MMR Jabs

Last week, I took Jack for his MMR jabs – only I forgot to blog about it!

Yeah, so, I took Jack to the local doctors’ surgery for his jabs, and I think that it could have gone a lot better.

Last time he had to have some jabs, Claire took him and was worried about his next lot, the MMRs. I volunteered (foolishly, in hindsight!) to take him, booked the day off and that’s what we did.

Jack was extremely tired before we had even got there, and was ultimately, grouchy. (He must take after his mum or something in that respect!)

Waiting in the waiting room was bad enough, as he didn’t want me to hold him, yet he didn’t want to go on the floor. To be honest, I was quite happy with that, as it is a bit grim in there on the chairs, let alone the floor; plus, all those sick people that normally sit there too, coughing and spluttering... Not good.

Anyway, the appointment was for 13:30 and even though we were there in plenty of time, we didn’t get seen until about 14:15 and then it was straight into the nurse’s office.

I think Jack knew what was coming here – a bit like taking the dog to the vets, they just know it’ll result in a needle somehow. Jack knew that this wasn’t going to be good nor easy, and he was right.

The nurse started to tell me about what he was going to have, and trying to engage in conversation about life in general, which was pretty hard-going, as Jack was wriggling like a caught fish on lap as I sat in the chair. I had to ask her to proceed straight to the bad stuff, which is when I asked how many injections there were going to be today.

“Two, but it’ll be fine.”, she assured me.

When I asked if it was possible to have two nurses, armed with a needle each to do the jabbing, she was quite surprised as though I was the first person to even suggest such a thing. A bit flustered, she talked me down, telling me that “it’ll be fine”, as she “does this sort of thing all the time”, despite me saying that Claire had a nightmare of a time with the second jab last time, as he tensed all the muscles in his little legs and kicked ferociously.

Anyway. I think that she might have quietly changed her mind after she couldn’t even stick him with the first jab, bearing in mind that I was already holding Jack still. She had to get the other non-nurse lady in the room just to hold his legs down, which proved to work…the first time.

The second jab, however, didn’t prove to be as ‘easy’ as the first, and he really made sure of that.

So. I’m sat in a chair, holding Jack as best as I can, bearing in mind that he’s not only thrashing his legs in protest, but also turning over to face me and then back around again. The opposite leg from last time is now rotating at a pace just behind his body, and she’s trying to get hold of his thigh with one hand, whilst the other is poised, ready to pounce on the target, once locked-on.

I really had to hold him tightly, the other lady clamped down on his little legs and, finally, the nurse scored a hit.

Jack was left sobbing and screaming at the same time, making me feel like a really bad dad for putting him through all of this.

We had to then wait back in the waiting room for 15 minutes, I guess it’s just to make sure that he didn’t have a reaction to the drugs.

After all of that, we came home and he slept for a good couple of hours, as he’s certainly worked for it!!

I now understand what Claire meant about last time. Strangely, I seem to remember my work cancelling all holiday for me in future where I have to do that again. (joke!)

As much as I don’t want to have to go through that all again with him, I’m sort of glad that I went, and sort-of saved Claire the ordeal.