This Little Piggy Went Wee Wee all the Way.....

This is little Jebanio. Cute little guy, huh? But as my British flat mate/co-worker says in her proper english accent, he's very naughty. Maybe you can see some of the mischeviousness in his eyes. He frequently throws tantrums, doesn't mind his mom, hits her, and wants whatever toy the other kids are playing with. And he will cry and flail his arms until he gets it.




Poor little guy had a surgery that required him to have a catheter for a week. I guess I might cry too if I had to endure that for so long. For the first few days he refused to get out of bed. I was the lucky nurse that took care of him the day the doctor said he must ambulate. Shown below attempt #1 of getting him to walk. My solution: I carried him upstairs to the flight deck to entice him to walk. Instead of using a ball like you would to get a baby to take his first steps, I had something even better--boats and helicopters. It worked. He took about 20 steps up on the flight deck toward the "helo" but every step was a fight. As you can see from the picture, he had a pretty good melt down back on the unit because I tried to make him walk back to bed. He slid across the linoleum floor while mom and I pulled.

I took care of little mr. stubborn for 3 long, consecutive days. On the third day, Dr. Auge took out Jebanio's catheter! Glorious day for the kid. He was out of bed, running circles around the nursing station, kicking a big blue exercise ball, having the time of his life. All until he needed to go PEE (excuse my improper medical terminology for urinate). Once the little guy peed, he could take a bandaid boat back to shore and go home after spending 8 or 9 days on the ship. I thought it would be SO easy. I gave him water to drink, tried giving him bubbles to blow to bear down, etc. No, No, NO. It didn't work. He started screaming around lunch time and doing the potty dance. I put him in a warm shower-3 different times, tried putting him in a bucket of warm water, tried placing a warm rag over his bladder, and pushed on his bladder. The screaming only got worse. I called a different department of nurses-ones who have actually been moms to see if they had other suggestions. It was an international survey as we had suggestions from Americans, Canadaians, Britians, and a nurse born in Trinadad. I had run out of ideas. After 3 hours and attempting to place another catheter in the child while he was screaming/kicking (no luck there), Dr. Auge decided to take him back to sugery.

Pre-op called me 30 mins after I dropped him off.

He peed'd all of their floor and was still standing in the puddle when I came up to get him. Back on the pediatric unit, he continued to go pantless the rest of the shift while he wet the bed, piddled all over the flood and pretty much went wee, wee everywhere.

Sleep tight little Jebanio. Maybe on another day you can go to the market or eat roast beef.....