I alluded in a post a few weeks ago that Angelica wound up going to the doctor for nursemaid's elbow. She was roughhousing with another kid at daycare and he yanked her arm. That was June 1st. On June 7th, she had her well kid checkup. As you can imagine, the fact that those two dates were so close together did not bode well for her well check-up.
Let me elaborate. When I called the pediatrician on June 1st, after picking up Angelica, who was very much in pain, from daycare, she immediately knew what it was and said to just bring her on over and they'd fix her. If you've ever been through Nursemaid's Elbow before, you know it's usually a ten second procedure and the kid walks away like nothing ever happened, right? So that's what the doctor thought she was getting herself into.
Apparently, that doctor had never met Angelica.
To make a long story short (and skip over the copious amount of screaming which took place that day)...three hours later...including a round of x-rays (which came back normal) Angelica was still screaming bloody murder and refusing to use her arm. The doctor said to just go home, give her some ibuprofen, let her rest, and see if she started using her arm again.
No sooner did we walk in the door did Angelica walk over to the cat, grab her with both arms, and give her a piledriver head first into the ground. Drama queen, much? She was totally fine...like nothing ever happened.
When her appointment rolled around on the 7th, I was fully prepared for her to freak out. And freak out she did. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, she knew. she started screaming her head off, yelling "NO! I JUST WANNA GO HOME! JUST TAKE ME HOME MOMMY!" I wound up carrying her into the appointment over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes...except this sack of potatoes was repeatedly kicking me in the stomach.
We walked in the office, and Angelica stopped mid-scream and said "Mommy, there's a fishy in there!" (The pediatrician's office has two fish tanks in the lobby.) They also had Curious George on the TV, and that's her current obsession, so she sat and happily watched...
Ten seconds later they called her back and the screaming started again.
Let's just say that we didn't get to weigh her. We didn't get her height. The doctor commented that I should get her in gymnastics because of the ways she was able to contort her body. She also commented on how strong her lungs were and how keen her speech was (since there was a lot of "Go away mommy! Don't touch me! Leave me alone! I want to go home!" being yelled). I'm pretty sure if I were a worse parent, Angelica would have been screaming some four letter words at the doctor.
I did mention to the doctor that we weighed her at home and she was 27 pounds. That put her in the 10th-25th percentile, which is one higher than she was at age 2, when she was 22 pounds and just barely in the 5th percentile. The doctor was happy with that.
The most ridiculous part was when they were trying to weigh her. She screamed and screamed and then, as if we didn't already know she was upset, forced herself to scream louder.
Lest anyone thing I have no compassion for what my little girl was going through...I felt awful. We had tried to prepare for the appointment by talking about what would happen. We even watched a Sesame Street podcast where Grover goes to the doctor for a checkup. I told her that it would be okay and this time it wouldn't hurt (which turned out to be a lie, since she got a vaccine)...but it just didn't stick. She was overwhelmed. All I could do was just hold her and rock her and tell her she was doing great. She pretty much screamed through all of that, too, so I don't know if she heard me.
After the shot, the doctor
Let's hope between now and then she doesn't get sick again and forgets all about the ordeal. Maybe next time she'll actually like the doctor.
If not, I'll bring a pair of earplugs for the doctor.
