Boring story, but I had two glasses of tea and it was apparently not decaf.
Today was the day the kids have dreaded for a long time…their school physicals for next year. The last time Josh had shots was before 9th grade. Because he is a ginormous kid with ginormous neuroses, the doctor set up an appointment on her day off and had several nurses come in, because we were pretty sure he would be resistant, to shots. I had signed for him to get the swine flu shot during school in 7th grade, and he made a scene in front of his peers, throwing himself on the ground and screaming, which is uncharacteristic of Josh and which I really didn’t expect, so we put if off until later that same day. Josh was wary the whole day, knowing Mom doesn’t give up easily, and we’d ended up getting two burly teachers to put him in a leglock, with me holding one arm back, and the nurse stabbing the needle in his other upper arm. So for the 9th grade shots, we took precautions. Ken and I put him in the same arm and leg-lock, and Josh was hollering a bit, and crying, but nothing like the time before.
It is not easy to put your child through things like this, even when he is 13, or 16. You know you are putting him through a pretty scary ordeal in which he has no control, (explaining the importance of vaccines does not work) but you also know it’s for his own safety and his own health.
So the kids knew that I was not going to make an appointment for July and let them deal with the anxiety for half the summer. It ain’t just autism we deal with in this house. ALL FOUR of us are diagnosed with anxiety and panic disorder, and we can’t handle a shred of stress in this family without one or more of us flipping out. I knew the way to deal with it was to get it over with as soon as possible, so I called the doc three weeks ago and made an appointment for today. We did not tell the kids. We didn’t wake them for school this morning, and when they got up an hour and a half before the appointment, we told them. Of course they were happy not to be in school. They were less happy about going to get their shots. They are not dumb, they know exactly what “school physical” means.
Our doctor is a wonderful lady. Just amazing. She is a little bit crazy, but in a good way. (The first time we saw her, she walked in the door and the first thing she said, looking at Ken, was,”Don’t worry, it’s not time for a rectal exam yet!”) She is not a drive-thru physician. She spends time with us…usually 20-30 minutes per appointment. Unfortunately, because she is talkative and likes to educate…and tell funny stories…she gets behind in her schedule, and we end up in the waiting room for over an hour when we go. I don’t care about the wait, because I like quality doctors, but…it does pose a problem. It’s a noisy waiting room, with TV blaring and music going and people, people, people, and Josh has a hard time with it. I gave him a Valium, because he was already about to lose it 5 minutes into the wait, and I was not about to use this time to practice his calming skills. He then got sleepy, which was good. And when we got into the waiting room, he got panicky, but too groggy to really resist. The doctor had to look up their vaccine history and well, you know…the shots didn’t come for about 15 minutes, even though she said let’s do it fast and get it over with, she had to make sure what she needed to give them. Along the way she told us about how in med school (or after, I don’t remember the details), she had to receive all her shots all over again over a period of 18 months, because her records were lost, even though she went to public school and obviously had already had them all.
When they came in with the vaccines (Josh needed 4, Elizabeth just 1), Josh jumped up and hid behind Ken, by the door. But he didn’t put up too much of a fight. Elizabeth got hers first, and she purposely did not flinch so Josh could see it didn’t hurt. (Awesome kid, she is such a sweetie!) Ken held Josh’s arms, and Josh didn’t offer much resistance. He just said,”Owwwwwww” and then sat down. The doc left, and then Josh melted down after it was all over. I think if he hadn’t had to wait so long, and with all the noise, it would have been easier on him. But you can’t have things go perfectly all the time. When the doc came back in, she gave Josh a hug, Elizabeth a hug, and me a hug and told us how much she likes us and how proud she was of the kids. Like I said, wonderful doc. Having a doc with a great bedside manner makes things so much easier.
Elizabeth went back to school, but Josh was clearly done with any stress for the day. He only had 3 classes, one of which was P.E. and the other two which he has trouble in because the kids are noisy. I didn’t want to send him back only to get a call that he was acting out due to overload. The teachers are tired now that there is only 3 weeks left of school, and their patience is running out. I figured I’d give them a break as well. It’s Friday.
chiquie39 