Buzzy Bee
As a medical mom, bloodwork and injections are a frequent occurrence. Mason has only had bloodwork a few times, thankfully. Dylan has bloodwork monthly but much more frequently when he’s not doing well. Last year, after a hospital admission that resulted in us being flown to BC Children’s Hospital, I advocated for Dylan to have a port placed. This happened pretty quickly and smoothly thanks to the works of his team! Let me tell you, that was one of the best decisions I ever made for Dylan! With all our hospital admissions for dehydration and electrolyte imbalances, it has now become much less traumatic with one needle poke into his port. Bloodwork can be drawn off and IV fluids can be given. There’s no repeated attempts to try and get an IV in and no repeated venous pokes for lab work. The entire hospital admission is the one poke.
Dylan has been on erythropoietin (EPO) injections for months now to help with his red blood cell count. The frequency of this injection has ranged from weekly to every 3 weeks depending on his lab values. When we found out Dylan was going to need to start growth hormone and that it was a daily injection, my heart sank. It was hard enough doing the EPO injections but now a daily injection on top of it. Of course, we will always do what is in Dylan’s best interests, but it’s heartbreaking to hold your toddler down to put a needle in their leg while they scream.
Last year, when we spent a month at BC Children’s Hospital, I met with some of the lab team and worked on a side project for our lab to try and help with blood collections on children. This is where I first learned of Buzzy Bee. I advocated for our lab to get Buzzy Bee, which our pathologists jumped on board with right away and purchased one for us! After a week and a half of trying to balance giving Dylan his growth hormone injection with not having him go into a cyanotic breath holding spell, Buzzy Bee popped back into my mind. I immediately purchased it myself and have been using it every day. I can honestly say, Dylan either does not cry at all, or only cries for a few seconds while the injection actually goes in, and then is back to himself. I will admit I don’t use Buzzy Bee to it’s full extent for Dylan because of how little he is, but the way we are using it seems to work just as effectively! Buzzy Bee comes with ice pack wings that are frozen and both are placed above or near where the needle is going in. The two sensations take away the feeling of a needle poke. We have found that having Dylan just holding Buzzy Bee while it vibrates does the trick. We have also used it this way for Mason for when he needs bloodwork, and it resulted in no crying and total comfort!
For anyone interested in checking out Buzzy Bee, I purchased him here on Amazon. He has made quite the difference for my family when it comes to injections and bloodwork!
