This past week, my 5-year-old son went to the doctor’s office for his ‘Wellchild Visit’. When we got in the room, they gave us a book – which must be a requirement for our state because each time we have one of these ‘Wellchild Visits’, they hand us a book.
During this visit, our medical care-giver tested my child to make certain that he had ‘basic skills’ for his specific age group such as counting to 10, color recognition, recitation of ABC’s, familiarity with brushing teeth, etc. Also, at this ‘visit’, they give the child a series of vaccinations. My child did fine up until the mention of getting ‘shots’ and then he panicked.
Wellchild Visit Vaccine Schedule
First, he worked on reasoning with us adults as he said, “Nah. I don’t need any shots today. I’m fine.” When we told him that the vaccinations were a way of protecting him from diseases in the world that could make him sick or harm him, he said, “I don’t need to worry about that.”
And after our medical care-giver left the room, my son said, “C’mon, mom. Let’s go. We’re leaving.” I explained that we’d be staying and that it was best if we get this done now, be done with it, move on with our day, and go on an adventure to the toy store. He accepted this.
So, we waited for the nurses to come into the room and give my son his vaccinations. And waited. And waited. AND WAITED … both my son and I were getting annoyed because we’d agreed to a plan of getting this over and getting on with life – and yet, for the next 20 minutes to a half-hour, they had my 5-year-old in anticipation of the pain to come – which was torturous for him. I read him a few stories out of the book they gave us which assisted but he was struggling to remain stable. He started to play with the ‘spinning’ trash can lid in the room, pinched his finger in it and started screaming, crying, and jumping around. I assisted him in working through the pain with breathing and he calmed down after a few moments.
Two nurses arrived with 4 needles – one for each vaccination. My son went into a ‘fight-or-fight’ response and started screaming, crying, reaching for his jacket, and backing himself up to the door. I breathed. I did not react. I kept my voice stable and delivered the same message: Let’s get this done so that we can get on with the rest of our day and have an adventure.
After repeating this 4 or 5 times and not changing, he stopped and came over to where I was sitting on the examination table. He got up in my lap and I wrapped my arms around him. The nurses gave him a choice of where to have his shots – in his arms or in his legs – he chose his legs. So, I assisted him with removing his pants and the two nurses gave him two shots in each leg. It was painful. It was not cool. We breathed through the pain.
His legs ‘stung’ and he could not walk after the shots. We waited until some of the stinging went away. He pushed. And eventually we got his clothes back on him and left. Throughout the toy store, he struggled with the pain – and he breathed through each ‘wave’ of pain. He decided to purchase a game that he could play with his dad. We came home. He curled up on the couch and played with his dad.
Two hours later… My son could not walk at all. He kept breathing. And at 12:00 AM, he was crying and moaning because he was in pain and could not get comfortable to sleep. He would ask me to come into his room and move his body because he could not. This pain and not being able to walk lasted well into the next day.
So yeah. I’m outraged. Why … in 2012 are medical practitioners -still- subjecting children to this kind of pain? And why are they giving our children MORE shots? When my daughter was my son’s age, she would get one or two shots. But he got 4 …
In my imagination, we ought to be giving vaccinations ‘Star Trek’-style by now where a doctor presses a metal thing to our skin, presses a button, a ‘puff’ is heard, and a pain-free administration of a drug is given.
Star Trek ‘Jet Injector’ made a reality at MIT where they invented a painless, programmable hyperspray.
But we’re not getting anywhere. Why would we? Truth is, we’re killing kids everyday – we don’t care. In-fact, the way we see it is: Be grateful to have the vaccinations – you’re lucky to be getting them at all.
In an Equal Money System, all beings will be given prevention and protection from the diseases in our current environments. Additionally, I see us investigating ways of administering disease prevention and protection that do not cause trauma or disability to our physical bodies as this is a point of real caring. For our children, not reacting, practicing breathing, and bringing the child’s attention ‘elsewhere’ assists in the young mind not making a future character/personality and/or fear connection to ‘Shots’ – however, it does not assist us parents in establishing a relationship of trust with our children and it does not assist the child in establishing a relationship of trust with those that are supposedly ‘taking care’ of their bodies. Further, this sort of pain at this age moves the child to DISTRUST and SEPARATE themselves from their bodies.
Pain is not cool. And it’s really screwed up that we try to come up with justifications for pain, like, “Pain lets you know you’re alive.”
This is what we’ve come to … getting the ‘knowledge’ that we’re ‘alive’ from pain. We do not see that the only true show of being a life is with each moment of every breath.
So. Pain it is. It’s real sad that this is what life has come to – and even more sad that we’re passing this on to our children so that they can survive in this pain. It makes less-and-less sense to me each day why, practically here, we ever allowed it to get this far. And why do we keep bringing children into this? Really? I mean, if they’re not getting shot at school, they’re guaranteed to get a ‘shot’ at the doctors office. And do we really know what that needle is loaded with? Seriously, there was something nasty enough in there to disable my 5-year-old for close to 24 hours.
Again, suggest to support an Equal Money System, parents – let’s support all the children, support the research, and show, for the first time ever in history, that we can be trusted with the lives we’ve given and been given.
Let’s just get this done and get on with an adventure.