It is a fact of life that sometimes kids need surgery. Just like adults.
It is a fact of life that some of these kids will be scared out of their minds. Just like adults.
It is a fact of life that sometimes these kids will be wise asses. Just like adults.
For every kid that cries when you open the door, there will be the kid that asks all the questions.
For every kid that screams when an IV is started, there will be the kid that watches in fascination. Even when the parent that is with them pales and sits down.
For every kid that fights the monkey cologne (we breathe them down with anesthesia gases, especially when they don’t have an IV and it stinks), there will be the kid that just looks trustingly at you while they are breathing and while you are holding their hand before they go to sleep.
My favorite are the kids who ask impossible questions. You can tell they are just trying to get one up on the adults by the glimmer in their eye and the cheeky smile. This is also a substrate of the ones that all the questions.
When I was the service line leader in charge of pediatric trauma at an orthopedic hospital I got to know about kids and the different reactions to anesthesia, to being in an unfamiliar environment, and away from their parents.
Some of the impossible questions that they ask, trying to trip up the adults.
Why is the sky blue? This was a frequent question. I remember why the sky is blue from my high school physics class. And I tell them it has to do with the refraction of the sunlight through the atmosphere and particles in the atmosphere and which wavelengths of colors get scattered the most. You can see them thinking about the answer hard.
The follow up question will always be why the sky is different colors at sunrise or sunset. I tell them it has to do with the curvature of the earth and how the different wavelengths of colors are more prevalent due to that curve.
Do you think there are aliens? I see you, little science fiction geek, kudos to your parents.
It shocks the kids when the adult in the room has a ready answer.
Some kids were chill, just like adults.
Some kids were not, just like adults.
Pediatric surgery is not working on small adults. But there are some similarities.
Dispatches from the Evening Shift 