Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Adventures in Parenting - The Shots





How many adults does it take to give an immunization?

I love my son, unconditionally.   He has irrational fears that are part of his condition and as a mother it is heartbreaking.  Spiders, clowns, insects with wings, and getting shots.  When it is time to get shots, we have to plan, for weeks.

Today was our yearly physicals and we knew that there were going to be shots today.  So we have been planning.  They say plan your work and work your plan.  That works when dealing rationally.

For a month we have been talking about how we needed to get shots to be prepared for 7th grade.  Breakfast table talk this morning was about manning-up.  I picked him up from school today and the talk in the car on the way over was in preparation and repeating our manning-up mantra.

Preparation is for fools.

My appointment is over, I go in to his exam room, and he is already shaking in his paper shorts.  As the exam wears on he is vibrating.  I leave the room for the personal part of the exam.  I barge back in when he starts screaming.   The doctor mentioned the shots.

As an hour woefully passed, I tried the soft touch, the mean mommy, the reasoning parent, the I’m going to call your father threats, all to no avail.  At points he was so loud and wailed so badly, other doctors and nurses came in, worried I was abusing a child in their building.

In the end, it took me and a very large, strong nurse to hold him down in my lap, while our nurse gave him three shots in his arm.  Once done, he was calm, stopped crying, and picked up his things to leave as if nothing happened.

I’m sorry Mrs. Friedrich, we really don’t know why you have severe G.E.R.D. issues.   No, we can’t up your medication any higher.  

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