When my body hurts or feels different

Remember the picture you made of your body?

When something hurts in your body, you can show your mom or dad where it hurts on your picture.  Other times, parts of our bodies just don't feel right.  If your hand, foot, arm or leg feel different, let someone know about that too.

Let your mom and dad know how much it hurts....hurts just a little or hurts a lot.  

Look at your face in the mirror when a part of your body hurts.  What does it look like?

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Parent's Section

*************************************************************************************************************************************************************Note to Parents:  

Detailed information on what to look for when your child has sickle cell disease can be found here Boston Children's Hospital

"Pain is whatever the experiencing person [child] says it is, existing whenever the experiencing person says it does".....McCaffery (1968)

If your child is in pain, you could use the following FACES chart to help your child quantify the pain.

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Understanding your child's pain perception is very important, because untreated pain can lead to future problems related to pain syndromes. In Sickle Cell Disease, pain can be an indication of an ischemic event or sequestration. While pain and fever should be treated according to your child's plan, once treated, pain can also be managed using distraction techniques.  The following video from The Hospital for Sick Children in Canada presents excellent techniques for dealing with and diffusing pain in children.  While the video is focused on pain from vaccinations, it covers principles that may work for your child during SCD pain.  Reduce the pain of vaccinations in children

If you are looking for more in depth information on pain in infants, follow this link http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/paininf.htm

In addition to pain, your child could also experience muscle weakness from a stroke caused by a lack of blood flow to part of their brain.  Coaching your child to let you know if their body ever feels "funny" or "doesn't work right" is critical for early treatment of a stroke.