Today is a dentist appointment for me, Monday was a flu shot and tomorrow is the cardiologist. It's a week of Mommy taking care of Mommy, I guess! The boys are up for their flu shots next week and Music Man's is tomorrow. Since I have asthma, I decided a couple years ago to start getting the flu shot. It never really seemed all that pertinent until two years ago I got a flu that caused me to have almost nightly asthma attacks, for two solid months. It was no fun and I decided last year to take the plunge and get it done. No, it's not fun, but yes, I feel it's necessary. Just the thing I tell the boys when they balk at the idea.
When I sat down in the clinic to get the shot, I had the boys come over and sit with me so they could see that it was no big deal. Maestro is NO fan of needles and he was cowering and freaking out just a little bit. As the needle slid into my arm muscle, I wanted to flinch a bit, but I sat like a rock. Maestro said, "Doesn't that hurt, Mommy? Because it looks like it hurts!". I won't lie to my boys (okay except about Santa and the Tooth Fairy, and that is not without deep reservations), so I told him, "Yes, it hurts about as much as a mosquito bite". Well, the look on his face told me there's no way he was buying that. So, I told him, it makes my arm muscle hurt a little for a couple days, but that's what we need to do to stay healthy. I do believe it helped me somewhat last year as I got the flu in the spring, but it only last about 4 days and did not make it down into my lungs. Hallelujah for that little miracle.
So, next week is the boys shot. I learned a trick from Parents magazine that actually seems to help them. If you rub with some pressure on the spot where the needle will go in for about 15 seconds before they put the needle in, it doesn't hurt. I don't know if it's because the area becomes less sensitive to pain from the rubbing, or maybe it's all psychological, but it really does work. When the boys were having their shots as babies, I would do this after I learned about it and it did the trick. No more crying! Now, after the muscle starts to hurt the next day, that's another story altogether, but at the moment of injection, no sweat. When Maestro was a baby, Music Man had to come with me to the doctor's office to do the battery of shots he had to receive. I was unable to hold him while they stuck him with needle after needle, crying and in pain. It did not help that I was irrational with post partum depression, either, but I just couldn't do it. And the day he had to go to the eye doctor to remove a tiny piece of metal from his eye when he was just 3 months old was impossible. Music Man had to hold him while I wept in the corner, putting my little tiny baby through that misery. Anyways, by the time Little Red came along, I was old hat at the shot game and had learned the rubbing trick and it was ever so much better and I was able to take them by myself. It's funny as a new mother, the things that will torment you and by the time the second (or more!) come along, you're so over it. I still don't like to see my children in pain, but it doesn't cause me to lose control of my emotions the way it used to. Thank God for those small miracles as well.
Not much else to talk about today, you just never know where my mind will lead me when I sit down to write. I never think up a topic ahead of time, things just come as they do to my fevered little mind and I subject you to my stream of consciousness writing. Thanks for taking the time to read them, even if they are a bit strange at times!
Wishing you peace on this blustery NH day, ~Peacemom
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