Take Your Best Shot

I will be the first to admit that I am spoiled with a few medical perks.

Yesterday, one of those perks included getting to walk in the back door and see the doctor of my choosing at the clinic, when I had a spare hour, to confirm that the pain I was having in my back was indeed for real. And by for real, I mean a small kidney stone (we think) passing it way through and making itself known. (Ouch!!!)

Today the medical perk was for Zach. And it went something like this:

I picked Zach up from school and said, "Hey, I think we're going to swing by your dad's office this afternoon."

"WHY???" he demanded to know. The kid is smart. He knows when I am up to something.

"Do you really want me to tell you?" I asked. Because we have a policy in this family where we tell him the truth. And I wasn't going to break that policy.

"Yes..." he said, not too excited.

"We are going to get your flu shot."

"No!!!!" and he begins to cry and wail.

I calmly explained that we did not want him to get the flu and reminded him of how sick I was last year.

"Well, then I want it in my leg," he stated.

Now why would anyone want a shot in their leg instead of their arm?

When we got to the clinic, I walked my sobbing child into Gary's area and told his nurses that we were ready for his shot and he wanted to know if he could get it in his leg. They said he needed to have it in his arm.

More wailing. He burst out in tears. For a while, we tried to rationalize with him and finally I picked him up and off the nurse and I went to the furthest exam room we could find to give him his shot.

I held him and she began to give him his shot. After it was already in, she said something about it and then he burst out in tears claiming that it hurt horribly.

He refused to be consoled by any candy all of the nurses tried to offer him. I did finally convince him that a Dr. Pepper and biscuit from Chicken Express would make him feel better.

And then as we got close to home, he told me, "It really didn't hurt that bad. It was better than getting it in my leg."