No, seriously, TV/screen time has been an amazing help for Jonah (and me) this past week in dealing with his pain and discomfort after his tonsil surgery last Monday.
TV/screen time and music has always been a great distractor for Jonah. If he is upset or angry about something, usually offering a YouTube song or video or watching a show on TV helps calm him down or redirect his emotions to a happy place.
So this past week, all TV/screen time limits have been thrown out the window! It will probably be hard to wean him of this unlimited viewing, but we will cross that bridge when he is fully recovered.
Fortunately, Jonah has pretty good viewing tastes so I have enjoyed many good movies and Beatles documentaries while cuddling on the sofa with him!
Over the years of dealing with Jonah and his ailments, I have finally developed a reliable pain scale to know how uncomfortable Jonah is.
1. No pain/baseline healthy: if you tell Jonah it's time to be done with TV/screen time, he very easily gives it up and moves on to another activity.
2. Mild discomfort/pain: Jonah puts up more of a fuss when it's time to turn things off, but after a few minutes, he moves on to something else.
3. Moderate discomfort: Jonah will be complaining of pain, but then once he gets to have TV/screen time, he stops complaining. However, if you try to turn off the screen, he starts to moan and groan in pain again.
4. Severe discomfort: Jonah will continue to moan and groan even while watching something. Or if it's really bad, he will refuse the TV/screen time.
And at each of Jonah's pain levels, he wants/demands to be cuddled. He wants someone right next to him most of the time.
Not very scientific, I know, but this is one way to help me guage what Jonah is feeling in terms of pain.
Interestingly enough, here is Ben's pain scale. Keep in mind though, Ben is rarely sick even with just little stuff like colds/flu, and we have never, thankfully, had any serious health issues with Ben. So I'm not drawing from as much data as I have with Jonah.
1. No pain/baseline healthy: As mentioned in the previous post, Ben's usual demeanor is somewhat gruff and grumpy with a little bit of sweetness tossed in every once in a while.
2. Mild to moderate discomfort: Ben gets weepy and points to his head and indicates he's tired. He appreciates kind words of comfort and is sometimes open to being cuddled but usually resists.
3. Moderate discomfort: Ben will act very gross and seem like he is purposely trying to infect others with his illness-drooling, wiping his wet fingers over every surface he can touch, licking surfaces or our arms/hands. He also can be very naughty and sneaky. It's like he's trying to push you away from trying to help or comfort him.
4. Moderate to a little more discomfort: Ben will hide and act very scared if you discover he doesn't feel good, almost like he is afraid you will get angry at him for being sick.
I think this very unique pain scale for Ben is the result of 6 years of self-soothing when he was sick or uncomfortable. I'm guessing if he was sick in his orphanage room, he was probably confined to his bed so he wouldn't infect the other kids or the workers. And probably, the workers didn't appreciate having to do extra work or pay extra attention to a sick kiddo because they were busy enough trying to take care of a room full of kids with special needs-some very severe. And from what we saw, Ben was one of the higher functioning kids in his group so that in itself meant he got less attention because he didn't need as much help. So Ben has always been on his own for the most part, whether he was healthy or sick.
No comments:
Post a Comment