A week ago Danny had his 15 month check up and got his scheduled MMR (that's measles, mumps and rubella) shot. The doctor warned that some kids get sick about 7-10 days after the shot. I filed that away for future reference.
Then two nights ago while giving Danny his bath, he reached for a razor that was near the shampoo (we feel terrible about that) and before I could get it out of his hand he'd hurt his thumb. You know how paper cuts can really sting? He got a little slice right in the bend of his left thumb. The thumb he sucks on to go to sleep at night. His self-soothing "drug" of choice.
Poor baby! It didn't bleed a lot, but it definitely bled. Su and I got a band aid on it which seemed to make our poor baby feel better (he stopped crying at least) but he was completely baffled by why his favorite thumb wouldn't bend. And he didn't like that one bit. When I put him to bed an hour or so later I decided to remove the bandage because I'd read they can be choking hazards. He sucked on it and cried himself to sleep. Which made me feel like crying myself to sleep.
It seemed to be better by the morning so with another band aid in place we sent him along to Jenni's. But the poor boy was not himself. She called early in the afternoon explaining how unusually cranky he was, and how he'd sat on the floor staring at a toy for a long time and then just burst into tears. It's really unusual for him to be so inconsolable. When I arrived to get him after this conversation he was so happy to see me but it was not a good day.
This morning--more of the same. I'm got permission to work from home so he is sound asleep in his crib. We are pretty convinced that his discomfort is what the doctor predicted about the shots, and I'm hopeful that this only lasts a short while longer. The infant Tylenol we gave him is hopefully helping him rest comfortably now.
I am a proponent of vaccinations for children. As a health worker overseas I administered plenty, and I know something about how they work to help the babies form defenses against real attacks later by those pathogens. I just hate to see him feeling miserable now. But I'd REALLY hate much worse to see him with measles, mumps or rubella.
When I was a Peace Corps Volunteer working with my local health center and helping teams of U.S. surgeons who would come to do surgeries in Guatemala I saw kids with infections and illnesses that broke my heart. You never want to see a 7 year old with major burns suffer with a psuedemonas infection (also known as a blue-green algae infection) --trust me you'll never be the same again.
So, I'm trying to keep Danny's few days of mishaps and crankiness in perspective.
Counting our blessings. -Monica
4 comments:
Poor little Dan! I've been thinking about him all morning. I'm anxiously awaing a post nap update.
It's so hard, isn't it, when we KNOW something is wrong, but there are no obvious symptoms and they can't tell us how they are feeling.
Poor kid! It stinks that he is haveing a reaction to the shot. They are important, but it's so hard to see them suffer even a little. I can't imagine seeing kids suffer on a big scale like you did in the Peace Corps.
--LOBS
P.S. Regarding the baby being up at 9:30 for the speech, we clearly had Harry watching too much convention coverage ourselves. The Friday after it concluded here in MN, he walked into the T.V. room after dinner, looked at the black screen and asked, "Where McCain? Where Obama?" Oh dear.
--Laura (LOBS)
Yeah...not quite on the same level, but I feel bad when I get my cats their vaccinations and they're sick and unhappy for a day or two. The worst is that with both young kids and cats, you can't explain to them why you did this to them (either to give them some comfort through knowledge or to assuage your own guilt).
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