Painting In Bed

[trailerparkmedic]

Crazy Mom, it would be awesome if you would stop freaking out about your 7 year old daughter painting in bed. She had a pretty bad day yesterday, what with having her first three seizures ever, and now she's stuck in the hospital in the middle of summer vacation. At least she thought the ambulance ride was cool. Today hasn't been a whole ton better, what with 5 or 6 groups of doctors coming in to see her, talk about her, ask her to walk around in circles and testing her reflexes. I don't know your daughter well, but I can tell that being around so many men is freaking her out. She's also bored as hell since you were more worried about getting her to the hospital because she was seizing than gathering a bunch of toys to entertain her (which was the right set of priorities, but still means she's bored right now).

So, yes, I snagged some art supplies and we're painting with watercolors in bed to distract her from the men and you leaving for a few hours and the fact she had multiple seizures yesterday. It's also pretty good at passing the time much more quickly. No, I don't think that doing this now will scar her for life and make her do it at home. Like I told her earlier, we have special rules in the hospital. She can eat peanut butter and graham crackers for breakfast and she can watch as much TV as you both can stand. She's old enough to understand that painting in bed is a hospital only thing as well. I don't care if she spills everything in her bed; we've got plenty of sheets if we need to change them and it's watercolors so they won't stain anything anyways.

No, I can't take her to the playroom, because we have her hooked up to these monitors that don't travel well, and we can't take them off until she has her battery of tests tomorrow. I'd really rather not have her sit on the chair because she had THREE seizures yesterday and I'd really prefer that if she seized, she did so in bed. How about you chill out and stop stressing out your kid, and we'll just keep painting horses because horses are AWESOME and not a whole lot else about the past few days has been too good for your daughter?

[Food Lady]

Maybe the mom is just projecting her worry over her daughter on the messing up of the sheets. I can understand how you feel, though; it just shows your compassion toward patients. That's a good thing. And it's good to come here and vent.

[trailerparkmedic]

Maybe the mom is just projecting her worry over her daughter on the messing up of the sheets.

Oh, that's totally what she was doing. Plus, she was probably compensating for her lack of control over the situation by trying to control what her daughter was doing. Doesn't mean it wasn't annoying.

[Mishi]

Nurses like you make hospital visits tolerable and a helluva lot more fun than they usually would be. Thanks for being awesome and cheering up that poor little girl!
I know the mum was upset and stressed, but as you said, kid's wards have different rules. Mostly to make sure that kids don't get overly stressed, scared and end up difficult to treat when they're older. Unfortunately, that's hard to explain without offending the already upset parent/s.

[teh_blumchenkinder]

aw, poor kid! It sounds like she has a loving and good mama... but yeh, your rant, totally appropriate! I've been doing some anxiety-projecting on my friends lately, one of them got a little fed up, and fortunately I have a good enough awareness of loops and whatnot that I could tag what was going on and apologize without too much pride-loss, among other things.
I suppose she wasn't alone during all these men-doctors? I never really had issues with large groups (or any size groups) or single genders... but I've also been socialized by institutions like church (which had men's groups, women's groups, boys' groups, girls' groups, and so forth for various things, and I on occasion would interact with classes...) and lived on a military base (so when the family went somewhere like a party at Dad's office, there were usually more men than any other set... you get the idea).
Butennyway, I hope she gets better soon-- seizures have been known to be one-offs, and not being able to drive (eventually) would suck. Did mom eventually get the point/calm down?

[Syriilord]

we'll just keep painting horses because horses are AWESOME

Pfft. You should be painting unicorns

[Sapphire Silk]

Dealing with boredom is one of the greatest challenges any hospitalized patient has to face.

ANY activity that distracts and keeps the patient occupied and happy is generally a good thing (with the exception of things that are potentially dangerous, like using the bed for a trampoline). I had one patient who was hospitalized for over a month and going CRAZY from cabin fever. So I asked him what his favorite hobby was, and he said, "Fishing." I asked him if he tied his own flies, he said yes. So I suggested he get his family to bring his things to the hospital so he could spend some time tying flies for when he got out of the hospital and could go fishing again.

It made him very happy.

In this case, I agree Mom is compensating for her feelings of helplessness. But the water coloring is a great activity and she really should do it in bed for now; the rationale is spot on. Maybe you could encourage Mom to join in? If she participated, she might feel like a part of the team and loosen up a bit.

[SuperRTL]

I have a friend who's daughter had cancer and spent most of 18 months in the hospital. The kiddo was so weak at times that she had difficulty holding her head up and needed to learn how to walk again. Her mom decided that they were going to be the fun room and they had parties every week. Princess parties, Pirate parties, butterfly parties; every week they would decorate her room in the new theme and she was in charge of making the decorations. The doctors and nurses loved her and they always invited the other kids on the floor to the party.

I remember seeing pictures of a couple days after they had the tumor removed. They had a tumor stomping party. Her mom had gone to the grocery store and gotten a few pieces of chopped liver. They put them on papers on the floor and stomped on the "stupid tumor" that had been making her sick.

Kudos to you, trailerparkmedic, for getting her the paints. Hopefully mom calms down enough to do what she can to make the hospital stay less traumatic.

[Mishi]

I had one patient who was hospitalized for over a month and going CRAZY from cabin fever. So I asked him what his favorite hobby was, and he said, "Fishing." I asked him if he tied his own flies, he said yes. So I suggested he get his family to bring his things to the hospital so he could spend some time tying flies for when he got out of the hospital and could go fishing again.

My dad did something similar for his mate who was recovering in hospital after a stroke. His language centre was scrambled, his memory was mostly shot, and his fine motor skills had almost gone so he was bored, confused and irritated. Dad brought in some small cleaned up car parts with permission from the doctor. Some were broken or jammed as well as some old and some new ones. His mate's language, memory and fine motor control improved as long as he was thinking about the car parts, how to fix them and how they could be redesigned to work better. His family and his doctor were surprised, but happy. He's made an almost full recovery now, though he'll always need a cane.

[Kristev]

My mother used to tell me art was theraputic. She wanted to study art therapy but never had the money.

[Pairou]

I had a HUGE urge to study art therapy until I learned that nowadays you have to do far more years of studying than I could afford (I'm in art school now, I'd need to do far too much more studying to be an art therapist).

[XCashier]

Oh, that's totally what she was doing. Plus, she was probably compensating for her lack of control over the situation by trying to control what her daughter was doing. Doesn't mean it wasn't annoying.

Poor lady, knowing ones child is sick and not being able to do anything about it is so incredibly stressful. Those seizures must have been terrifying, and it's hard to say who was more scared, mother or daughter.

Regardless, I do hope she can relax at least a little, for both their sakes. She doesn't need to end up hospitalized as well.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Dealing with boredom is one of the greatest challenges any hospitalized patient has to face.

This was the main reason my mother hated being hospitalized for her cellulitis flare-ups. For the longest time, she didn't have a laptop. She even asked to borrow mine once. I refused for a variety of reasons.

1. "My laptop doesn't have wireless internet." (A lie, but she didn't need to know that.)

2. "It's MY laptop, I'm not letting you screw it up." (This is my mother we're talking about, who has managed to screw up almost anything electronic.)

Once she got her own Macbook, she was happier. Especially when, almost as soon as she got it, she was hospitalized. I took the liberty of setting up the laptop for her and then brought it to her in the hospital. She was very happy to have a way to contact the outside world.

[dalesys]

She was very happy to have a way to contact the outside world.

Did you get the world's opinion first?

[Jay 2K Winger]

Did you get the world's opinion first?

Despite my mother's helplessness with technology, she's actually a pretty smart person. And she was mostly using it while she was in the hospital to chat on Yahoo with a friend in England.