Day 18: Child Life Specialists

A what? Yea... I had never heard of one either. But SR had an echo-cardiogram today and when I was preparing to take him for this I asked for some advice on how to get him through a pretty lengthy test unscathed. One of my dear friends suggested I see if the hospital we were going to had a Child Life Department. I had never heard of that either. So I searched the internets and found nothing. That is when I emailed my friend who works at the hospital and she hooked me up. And because of that... about 10 minutes before my little guy went back for his test, 2 sweet ladies came into the waiting room with a bucket of toys and sat down and started playing with my son. And they went back into the room with us and they spent the next half an hour with us keeping Slobber Rocket calm and still. They had all kinds of tricks. Bubbles, lights, flashing spinning toy, animals, suggestions for me to help him. Amazing. Of course he had his binky and blankie too but they made the process so much easier than it could have been. And sped it up too since the tech didn't have to deal with any fits.

Actually the tech doing the ECHO had no idea that child life specialists could come help. One had never been to help a tiny patient before and she was beyond amazed as well. Told them she would call them when little people come in and see her. They are rock stars whose jobs are basically to help children with all of the stresses that come along with medical procedures, hospital stays and diagnosis. So... I guess I wanted to let people know that the super awesome people exist. If your child is ever in a hospital or needs lengthy testing, as your pediatrician or call the hospital about this service. Smaller hospitals are not likely to have them but the "big" hospital here has them and all children's hospitals have them.