Flu Shot

Last week we went into Cleveland for Sal's CF appointment. Generally our appointments are pretty boring. In this instance boring is always good because it means he is healthy. Sal weighed in at 59.6 pounds at this visit. Sal and I have had a bet going for a few months- I promised him once he weighed 60 pounds, he could pick out any restaurant for dinner. After the appointment we rounded up and took the fam to Olive Garden. Sal was so excited because we let him order off the adult menu. Our little seafood lover was in heaven with his seafood pasta! Our day would not have been complete without a little drama though... While we were at our appointment we thought it would be a good idea to get Sal his flu shot. Pretty routine-you would think, but we forgot to tell one person about our plans- Sal. He totally freaked out. Sal has always been great about doing whatever the doctor asks him and takes his meds like a champ. Whenever he needs blood work drawn, shots, or any type of invasive procedure we have not had a problem as long as we explain exactly what it is that he has to have done. You would have thought in the 2 hour drive to the appointment I would have remembered to tell him about the flu shot, but for whatever reason I forgot and he completely freaked out. We tried to rationalize with him why he needed to get the flu shot and he was fine with the rationale, but was just not going to get it that day. He wanted to go to his pediatrician the following week. After much discussion, we got nowhere; his mind was made up, he was just going to get it later. We even tried bribing him with Dave and Busters. When that didn't sway his mind, we knew his mind was made up. He tried to rationalize with us that he wouldn't catch the flu before next week. 20 minutes later we were still having the same discussion with our 7 year old. As much as it broke my heart that I forgot to remind him and caused him such anguish, I couldn't risk taking him to the pediatrician and exposing him to other patients there for sick visits. With Rick standing on one side and me on the other, we got the dreaded flu shot. Sal kind of stood there for a second, a little shocked that it was all over-and even more shocked I think that it wasn't that bad. But worse yet, he felt embarrassed of how he had acted in front of everyone. When he came out of his room a girl that was in the room next door, who couldn't have been more than 4-years-old, held up her arm in Sal's direction hoping to ease him and show him somebody was going through the same thing, she had an IV in. I'm sure the little girl wanted to make sure Sal was OK after the way that he had carried on. I think that's when Sal realized the flu shot wasn't so bad because he remembered when he had an IV last year. Funny how kids relate to things.
Well everyone here is healthy and we all have our flu shots. If anyone is nervous about getting one I'm sure Sal could talk you through!