My nephew has
Perthes disease, which basically means the ball and socket joint of his hip grew all wonky causing the blood supply of the joint to get strangled off and the bone to start dying. It was caught pretty early in his life, thanks to his
grandpa, so he's doing well.
A couple years ago I was driving to the hospital to visit him after one of his surgeries (he's had several major hip surgeries, poor kid). I had bought him some nice headphones, but I decided to stop at Target because I felt like I needed something else. I ended up picking out a stuffed frog.
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| photo from Amazon.com |
He liked
the headphones, but he LOVED the frog. He slept with it tucked under his
arm and watched TV with it sitting next to him in bed. It reminded me
that he’s a big strong kid, but even big strong
kids can be comforted by a stuffed animal. I haven’t conducted
extensive research on this, but I feel like a stuffed animal is kind of a
universally pleasing item, especially when you’re not feeling good and/or stuck in a hospital
bed.
When I stopped at
Target on the way to the hospital, I also bought
this game.
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| photo from Amazon.com |
My nephew
was too tired and out of it to ACTUALLY play even that game, so we
modified it. He would roll the dice and it would land
on a letter. Then the rest of us would have to come up with a word that
started with that letter and my nephew would pick his favorite word out
of all of them and the person who picked the word he liked best was the
winner of that round. It was a fun for everybody and my nephew could doze in between rounds.
Something else that was a big hit with my nephew? Silly putty and a newspaper. Proving that even 10 year old boys get tired of video games eventually.
Can't go wrong with a classic blankie. Bonus points if you happen to know that VIPs at the hospital are given a
specific color blanket. (Which is actually a thing, I swear.)
Another winner? A coloring book and some crayons/markers/colored pencils. I'm particularly fond of
this one.
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| photo from Amazon.com |
I use these
acrylic drinking cups ALL THE TIME.
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| photo from Amazon.com |
They are excellent for holding icy cold water (or your beverage of
choice). Also, they are good if you are perhaps not operating with all
of your mental faculties and more prone to spillage.
