Seeing stars…

So the last few weeks have been very stressful, especially for Samuel.

Well, that’s not strictly true. Every third day has been stressful for about half an hour. For some reason, Samuel has been buidling up a fear of having his infusion site changed. Taking the old one off is fine, but putting the new one on has been frankly, filling him with horror.

To the point where we mentioned it at this weeks clinic with the paediatric consultant and diabetes nurse. Anne, our specialist nurse, made a very simple suggestion. Use a star chart. If Samuel can be brave with the site change, he gets a star. And if he collects a few stars, he’ll get a reward. We coupled this with using Emla cream, a local aneasthetic cream that is applied to the infusion site about 20 mins before applying the cannula.

I have to admit my first reaction upon hearing the idea about a star chart was a bit sceptical. It’s the sort of thing I would associate with much younger children.

However tonight was the first site change since then and it went brilliantly. No stress, no tears, nothing. I’m not sure if the aneasthetic cream stopped the pain for Sam or not. Perhaps it had more of a placebo effect. Combined with the prospect of a reward though, tonight’s change went well.

Let’s hope this continues…