The power of positive programming & being brave

Inspiration comes in all sizes. Big, small, wide, short, old, tall, fat, young, thin, medium build. It can be distant, detached, a piece of art, close, emotional, a book, a song, a passing comment, an idea, an experience, it can also be expected, and even better unexpected.

My daughter went into hospital last week for an operation on both of her eyes. I know, it sounds dramatic. She is only 4 1/2. Her name is Daisy. She is quite a character and a little bit feisty, like her mummy.

We didn’t want to fill her full of fear about the impending “operation”. So we got her excited about it instead. The operation was going to put her eyes right and actually, she was quite lucky to be having it.

The hospital was great. And it was NHS! It was a superbly designed ward with fantastic attention paid to the customer experience. It was made for Daisy. The core feature, a veritable treasure trove full of toys. The central component, the absolute shrine for Daisy, was a kitchen. She could reach everything. It made noises and she could cook and create to her hearts content. It was a perfectly distracting environment for busy, bright little girls. The attention to detail was impressive as every part of the process added value to the experience for Daisy. From the clothes she had to wear to the mini car trip from the toy room to the operation room. Even the anaesthetic, to funny Polly the nurse and so on. She wasn’t scared – she was brave and we were proud.

Daisy was under “the knife” for about an hour. When she came out of the anaesthetic, she was rightly miffed. Upset. It was a bit distressing. Her eyes hurt. She slept on me for about an hour. That was quite nice actually.

Then we went home. She slept. We put her to bed.

Next morning she awoke. Full of beans. Eyes swollen. Delighted. Ecstatic. Happy as a sand-boy.

When I asked her, “What did you think of yesterday?” She replied, “Oh great. (pause) When is my next operation Daddy?”

Lovely 

PS: her eyes are healing nicely…& she quite liked getting gifts of course…