I learned an important lesson today......

....Ellie and shots just don't mix!

She completely lost it at the doctors office today....I mean C.O.M.P.L.E.T.E.L.Y! She was a little nervous coming in but I thought we would be ok. As we were headed to the room she spied the shots and realized that yes she would be getting the shot not the mist. And of course our nurse had to fumble through the paperwork giving Ellie time to grow increasingly nervous. I tried to have her go first and it was then I realized this was going to go well. Cece took her shot with nothing more than 2 year old tears. It was at this point that Ellie became totally irrational. I tried to reason with her and realized it wasn't going to happen. She was crying hysterically so a quick thinking nurse asked to take Cece up front for stickers. Good idea...get her out of here before this gets ugly. Ellie was completely crazed! As we were trying to hold her down she told me that she didn't like us and that we were the weirdest. I couldn't help but laugh...I know that is mean but it was funny. It is so hard to watch your child go completely hysterical and know all reasoning has left the building. It was over quick but it took her awhile to calm down. I tried not to get upset with her....but at some point scared or not she has to be able to calm herself down. She did receive some punishments which includes an apology letter to the nurses. I do know we have to go about shots a little differently with her. My sister asked if she realized she was even like that or was it a "out of body experience". That got me thinking....was she really irrational or was her fear totally rational. See Ellie's shot/doctor history is a little ugly......

May 2007 (Mother's Day) I open our bedroom door as Ellie is running towards it...the knob hits her square in the forehead. She needs stitches. We head to urgent care. They place a sheet over her face so she can't see what the doctor is doing only it slips down about one stitch in and they don't adjust it so she watches them do the other three....not good!

June 2007 Ellie snored ALOT as a toddler so she has to go in for a sleep study to determine if she has obstructive sleep apnea. To do the study they had to place like 50 electrodes on her face and head. Not a fun 30 minutes!

August 2007 Ellie does have obstructive sleep apnea and has to have her tonsils and adenoids removed. Surprisingly walks to the operating room without hesitation. However she has a hard time coming out of the anesthesia and actually pulls the IV out of her arm. They have to give her a sedative to calm her down. Pretty scary.

June 2008 Tim sets up the checkups for the girls... Ellie's 4 year old Well Child and Cecilia's 4 month Well Child, but is unable to come with me...and I didn't think it was a big deal til afterwards.... 9 shots and a finger prick later we are headed home. Of course it is summer in AZ and even hotter in that room! I remember walking out a sweaty mess after wrestling with my hysterical 4 year old!

August 2009 We have moved from AZ to IA and are starting with a new pediatrician. Both girls are having their establish appointment and Ellie's 5 year check up. I bring both girls' up to date immunization cards and give them to the nurse and mention them to the doctor but they fail to look at them. They only check the online database. I mention that I think she has already had the shots they assure me she needs them. So we go ahead and she gets 5 shots. She does pretty well. Afterwards when I ask for the cards to be updated they realize....she already had all 5 shots. Luckily they were a year apart so it was "kind of like a booster" and they aren't going to bill my insurance for them.

October 2009 She gets the flu mist and the H1N1 shot....she got the shot before she knew what had happened. She is more mad at Dad for sneaking it on her than anything.

Which brings us to today....January 2011...not good!

So after some thought....I believe that maybe her fear is completely rational? I asked her why she was so upset..her answer I was scared. We talked about better ways of handling being scared....like holding my hand. She said but I don't want them to leave the needle in me. Does she remember something from her past that scares her...does she remember getting the multiple shots...or the stitches or the IV after surgery? I am not sure, but I honestly think she might have a true fear of needles. Maybe I am overthinking this but I know what happened today is not ok. I also know that this crazed behavior is not how Ellie normally behaves...not how she normally behaves at the doctors office. The shot turns her into a whole different little girl...and its ugly! I am going to have to do some research on how to handle shots the next time they come around.

I don't usually wait this late to do flu shots. We had them set up for early in the fall...but both girls were under the weather and our reschedule didn't work out. We tried to schedule a couple other times with no luck. So as I was preparing a lesson for Health Class on vaccinations I remembered....they recommended we still get our shots even this late in the season.