Kids and serious medical problems: Keeping it positive
Posted Dec 21 2009 3:59pm
I visited my cousin, Dr. Mark Goldstein, in his ENT practice office today in NY and was amazed to see happy looking kids marching through, some of them, I assumed, with some serious medical problems realted to, well, ears, nose or throat. I've been wondering lately why kids take serious medical problems so well, while adults tend not to.
When I told my daughter, age 13, the other day that I have a mysterious acute hearing loss in my left ear which I may not recover, she shrugged, and said something like, "At least you got your other ear." I shared with her how amazed I was at her positive attitute and asked her if she would be bummed out if she, say, lost an arm. Her response: "Nahhh, I'd just learn to do great things with the one I've got."
Of course, the "idea" of enduring discomfort is very different from actually enduring that discomfort. But still, many kids (like my own) don't seem to fear the consequences of serious medical problems, and even maintain positive attitudes about those possibilties. And, many kids who do have serious medical problems are able to maintain very positive outlooks and cheery dispositions.
Docs have these great phrases for talking to patients about the consequences of sudden bad news, saying things like, "it looks like your in for a "lifestyle change" (used often by GI docs when they are recommending colectomies, and so on). The big point here: we got something to learn from kids about maintaining a productive and positive outlook in light of, ahem, lifestlyle changes!
When I told my daughter, age 13, the other day that I have a mysterious acute hearing loss in my left ear which I may not recover, she shrugged, and said something like, "At least you got your other ear." I shared with her how amazed I was at her positive attitute and asked her if she would be bummed out if she, say, lost an arm. Her response: "Nahhh, I'd just learn to do great things with the one I've got."
Of course, the "idea" of enduring discomfort is very different from actually enduring that discomfort. But still, many kids (like my own) don't seem to fear the consequences of serious medical problems, and even maintain positive attitudes about those possibilties. And, many kids who do have serious medical problems are able to maintain very positive outlooks and cheery dispositions.
Docs have these great phrases for talking to patients about the consequences of sudden bad news, saying things like, "it looks like your in for a "lifestyle change" (used often by GI docs when they are recommending colectomies, and so on). The big point here: we got something to learn from kids about maintaining a productive and positive outlook in light of, ahem, lifestlyle changes!