The Princess Shot

You’ve probably heard someone mention that so-and-so has a high/low pain tolerance. I like to think mine is pretty high. My sister’s is obscenely high. However, when it comes to Ella and Lily, one has a very high threshold for pain and the other, not so much. It may surprise you to find out that Ella, is a trooper. Lily, the daredevil, is a little wimpy.

I brought the girls in for their flu shots last week. They were all high and mighty walking in. They take a lot of ownership of the doctor’s office. Rather than being afraid of going, they love their doctor and staff. It makes it a lot easier to get them to appointments. Despite the pain inflicted upon them while there, they still run to the door, skip, jump and hoot with excitement to go in. (I think it’s the stickers)

We were called into the exam room and the nurse asked who would go first. I’ve never done shots with both of them at the same time, and never alone. I’ve had one child, alone. Or I’ve had both children with Loran where he could take the other out of the room while the poking occurred so as not to frighten the onlooker. Lily very bravely stepped up and nominated her sister to go first. Ha! Ella was a little taken aback, but sighed and stepped up. She still got her shot in her leg, so with a little maneuvering, we got her up on the table and laying down. I held her hands and looked right in her face, cuddling and kissing her forehead while it happened. She cried. I kept an eye on Lily who was bravely sitting in the chair. Her eyes were getting glassy and as soon as Ella started crying, Lily’s lip poked out and started to quiver. She was up.

I consoled Ella, we got a pink bandage on her and she sat on her chair, mostly pulled together with a few sniffles. Lily was already falling apart. I noticed the influenza vaccine was a pink liquid, so I pointed that out to Lily and told her it was princess medicine! Wow! Pink medicine! That made her complacent for a few seconds until she was poked. Then it was drama, drama, drama. The nurse asked if they wanted stickers and both girls eagerly nodded their heads. I had to carry Lily out while she wailed. Another doctor stopped us and chatted with Lily, showed Lily her (the doctor’s) flu shot spot and Lily started to calm down. Ella on the other hand was already fine, skipping towards the front desk so she could chat with the receptionist.

Lily required ambulatory care for hours. I treated the girls to Cup and Cone immediately after. We sat out in the grey, cloudy day eating our ice cream. Ella was running around, throwing our garbage away, carefree and only slightly annoyed by her vaccination site. Lily was basically immobile and would cry if she had to move. When she did walk, she looked as if she’d been riding a horse for the last four days. This from the kid who jumps from furniture piece to furniture piece. We’d better pray she doesn’t break a bone. Ever. By mid-afternoon, Ella had already taken it upon herself to remove her bandage and was fine. Lily continued to sulk around. As I was folding laundry on the bed, Lily miraculously managed to hoist herself up on our bed. She just laid there, moaning. I acquiesced and gave her a squirt of ibuprofen. Ella really wanted some too, even though she was fine. I gave her a drop on her tongue. Shockingly, Lily was fine a half hour later, and for the rest of the night. Behold the power of ibuprofen…or the brain. I probably could have given her honey and got the same reaction. But, it worked and she regained her strength and lost the whine.

Luckily, we have two little physicians in our household recently and they’ve been able to channel this experience towards quality care for their babies. There have been quite a few shots doled out in the last week.

Random Ridiculous Lily Temper Tantrum of the Week: Lily threw an all out tantrum because after school, I slung her backpack over my left shoulder. She would have preferred I use my right shoulder. Seriously.

This gem was take while Lily raged after part of her cookie fell on the floor.