Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Paul's 4 year old shots

Paul's four year old shots are complete and I must say that getting those shots was a parental milestone for me. 

A couple of weeks ago Paul was playing with his cars in the upstairs hallway when all of a sudden he screamed out in agony. I ran to the rescue to find blood EVERYWHERE. He had ripped open the palm of his hand on a nail that was sticking up in the hardwood. Upon realizing he hadn't had his 4 year old  shots yet I immediately switched over to EMT mode and rushed him to the local Urgent Care Center. I was determined to get him a tetanus shot. 

When I signed him in at the Urgent Treatment Center I asked the receptionist "He is a patient at the Kentucky Clinic so should I go there or can you give him a shot here? Or does he even need a shot?" She seemed dumb founded by my over concern with the fear of my child getting lock jaw and said to take him to his Doctor.  

I thought CRAP!  I didn't want to drive all the way to Lexington, through afterwork traffic and the doctor look at me like I was an idiot and say "just put a band-aid on that and he'll be fine." So, I went home, called the twilight clinic and asked "should I come? What should I do? It was an old nail and he hasn't had his shots?"  Then I was told to take him to the local hospital. Let me begin by saying that I should have just called my Mom or Mrs Beth Griffith because the hospital visit was a complete mess. And this local hospital is a joke.

First of all I let Paul know that he might have to get a shot. So, when they called us back he screamed out, in front of everyone "DAMN IT I DON'T WANT A SHOT!!!!"  I was mortified. Where did he hear such a thing and how dare he say something like that. Then I remembered that when I get extremely aggravated I yell that out. Lesson learned, let's continue. 

They had no rooms available so we were stuck in the big open area that they use for major trauma victims. So, when the Doctor, who looked annoyed and a tad bit older than me, walked in, Paul yelled out with excitement "WOW I like that gigantic eyeball!!" He was referring to the light over head and the doctor became even more annoyed. I kinda had an overwhelming urge kick him in the shin. Sorry, it was a parental "what the heck" response. I prayed for forgiveness he must have been having a bad day. Me too.

He looked at paul's hand, said he didn't need stitches but an x-ray.  AN X-RAY?  For REAL? Are you Joking? He just cut his hand on a nail?  The doctor looked even more annoyed "he might have particles of nail in his hand" so I went with the flow, who am I to argue, and Paul got an x-RAY. The whole time we were trying to get an x-ray the electricity to the ER was going out. All the lights and machines would shut off and everything would have to be restarted. It was nuts. They blamed it on construction but come on people, your electricity is going out in the emergency room. That is no only annoying but seems pretty dangerous.

AFter all that I still didn't get Paul a tetanus shot. The nurses in the ER said the pharmacy was closed so they wouldn't be able to get one.  I just hate the run around that I got. I'm a young mom, my child slices his hand on a nail, isn't up to date on his shots and I need to know what to do. The expense of an unnecessary x-ray, and the stress of whole thing was just too much to deal with.

Yesterday, Paul finally got his 4 year old shots!!  I had to throw myself on top of him, hold his hands down and kiss his little tears while he screamed out "NO NO NO SHOTS NO NO OWWWW AAAAAHH"  He cried big massive tears but the pediatrician was just so sweet. Paul HATES stickers so she brought him in two hershey kisses!!  While I was caring him to the ca he screamed out "I NEED A WHEELCHAIR."  He was convinced that he would never be able to walk again. Once I put him in his booster seat he said "MOM you're going to need to cut this out of my seat so you can fit my wheel chair in the car."  Then he started screaming "How am I going to be the line leader at school when I wont ever be able to walk again."  Yep, he is a little dramatic. I guess he gets that from me.

Lesson learned. Milestone crossed.





  

No comments:

Post a Comment