On the 28th January it was time to take Leo for
his next set of jabs, his pre-school jabs. I knew the time had been creeping up
on us, and having postponed them twice before they called up the day prior to
advise us of a cancellation for the next day, and invited us to bring Leo in.
I tried my hardest to explain to Leo that he was going to
the doctors for some special medicine to stop him getting poorly. I told him
that they would put it into his arms and it may hurt for a minute or so, but
that he would be absolutely fine and that I would be there the entire time.
This didn’t seem to phase him and off we set for the doctors surgery. Leo had
brought his Nintendo DS along and he sat patiently in the waiting room having a
race on Mario Kart until his name was called and we were beckoned inside.
The nurse performing the immunisations that day was
absolutely lovely, she put us both right at ease. She got down to Leo’s level
and explained to him very simply what she was going to do. ‘Now you’re a big
boy Leo and will be starting school soon, I need to give you some big boy
medicine to help stop you from getting poorly. Is that ok with you?’ Leo who
was still engrossed in his Mario Kart game looked up and said yes, and then
carried on with what he was doing, completely oblivious to what was about to
happen. The nurse turned to me and explained which immunisations Leo would be
receiving, asked me to read through the paperwork and sign my consent.
I held onto Leo tightly, placed his game console on the desk
beside us and held his arms. We explained to him what was going to happen and
that it would all be over very soon, but I guess explaining imminusations is a
bit of a grey area because you certainly don’t want to scare them. Leo was
still until the first injection went into his left arm, and then the screaming
started. Maybe it was the shock of what had happened? Maybe it was the horror
that Mummy had gone along with it? Or the overall hurt that he had just
experienced. He buried his head in my chest and I was just trying to
concentrate on keeping him still. I explained that there was one more that
needed to go into his Right arm, and then that would be it, all over and done.
Of course now he knew what was coming, he wasn’t exactly accommodating to the
idea, so holding him very tightly I assisted the nurse as she put the final
vaccination into my beautiful boy.
Leo’s cries rang out, he was a right state. I held him
tightly and he kept on repeating ‘Lady hurt me!’ over and over again. The nurse
then presented Leo with a certificate of bravery and some stickers for being
such a good boy. This did help quiet him down and it wasn’t long before I had
my smiley little man back again.
Leo keeps telling me now ‘No more injections Mummy, no
doctors. The lady hurt me!’ – God help me the next time I need to take him to
the doctors… But for now I have explained that there won’t be any more
injections until he is much bigger.
Strangely though these set of injections which I had
actually been dreading, weren’t as bad as I first thought. I had convinced myself
that they would be awful because of Leo being that much older, but the reality
was that yes he got upset, but he got over it all very quickly too, and it
meant that we got a cuddly day on the sofa together watching movies and
enjoying snuggles.
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