Jeremy doesn't like doctors. For someone who has been hospitalized several times, I don't blame him. I typically don't even tell him we're going to the doctor until we're on our way. He just turns into a whiny, anxious ball. There is a part of me that has immense compassion for his situation but then there's the other part of me, the part that deals with whiny Jeremy on a regular basis. These two parts do a lot of internal struggle every time we have to visit the doctor.
Rebekah, on the other hand, did a happy dance and jumped up and down when she heard (last week) that we were going to visit the dentist. She has her moments, to be sure, but mostly she is chirpy when it involves anything medical.
I knew today was going to be emotionally exhausting and my assessment was very accurate. I haven't been getting a lot of sleep lately (I normally don't, I'll be honest). I went into the day ill prepared. Then add onto that the fact that breakfast has been challenging. I havne't found a great thing to eat that isn't high in calories and fills me up for longer than a couple of hours. I'm working on a solution but I'm still about a week out.
So we went to the appointment with me being tired and hungry. Not a good combination in normal circumstances, let alone when going into the lion's den. It started on the way to the office from preschool--Jeremy was whining, telling me he didn't want to go. The compassionate me was able to calmly explain that I understood. I told him that if I didn't have to take him I wouldn't. I told him I knew he didn't like going, but that as his mom I had to take him. This was of course met with more whining and anxiety.
When we got to the dentist he refused to leave the van. He wanted to stay there. I gave him a countdown to remove himself from it and off we started to the office. Once inside, they started admiring the fish and playing with toys. Two hygienists came to greet us, one for Bekah and one for Jeremy. Bekah was all smiles and even jumped up and down a bit; Jeremy crawled under one of the benches.
Meanwhile, because he is a heart patient, they need to have documentation stating whether or not he should be medicated (with antibiotics) before having his teeth cleaned. I had previously procured a letter from his pediatrician saying he should be. Last August, though, when visiting with the cardiologist, he informed me that Jeremy didn't need to be pre-medicated. Well, this threw a wrench into today's activities. I didn't receive the message from the dentist's office saying they needed a new letter, so I didn't have the cardiologist fax it over.
The other irony in all of this is that Bekah loves candy, cakes, cookies and sweets. The sweeter, the better. She will throw tantrums if I don't allow her to have a piece of candy or other such treat. Jeremy, on the other hand, eats almost a vegetarian diet. He will force himself to eat some meat if I give him the stink eye but otherwise he'd prefer fruits and veggies over anything else. Who gets cavities at the drop of a hat? Yep, Jeremy. He's already had two filled and we found out today that he has another one.
Because they didn't have the letter, they couldn't even clean his teeth today. Regardless, he had enough time to throw a fit when they took away the GameBoy the dentist lets her patients play with. This fit started edging out compassionate mom. The ordeal of getting to the office had worn out the last of my reserve and I was quickly turning into flames-shooting-out-of-her-mouth mommy, not the kind, kiss-the-booboo-make-it-better momma.
The last straw was the balloons. They both got a balloon and wore them, around their wrists, to the van. Once inside the van I secured them to the third safety buckle so that they wouldn't sneak out when we got to the grocery store. I'm not sure why, but this deeply offended Jeremy and put him into full freak-out mode.
I snapped. I had gone past my limit and was in the red zone. Through gritted teeth I explained why I did what I did. I explained that I was trying to make sure the balloon didn't float away into the sky. But no amount of reasoning staunched the flow of whining and thrashing. It didn't stop when we got to the store and it continued even after we left the store. Finally, I gave him an ultimatum. Stop whining or risk losing the opportunity to play on the iPad. He acquiesed begrudgingly but I feel like if you ask him two weeks from now how today went, he will dwell on my poor decision to strap the balloons into the car.
The best part is that we're headed back to the dentist on April 4th to do it all over again. Maybe I should start eating Wheaties for breakfast--I think I'm going to need them.
No comments:
Post a Comment