If your child has a chronic medical condition,
then you’ve probably encountered challenges with medical trauma. Or maybe someone else in your life faces this challenge.
From minor flinching at needle sticks all the way to full blown meltdowns, you probably know how challenging it is to go from appointment to appointment, test to test, surgery to surgery, and keep your child’s emotions and responses under control in order to get them the health care that they need.
And if you add in a child not fully understanding the reasons for these medical events (whether from being a young age or from cognitive impairment), that trauma can be magnified to an even greater degree.
When my son was gripped by medical trauma, I had no where to turn.
He kicked and screamed and had to be held down.
Child life specialists could help a little, but no therapists in our area specialized in medical trauma, much less with a child who was cognitively impaired.
I called. I e-mailed. I was alone.
In my nature as a researcher and teacher, I started reading, and researching, and talking with psychologists and neuropsychologists. I sought advice from a friend who is both a psychologist and a parent of a child with Hunter Syndrome, like my son Case. I tested and implemented so many different strategies and regimens with my own sons, both my son who is cognitively impaired and my typically developing sons.
The book “Calmer” started as an e-mail reply to other parents desperate for help with their child’s medical trauma. What were we doing? What was working for us? Then it turned into a blog post. And finally, I thought it would most help in the form of a book, released in 2012.
So for the first Therapy Thursday in awhile, I wanted to highlight a special that’s been going on all month (ends on Sunday, July 31). My book, Calmer: Medical Events with Cognitively Impaired Children is 50% off when you use code SSW50 at checkout. It regular price is only $4.99 so that’s only $2.50 for a book with tangible strategies for helping your child work through issues of medical trauma (less than a cup of coffee!). The book site, Smashwords, offers formats for all of your devices.
I hope this book is a blessing to your child’s journey and to your role as a parent. Or if this topic isn’t something affecting your family, consider sharing this post or gifting the book to a friend who might need it. If the book as helped you personally, I’d love if you’d post a review or comment and share this post!
