Preparation overridden by Anxieties Fri 3rd Jan 2014

In a strange way, D was looking forward to today. She has been having fortnightly injections and from today’s, they move to monthly. It was a selling point (as it where) that there would be no more until February.

One of D’s requirements as part of her autism is that she is aware of what is happening and when. It was frustrating therefore that our doctor’s surgery operates a “phone up on the day” system and it’s pot-luck if you need an appointment. Yesterday there were none available and today there was only a late afternoon one.

This presented plenty of time for D’s anxieties around the injection to rear their head ….and they did.

It was an effort to get the numbing cream on, which although we have been told wouldn’t necessarily work, it seems to act as a placebo and then there was the get-out-of-the-door, the get-out-of-the-car and the get-into-the-surgery scenarios. All accompanied by very anxious noises and moans from D, if we hadn’t had her buggy, she would not have reached the surgery.

And then the actual appointment. We had the same flaying fish scenario on the nurse’s couch and then a chase-around-the-room. As done as calmly as possible but it was a very stressed-out D by the time that needle reached its target.

D was absolutely furious afterwards and showed it both verbally and physically. She did receive a sticker and it was only afterwards that I realised there were bunnies on it.

I was extremely proud of T, he made every effort to make his emotionally exhausted and quite crabby sister laugh with funny little faces and hiding behind things. It’s not often that he is empathetic to D but he realised how much the whole process had hurt her. Quite possibly our Magic Moment of the holidays.

So, I’ve once again had the gentle chat with D about the fact that the whole process could be over extremely quickly if she didn’t protest. Same as a fortnight ago, she seemed to listen and take it on board. Hopefully she will take this into account for next month’s jab.

Anyway, at least it’s done and dusted. I hope everyone’s day has gone well, comments/RTs/shares as ever welcomed, thanks for reading Jx

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