“Funny — You Don’t Look Fluish…”

Today was Flu Shot Day in the Shiny household.

While Av has been getting flu shots almost since birth, I’ve started much later in life.  There was one year that they decided to distribute them at work for free for all employees. And that year? I happened not to get as many colds that winter.  Seemed to make sense. I signed up for one the next year.  It happened to be the year that there was a major flu shot shortage, but I was able to get mine ultimately.

And for these past two years I’ve been getting them at the pediatrician. With Av.

The thing is — he used to be quite the good patient. When he was two? A little wincing, but he was cool. Same as when he got his flu shot when he was three. But when he turned four, things changed. He was due for immunization boosters.  We had the choice of giving him two shots and having him come back for the other two, or doing all four at once. Apparently we chose wrong.  Since then, shots have been traumatic for him.

So there we were in the waiting room with lots of other kids. He knew what was coming, but he was a trooper.  He had brought Woof with him to keep him company.  He was playing happily with the toys and the other kids. Perhaps this was the year that things would change? Maybe he’d be brave this time.  After all, he’s almost six.

We were called in to the exam room.  We were asked who would go first; Av volunteered me.  I rolled up my sleeve and showed him my best brave face.  All was cool with the world.  And it was his turn.

Within fifteen seconds he found the one unreachable crevice between the wall and the sink when he could fit and we couldn’t reach him. And stayed put for the next few minutes.

socKs was able to coax him out and, after a bit of a struggle and lots of crying, the deed was done, The crying continued as we paid at the front desk.  Eventually it stopped when we gave him two new Cars cars which we had saved for the occassion.

On the way down to the car, he kept on repeating the same mantra.  “You tricked me!” he said. “You tricked me and I don’t like it when you trick me!”  We tried to change the subject on him. And even explain how important it was that he gets this shot to keep him from getting sick.  But still, like a broken record, we heard the same stanza. “You tricked me! You tricked me!”

Finally, I decided to address the issue.

“Did it work?”

“What?”

“Us tricking you. Did it work?”

“Well, yeah…”

“So I guess we’ll probably trick you again next year.”

He didn’t have a good retort for that.  I guess that’ll be our strategy next year. Either that or playing zone defense so he can’t get to that small crawl space near the wall…