Brave Little Girl

Yesterday, I was amazed at my little girls bravery.  We were at the doctor for a check-up on Melanie’s ears, allergies and flu vaccination.  First of all, she now weighs 49 lbs!  No wonder it is getting harder and harder to pick her up and carry her around.  Back in July, one of Melanie’s ear tubes had worked its way out and Dr. Z. was concerned that she might get an ear infection again once allergy season rolled around.  Well, we are towards the end of allergy season and Dr. S. reports that neither of her ears are red or infected.  Considering all the nasal drainage she has been having for weeks that is a huge win for us.  So, maybe her eustachian tubes are growing downward and her ears are able to drain on their own!  But, since her nose is stuffy Dr. S. asked me if we still wanted to proceed with a S-H-O-T because flu-mist nasal spray is not effective if your nose is stuffy.  I was clueless, wondering what he was talking about this “essaahoootee” was – oh then I finally got it – he was spelling shot!  You see, my little girl has never been afraid of shots, but I hear stories about kiddos being so fearful they make themselves sick, kick and scream etc at the mention of the word or even the mention of going to the doctor causes them great anxiety.  So, having never experienced this I had no idea in a pediatrician’s office you never say the word, shots, you spell it.  So, of course I said, yes she can have a shot, in fact Dr. S she is expecting one and even told everyone at school and grandma that she was getting a flu shot today.  So, when the nurse came in we tried to get Melanie to lay down so they could administer the shot blindly into her thigh, but she insisted she was going to watch.  I saw the look of concern in the nurse’s face, like ya right this child is going to jump, grab the syringe out of my hand and kick and scream making it way worse than it needs to be.  But I held her hands and she watched ever so bravely as the needle went in and quickly out.  I think she was more traumatized by the band-aid than anything else.  Afterward, she did cry some but she said we scared her and that it didn’t even hurt.  Then, she wanted to see the blood and the hole where the needle went in.  CRAZY! Huh?  Silly kid, maybe we have a future nurse on our hands!  We will see how she does next month, when she goes in to have the booster!