I am not really afraid of Blood. I suppose I would be afraid to see like a gallon of my own blood in a pool on the floor. But I am one of the wierdos that watch the needle go in when I donate blood.
Heh one time, at his own birthday party, my middle son, who I think was 6 at the time, cut the hell out of his foot. They were running around the house with either nerf or water guns and he stepped on a shard of a porcelain bowl, that one of his siblings was supposed to take to the trash bin. Anyway he had a deep gouge in his foot that looked like the letter J and there was dirt and grass wedged into the cut because he walked on it to get in the house. He comes in the front door, and exclaims 'Jeepers, that hurt!' I look over and see that he is leaving bloody footprints on the carpet as well as drops of blood when he picks his foot back up.
I, in a moment garnering father of the year awards, look my son deeply in his eyes and yell, 'What the hell are you doing!! You are getting blood everywhere!' He stops in his tracks and is like uh oh. So he starts to walk back outside. I yell some more and then I get up off the couch, pick him up and take him to the couch with me...his foot dripping blood all along the way.
'Someone get a towel, he is getting blood all over the house!!' I yelled once more, in case any of the party guests had not realized how uncompassionate I was. He is calm and apologizes about the mess while one of our guests, who happened to be a pediatric nurse investigated his foot. She commented on how calm he was and saw my smile. She treated his foot, which included a lot of I need to get the dirt out, it is going to hurt, this is going to hurt, I know this hurts, but you are doing great.
He kept telling her it was fine, just hurry up and bandage it so he will not get more blood on the floor. Most of the attendees of the festivities, after glaring at me, told him how brave and tough he was. He did not cry at all. The nurse actually explained to those who were looking at me with disgust, that I had shifted my son's attention to his hurt foot and had him thinking about the blood all over the house, so he was distracted from what would have freaked the hell out of most six year olds. A few people still felt that I was a terrible person for yelling at an injured boy, most got it.
This story is often told when that same son, who should be an actor, or at least a stuntman when he grows up howls in pain when someone accidentally bumps him. My oldest and I always say, you can cut half his foot off and he is fine, but bump his arm and he flips out.
the oldest has a similar pain management story, that does not require me to look bad. He was like 3 years old and the nurses needed to take a blood sample. They were just going to do a finger prick and then put a little blood on a slide to test. She rubbed his finger with an alcohol prep pad which my son was studying intently. Then she opened the pricker and stabs him quickly on the side of his finger. He did not react at all, no sharp inhale, no sound, no pulling away of his hand, nothing. He just looked at his finger trying to figure out what she did. She looked at him very puzzled, and then looked at my wife and I. She stabbed him again...no reaction. Then she squeezed his finger, and he said 'It's red!' as a little blood drop appeared.
She thought that the metal tip on the pricker had gone up inside instead of into his finger because he did not react. She chuckled and asked, 'Didn't that hurt?'
'A little.' he answered still more interested in hat she was doing then what she was saying.
She said that there are plenty of grown men who could do well with watching him as they flail their hands and screech when she takes their blood samples. He also sometimes has no reaction to pain, and at other times flips out over the slightest graze. I tell everyone that we have super powers and we have to pretend to be hurt to keep our secret. Sometimes we get it wrong and mix up our pain responses.
Not in but thank you for your generosity.
