Crayola Crayons

I'm not on my computer, so I can't attempt to post pictures. Sorry.

I did an incision and debridement (I&D) the other day on a little girl. The girl screamed bloody murder for the whole thing. We have lidocaine here and ketamine, I don't remember why we didn't use ketamine, but from the sounds of her screams the local was doing nothing. People have a high pain tolerance here, sometimes yell, but this was bad. Dr. Faile held her hand through the whole thing, and I just felt miserable inflicting this pain.

I wanted to give her something, so I broke out a pack of crayons and a coloring book, thinking I just want to ease this kid's pain. Well the gesture was nice and all, except that she didn't know what crayons were. She also spoke a different language, so it basically took half the day to find someone to try to explain what crayons were and that they were hers. I demonstrated for her. I think she got it by the end, because the next day she had colored some of the pictures in the book. I'm not sure she realizes it's a gift for her, I get the feeling she's waiting for me to come back for them.

Christy and I were just talking about how something an American child would find so commonplace is foreign over here. A pen is something an adult is allowed to use, but not for a child's use. There are definitely no mounds of toys piled in a corner of a hut. When you do get a child to draw a picture, it's like a toddler drew it because they haven't had extra paper and pencils and things to just draw.