Apparently Rebecca knows what a needle is for.
The family trundled off together to get our flu shot for the year. I was going to have to take a pass due to a cold w/fever. Rebecca had no such luck.
She has fun reading books and intimidating a little 3 year old girl in the waiting room, and then it's our turn. We proceed through the waiting room door, a couple paces down a hall and into the examination room where we'll be getting our shots.
Rebecca sees the needles laid out, does a quick about face saying "Oh no... Go home okay." She lets herself back out into the waiting room and starts moaning, much to the amusement of everyone including the receptionists, who see me chase her down. I carry her back into the injection room of terror, and she starts squirming and crying, working herself into a mini frenzy.
The nurse tries to tell me how I need to hold her just this way, while I struggle to pin her legs in my lap and grab her arms in mine. We peel her shirt off and I grab her forearms. The injection is done as quickly as it can be typed. Rebecca then takes exception to the bandaid put on her upper arm, and I struggle to put her shirt back on. She pulls her arm out through the neck of her shirt and rips off the bandaid. I give up on it at that point, time to get out of the room to let Mom and Lucy get their shots in peace. Rebecca's been wailing the whole time. A constant chorus of "Oh no, Go home now ok, no more stickers (bandaid)" etc etc.
We beat a hasty retreat, with sympathetic smiles and chuckles from the receptionists and people in the waiting room.
I thank the receptionist on our way out and Rebecca follows it up with a tear filled "Thank you" burying her head in my neck.
"Oh dear, you don't have to say thank you." says the receptionist.
On the way home my wife reminds me that we should be grateful for not just having the opportunity to get vaccinated, but that it's paid for by our health care system.
Sure the flu's not the end of the world (unless you've got a compromized immune system, are old, or very young), but stuff like polio, diphtheria, measles, and whooping cough are no laughing matter.
I had whooping cough when I was quite young, and it was apparently pretty touch and go for a little while. They had me in an oxygen tent and my parents were scared that I would die. (If I'm not mistaken I *had* been immunized, but was in the small percentage of people who still contract it) I can't imagine how I'd feel having one of my kids come down with one of those diseases if we hadn't done the immunizations.
Worth a read:
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/iyh-vsv/med/immuniz-eng.php
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