My son is in the hospital, newly diagnosed with leukemia. We've been there 2 weeks now and have experience amazing levels of care.
We ended up in the PICU for a few days were the number of interventions to keep him breathing escalated very rapidly. I was aware that he would need a catheter if things got to a certain point and was proactive about speaking with each team that came on shift about his intact status and that he was not retractable and that I was concerned about how placing a catheter was done, etc...
Well, a mother has to sleep at some point and I woke up early one morning to find that they were in the middle of placing a catheter, they were on the 3rd attempt.
I was bed side watching the procedure as soon as I new what was up and saw that he was fully retracted as they worked. Because it was already done, because my son was already sedated and had been rapidly deteriorating in status at the time (he is much better now!), because I saw no blood or evidence that retracting him caused any kind of harm I did not make a big scene over what happened (I did express alarm at the time but I also did not want to be asked to step out so I checked it a bit). For the next 24 hours I kept an eye on his foreskin and he never had any signs of trauma, redness, bleeding, etc.... He continues to be OK now that it is out.
My question is what do I do now to educate these folks that fully retracting an almost 3 year old is not the way to do this? Do I even need to do this since my son seemed to already be retractable? I am also concerned at the lack of awareness that retraction could have cause bleeding, something that everyone is bending over backward to avoid with him (and all leukemia patients). I mean these folks were very upset that a nurse in the ER took his temperature rectally because of the bleeding issue.
The hospital as told us several times to please speak up if we see an area that needs improving. I had to do a little educating about breastfeeding, just a little, because not everyone in the ICU was up on where the lactation rooms were and the fact that I was allowed to use any and all of them regardless of weather they were labeled "staff" or if they were behind a door that required a security badge to swipe in. The "best team" of lactation consultants from the NICU were very helpful in this and let me know that on the oncology floor (were we will be spending the rest of our many hospital stays) there were 3 mothers this past year that were instrumental in educating everyone on extended breastfeeding. They paved the way for me by being vocal. So following their example I think I can be helpful and help make a real change in how the PICU staff handles intact kids in the future.
Just some added info: I was not aware that DS was retractable since I had never seen him retract himself and I certainly have not been attempting it when changing his diaper. I was aware that he was appearing to be in the process of getting there and his foreskin seemed to be no longer completely attached to his glans. I had observed his foreskins mobility by the fact that it seemed to be in all kinds of different positions during diaper changes and I had observed DS give it a few of those crazy, imposable looking tugs in the tub. If i had been asked if he was retractable I would have said no.
We ended up in the PICU for a few days were the number of interventions to keep him breathing escalated very rapidly. I was aware that he would need a catheter if things got to a certain point and was proactive about speaking with each team that came on shift about his intact status and that he was not retractable and that I was concerned about how placing a catheter was done, etc...
Well, a mother has to sleep at some point and I woke up early one morning to find that they were in the middle of placing a catheter, they were on the 3rd attempt.
I was bed side watching the procedure as soon as I new what was up and saw that he was fully retracted as they worked. Because it was already done, because my son was already sedated and had been rapidly deteriorating in status at the time (he is much better now!), because I saw no blood or evidence that retracting him caused any kind of harm I did not make a big scene over what happened (I did express alarm at the time but I also did not want to be asked to step out so I checked it a bit). For the next 24 hours I kept an eye on his foreskin and he never had any signs of trauma, redness, bleeding, etc.... He continues to be OK now that it is out.
My question is what do I do now to educate these folks that fully retracting an almost 3 year old is not the way to do this? Do I even need to do this since my son seemed to already be retractable? I am also concerned at the lack of awareness that retraction could have cause bleeding, something that everyone is bending over backward to avoid with him (and all leukemia patients). I mean these folks were very upset that a nurse in the ER took his temperature rectally because of the bleeding issue.
The hospital as told us several times to please speak up if we see an area that needs improving. I had to do a little educating about breastfeeding, just a little, because not everyone in the ICU was up on where the lactation rooms were and the fact that I was allowed to use any and all of them regardless of weather they were labeled "staff" or if they were behind a door that required a security badge to swipe in. The "best team" of lactation consultants from the NICU were very helpful in this and let me know that on the oncology floor (were we will be spending the rest of our many hospital stays) there were 3 mothers this past year that were instrumental in educating everyone on extended breastfeeding. They paved the way for me by being vocal. So following their example I think I can be helpful and help make a real change in how the PICU staff handles intact kids in the future.
Just some added info: I was not aware that DS was retractable since I had never seen him retract himself and I certainly have not been attempting it when changing his diaper. I was aware that he was appearing to be in the process of getting there and his foreskin seemed to be no longer completely attached to his glans. I had observed his foreskins mobility by the fact that it seemed to be in all kinds of different positions during diaper changes and I had observed DS give it a few of those crazy, imposable looking tugs in the tub. If i had been asked if he was retractable I would have said no.
