#incision and drainage

On my last shift we had a little 3yo bean with a cutaneous abscess that required an incision and drainage. He was extremely unimpressed with me as I did the exam, assessed with POCUS, and applied the topical anaesthetic… Then, as we were doing the procedure, he was essentially screaming the whole time. Interestingly… he was not really screaming in pain, just in rage.

“I just wanted a brownie!!” he wailed. (We had tried to appease him with a popsicle but it was a no-go.)

“We are almost done buddy! You are doing so great, you’re so brave.”

“NO! I AM NOT BRAVE!! LET GO OF ME AND GIVE ME A BROWNIE!”

“We will fix up your [skin] real quick and then you get to go home for a brownie.”

“I DON’T LOVE THIS!” he yelled.

To be honest, I was a little stunned because it was just such an endearing thing for him to say. I looked at his dad, whose eyes were crinkled in silent laughter as he tried to soothe his son.

“One day your dad will probably tell you about this,” I said as we applied a dressing. “Maybe it’ll be when you graduate high school and he’ll tell you about how you got through all this for your brownie.”

His dad pulled him in for a cuddle and whispered over his kiddo’s shoulder, “Oh, I’ll definitely remind him about ‘I don’t love this!’.”