It won't hurt.............

I had to take Holden to the doctor this afternoon. He developed a nasty cough over the Thanksgiving holiday and it just didn't seem to be getting any better.

Holden has a deathly fear of shots. One mention of going to the doctor invokes a paralyzing fear in him. He starts chanting "no shots, no shots" until I assure him that we are going only for a check-up or sick appointment.

Last year when Holden had an ear infection that would not clear up, he had to get a shot of Rocifin (actually 2 shots, one in each leg). I tried to explain to him that if he would relax and take a deep breath, the shot would not hurt nearly as bad. Of course telling him that just sent him into a fit. No amount of reasoning would calm him down. Two nurses came in to give him the shot and when they couldn't control him, they sent me out of the room and had two other nurses come in to hold him down. I don't know which was worse - the humiliation I felt that my child was making such a scene (which by the way the whole entire office could hear) or the sound of his pain. A half hour later we were on our way but the memory of that lingers in his mind.

So today as we were sitting in the room waiting on our doctor, Holden reminded me that he didn't want to get a shot (like I really needed reminding). Harrison looked at him and said "Holden, Mom said if you don't tinsel up, it won't hurt. And I didn't tinsel up and she was right." When the doctor came in we were both laughing. Holden did end up having bronchitis. Thankfully no shots were involved.