Picture this:
A four-year-old and a two-year-old walk into a bar.
Just kidding. I know it is 2020, but we’re not there yet.
So really, a four-year-old and a two-year-old walk into a doctor’s office. It is relevant to mention the four-year-old is a boy, and the two-year-old is a girl. The two-year-old didn’t walk into the office either. She sat inside her stroller and was complacently pushed inside.
Since the children were two years and one week apart in age, they shared their visits for immunizations. Typical to other immunization appointments, the two-year-old girl got her shots without a tear. She did scowl at the nurse who offended her arms and legs with shots, but she never cried.
The four-year-old boy, on the other hand, fell to be a mound on the ground, convulsing in tears. Reassurances fell on deaf ears. His day was ruined. No fun could be had after such a horrible event of getting one’s shots. And when it came time to leave, the four-year-old boy plopped himself in the stroller. How could his legs be expected to work after getting shots!?! As he continued to cry about his misfortune, he was pushed out of the room in the stroller by his two-year-old little sister.
Ten years later, and the situation remains the same. Shots annoy Catelyn (like most things do for her these days) and Bobby is still a whimpering mess at even the thought. The image of him crying in that stroller with his toddling little sister pushing him home will forever be ingrained in my memory. If he could, I think he would STILL be pushed out of a doctor’s office in a stroller, although I doubt his sister would push him anymore.
Last week, Bobby was standing next to his weight bench, watching the TV while his friends were lifting. Bobby fell to the ground in pain after his friend took the weight off of one side of the bar, causing the weighted end to fall and the bar to smack right into Bobby’s head. After the bleeding had stopped, and I began to apply Neosporin, I realized the cut was much deeper than I thought, and we were off to the emergency room.
Now Bobby is an athletic guy. I’ve seen the bruises on his body after a football game. I’ve seen him get hit by some cheap tackles. I’ve seen the game stop as he lay on the ground, completely winded after a big tackle. I watched him gain his composure and return to the game. He’s tough!
But there is still that part of him that is just like his four-year-old self who needed to be pushed out of the doctor’s office in a stroller. I had already thought he broke my arm from his mighty squeezes to get into the examining room. But when the doctor said “staples” instead of “stitches,” I had to let out a tiny yelp of pain as he just squeezed harder.
What we could comment on, after the staples had been inserted and Bobby was trying to calm down, was that we were in the SAME emergency examining room that we had been in 8 years earlier, to the day.
On that particular day, I was in the kitchen, making the kids lunch. A drooly baby Declan, with wet hands, went up to Catelyn and pinched her leg. Staring intently at the TV, Catelyn was startled and kicked the baby into the fireplace.
Like his sister, Declan never cried. The only tears that came that day were when the doctor and nurses had to restrain him by wrapping him to a board to insert six stitches.
Different day, same emergency examining room – THIS TIME for four-year-old Catelyn. I had to sit with all three kids for four hours of “observation” after Catelyn gleefully declared, “I ate it!” meaning one of her father’s ADHD pills.
We’ve been to other ER rooms for other reasons, but this one room has now seen all three kids.
A lot of memories in one little room.
The staples are out now, and Bobby has returned to the game of play. But before I would let him leave the doctor’s office staple-free, three of us were able to get a flu shot into him with a lot of whining and only minimal whimpering.
Although I still think he would have sat in a stroller to go home if he could.
Great story Robyn! Big tough guys who whimper and cry at needles… it always cracks me up.
Ben has a scar on his eyebrow that would probably be smaller if we’d taken him for stitches. After the ordeal (they couldn’t keep him knocked out… 3 shots of ketamine!) we went through when he nearly amputated his finger in a moving bicycle chain (12 stitches!) when he was about 2 years old, we decided to skip the trip to the ER. It’s good to live with a nurse!😉
Thank you!
Oh, I bet! There have been times I wondered if I should go or not. The kids pediatrician called me a “wait and see” kind of parent which is so true. Having a nurse here would have probably sent me and kept me from many ER visits! Lucky! 🙂
I loved this recollection and how their personalities are all different yet consistent ❤️❤️❤️
Thank you, Elaine!
Oh jeez that looks and sounds painful! I’m glad that Bobby is ok now. And what a story and a war wound to show his friends. He should definitely milk it with his friends for all he can!
I had to take T to the emergency once and spent the day there cuz we were worried it was appendicitis. Worst day ever. Wanted to impale myself.
And I had to chuckle at: “Just kidding. I know it is 2020, but we’re not there yet.” You know there’s still three months left right. Anything can still happen!
Haha! You’re right – a lot can still happen in three months! 🙂
Oh, he is. He told his football coach to make his friend run more because of the injury. And I’ve heard Bobby already tell the boy, “remember when you tried to kill me?”
Oh man, that does sound like a bad trip. I’ve been for all sorts of things (believe it or not, Catelyn has had me in the ER the most). But the worst for me was when Bobby was complaining of chest pains when he was three. We were there all day, and he came out fine. What I think happened was that he was eating (uncut) grapes before his chest pain. I was an avid grape cutter for all future grape eaters after that. But the waiting with all that concern is the worst! This time was easy. When they asked why we were there, all I had to do was point to the wound and we were ushered right in (after a lot of screening, but you know, pretty quick).
This is a wonderful reminiscence. People are so different in terms of their pain thresholds. Not to make everything about horses but they are too. Some are stoics and will tolerate quite a bit of pain before they will show it. Others react to just a small nick. Biasini is a stoic and so I have to watch him carefully to see if he is trying to tell me something
That is so interesting to learn! I never thought about how this would translate to animals too. But that does make sense. Animals have different thresholds too. Thanks, Anne!
I’m the no pain one… insisted on local pain med so I could watch my knee surgery; got angry when ER doc wouldn’t give me a mirror to watch eyelid surgery.
Only backfires at times like now, when I have nerve damage from a deep cat bite and no one believes me, thinking I’m just being dramatic.
I enjoyed the stories… and pics!
I’m not sure who I am. I have avoided the doctors for so long, but if I did have an issue I think I would choose to have the least amount of pain killers just so I could still function with the kids. I had to with my last two sicknesses but I am not sure if that would have been my original choice. That stinks no one believes you now. It was a little different, but I got the “you’re fine” from an office when I knew I wasn’t which is why I have avoided going for so long.
Thank you!!
Oh, yeah… I’m super fat and get a lot of “it’s all in your head” or “you’re just lazy” from jerk docs. After 10+ yrs of crippling knee pain, I finally got a doc you believed me and confirmed J have almost no cartilage at all… YAAAY!! Then issuance denied treatment. I know take at least 2 prescription pain meds per day and am frustrated that I can’t take entry level jobs, just to have some income, because most require standing & walking for most of the day and I’m crying and bedridden after 20min.
Oh poor Bobby, that cut looks so nasty! And to end up in that same emergency examining room and all its associated traumatic memories – that’s a cruel twist of fate. I think there are things in all of us that trigger deep-seated fears and paranoias from our past, and when they happen we all revert to those young kids in strollers. I get that entirely! Hope Bobby is all better now. 🙂
Thank you! He is doing much better – physically and emotionally 🙂
Glad to hear it, Robyn. 🙂
You’ve got a bad-ass daughter, Robyn. I’d imagine that Marvel Comics is already bidding on the film-rights to her life…
She’s something, alright.
I’m with him on this. I remember playing football and I broke a bone in my arm. Kept playing. Then few minutes later got a deep cut in my leg. Kept playing. No problems. 2 hours later in ER and the nurse tried to put a little needle in me. Almost starting crying….
Yep! That sounds about the same!
Oh my, I’m with Bobby on the staples…euughhh!
I was trying to be brave and tell them they were better – but I’m with you! Ewwwww!
Just the other day (flu shot season and all) we were trying to determine who was the biggest baby in our family over shots. That award went to me. I was the kid screaming and pleading so loudly that the waiting room broke up in laughter and my mother tried to suck her head in like a turtle. Neither of my kids really seemed to care that much. Sometimes we all just need a little babying.
It’s the anticipation that kills Bobby now. As soon as the concept of “shot” enters his head, he’s done for until it is all over and then he is okay. When he was a toddler he was oblivious and fine until he got the shot – then he was done for. But either way, he’s always had the biggest emotions and reactions about the whole thing.
Bobby and me, we’re a special breed.
I’m glad Bobby is safe. It is kind of traumatic to head to the E.R. The last one I’ve been to one was when my son jumped into a glass window & had a cut on his eyebrow. I think he was 7 then. He was screaming in the ER that the nurse had to close its doors and not disturbed the other patients waiting in the lobby. It was a huge sigh of relief when suturing was over. They are great memories however because it makes us closer to one another as family. Thanks for a great post. Take care. Regards to your family.
That sounds like a tough injury. I am glad everything turned out okay. Those moments do bring the family together, I agree. Thank you!
Oh my gosh. You built quite a story here. I don’t mind shots, bloodwork, or IVs for myself but not fond of seeing these things happen to my kids.
My son was the only one who ever went to the ER. The worst was a 2 inch thorn buried 5 inches deep in his heel. ( I exaggerate slightly.) Myself and numbers of other people laying on him to hold him still while the doc dug it out.
You are still sane enough to tell the story of sitting for 4 hours in ER with 3 kids. Oh my.
Oh my, that was a terrible day. I did call my husband and told him it should be him sitting in the ER with three toddlers for being so irresponsible to leave his PRN pill laying about.
Catelyn has had me at the ER the most. She was the proudest little patient telling the doctor “I have a rock in my nose!” After she stuffed that bad boy in there while on the playground at daycare. Our ER memories are thankfully ones I can appreciate and retell with a smile 🙂
This puts my week with one kid in perspective and then some. We’ve had our rough days. (And I was not entirely blameless in the Massive Hysterics of Tuesday–seeing as I blew up at my child for something he did. He deserved a talking to…but perhaps not as far as I went. Some days, mom needs to sit in time out too.) But there’s something weirdly satisfying about getting through an autism-laced medical appointment. Regardless of the cause or outcome, once you are in the car and the storm is behind you, it makes the whole world open up to the possibility of a calm rest of the day. Do you feel that way too? It may not happen. More drama usually crops up. But for that car ride home? Bliss.
I wish you much bliss but without the dramatics required.
I do! You are so right! Once we learve those ER rooms everything is so much better. For a couple days too! Very good point.
Thank you! You too!