(upbeat music) - Hi, I'm Denver
and I work at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital
and I help the kids at the hospital feel better.
Today, I wanted to talk
to you about an important topic, pain.
I've been learning about pain.
Like, why I hurt,
what I should do when something hurts
and how I can talk to someone I trust about my pain.
My adult says that everybody feels pain sometimes.
And it's important because pain is how your body tells you
that something is wrong.
To start,
can you tell me what you think pain is?
For me,
I think pain is when my tummy hurts
after I eat too many dog treats
or when someone accidentally steps on my paw.
What do you think pain is?
And can you tell me a time when you felt pain?
- Pain is when you get hurt.
One day I was jumping on a trampoline
and twisted my ankle.
It hurt so bad I couldn't walk.
I had to ask my friends
to get help. - Pain can be emotional
and physical.
It can be uncomfortable.
I had to have surgery to get my tonsils out.
When I woke up from surgery,
my throat hurt really bad when I tried to swallow.
- Pain is when your body reacts
to something going on
and let's you know by alerting you.
- I was playing basketball
during gym class and I bumped heads with my friend
and his glasses cut my face.
I had to get stitches. - When I'm hurting.
The thing that makes me feel better,
is a nice big belly rub.
Ho boy.
Oh boy oh boy.
Everybody is a little bit different.
What makes you feel better?
- When my ankle was hurting,
my friend's mom put ice on me.
Even though it was cold at first,
it helped me feel better. - The thing
that made my throat feel better
after surgery was eating ice cream.
When I got home from surgery,
I would listen to music or draw to take my mind
off the pain.
- While I was waiting for my stitches,
I played video games to help me forget
about the pain. - My adult told me
that it's really important to tell them
or another adult if I'm feeling any pain,
they can help.
But I had to tell them where it hurts
and how it feels.
Sometimes it's hard.
So my adult
and I have an activity that helps me talk about it.
We use a picture that has
a bunch of different faces on it.
Kind of like emojis.
I point to the face that shows how I'm feeling.
and when you are hurting,
how do you talk about your pain?
- When I got home my mom helped me keep track
of my pain by journaling.
I wrote down how my ankle felt each day.
What made it feel better.
And what made it hurt worse.
- When I woke up from surgery,
my nurse show me pictures
of faces to help me describe
how I was feeling and talked
about different pain levels. - After I got my stitches,
my doctor told me it was important to tell my parents
if I was feeling pain.
My mom asks me all the time
but I kept saying no because it didn't hurt anymore.
My stitches itched though.
So I did tell my mom that.
She said that it was a sign it was healing.
- My grown-up says
that sometimes we can make the pain go away.
But sometimes it doesn't work and we need more help.
We can go to the doctor or the hospital
to see if they can help.
It's really important to tell the nurses and doctors
about the pain.
Like when it hurts,
what makes it feel better or worse
or how long it hurts for.
- My mom called my pediatrician to ask
if I had to come in and see a doctor.
They said to keep track of my pain and to come
in if it doesn't get better in a couple of days.
- A few days after my surgery,
my throat still hurt really bad.
So we went to the doctor
and she gave me different medicine
to help with the pain.
- When I hit my head,
I showed my gym teacher
and asked for a band-aid.
After she took a look at it,
she said we should call your dad
so he can take you to the hospital
to get checked.
At the hospital,
the emergency room doctor said I needed stitches
to help heal my cut.
- Thanks for helping me learn more about pain.
I sure learned a lot from you guys.
I now know that pain happens
because my body is telling me that something is wrong.
It's really important to talk to an adult that you trust
and come up with a plan to try to make it better.
I always know that my doctor is
there to help me too.
Check out my other videos,
where we learn about medication safety
and other ways to help with pain.
(upbeat music)