RE: preemie-l From Gaelle: pain (fwd)
bru00.atteur.mail.att.net!cvdleur (cvdleur@bru00.atteur.mail.att.net)
Wed, 12 Jun 1996 08:16:00 +0000
Dear Gaelle,
What you describe about your son not feeling pain sounds very
familiar to me. Yorick, born at 27 weeks, is extremely tough when
having to deal with physical pain.
A few months ago he had an infected fingernail, and the ped had
to stick a needle through the nail to open the abcess.
You can imagine the state I was in, Yorick however just looked up
to me (I was holding his hand still) and said, without crying, mummy
this hurts, and afterwards started playing without a hitch.
Because of his balance problems he tends to fall quite often,
and has bruises all over, but if we are not there to see him fall
we often discover rashes and bruises because he never says
anything.
Now, all of this does not mean he never cries. He does, and
lately more frequently, if he does not get what he wants. He is
also very good at lying spreadeagled face down on the floor
and sniffingly cry. He hates it when I wash his face or hands,
and when I put suncream on him, that really makes him scream!
We were told preemies are often very tough kids probably to
start with to survive the pain at birth and the stay in NICU.
In our NICU they do realise preemies can be in pain, so preemies
are put on morphine after birth, and weaned gradually.They were
very careful with any signs of pain, and did not hesitate to use
painkillers.
Bye.
Caroline