Her son had a sliver in his palm,
explained a caller from the Airport Marriott. Could I come and remove it? The
child was two.
Two is the worst age for a dignified
doctor-patient relationship. Infants love everyone, and older children listen
to reason. At two, girls are often terrified into silence, but males who don’t
like doctors make for a noisy consultation.
Removing a fresh sliver with tweezers
is easy, but most victims pluck at it with their fingertips, breaking off the
tip, leaving the remainder nestled out of reach under the skin.
As I unwrapped a scalpel, the
parents assured the child that it wouldn’t hurt. Long experience had taught
that this was a lie, so his protests became deafening.
In fact,
the parents were right. Both worked hard to
immobilize the child at first, but when it became clear there was no pain, he
calmed. Your epidermis is dead skin, so shaving the very surface with a scalpel
should be painless. I shaved enough to expose the splinter. A new safety razor
works as well.
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