worse things to deal with when he was a baby and you did that without thinking didnt you? you dont actually have to look at the wound, just concentrate on the dressing, i.e. keep the clean new one very close tot he old one and when you remove the old cover it over with the new one immediatly or even a clean tissue would do then you dont need to see it all at once, make sure its clean and dry and then cover properly again
are you the real mother ?????
This is your child. You must do it every time to take care of his special need. Wear a mask if you have to but its really your job to take care of him-as the mom.
the doctors office probably won't be very willing to change it for free, especially if it needs to be changed daily. You can contact their office to see if you could arrange through a visiting nurse agency a daily change (or however frequently) but your insurance may not cover this either (though you are well within your rights to pay privately).
My best piece of advice is to prepare yourself. Have a small snack -maybe a glass oj orange jouce and some simple carbs like peanut butter on a bagel before hand. Make sure the room is not too warm and try to focus yourself only on what you are doing and not think of it as your child's finger being crushed, or obsessiing on whether or not what you are doing is going to hurt him (i realize you won't want to hurt him, but you have to get the job done - so tell him to relax, relax yourself, take a few deep breaths and try to be as gentle as possible). Occupy his mind while you are changing the dressing - put him down in front of the TV or a favorite movie. As it heals it should get easier on you both -and you'll have a better idea on how it will heal.
Be brave enough to this kind of things. You are his mother. Giving birth (with all that blood) is way way way gross that what happened to your son's index finger.
It looks that way right now because it is undergoing the process of healing. But in time, you will see that it would change dramatically.
I used to change dressings of a patient with gangrenous foot. Yes, it stomach churning but I thought to myself I must not let my patient see that I can't handle it because he would feel that he is gross and that will affect his self-esteem.