A Rough Week For Wesley

In the Urgent Care, Avery Ranch, Austin, TX

Medically speaking, the last week has been kind of traumatic for Wesley. We started out last Saturday with Wesley taking a tumble and cracking his head on the door jamb. There was a lot of blood (but we managed to get it out of all the clothes!)  and we just couldn’t get it to stay closed even with butterfly bandages.  We weren’t sure if he’d need them, but we took Wesley to an urgent care and sure enough he ended up with three stitches. Amber was babysitting for a friend so Wesley and I drove out to the nearest place open (about 25 minutes away) and actually had a pretty good time. We talked and goofed off, looked at fish at the Chinese restaurant next door, drove around looking at Christmas lights and of course had ice cream when we got home. He did really well, by which I mean he screamed bloody murder when he was getting the stitches and anesthetic (two shots), but didn’t struggle.

Looking at his stitches the next day.

On top of the stitches we also had Wesley’s four year checkup scheduled. Wesley hates going to the doctor’s office because he hates getting “pokes”. At four years there are a bunch.  In all he ended up getting 5 shots and two flu spray mists up his nose.

Wesley’s checkup went fine. He is growing well and aside there were no concerns.

• Weight: 38.75 lbs (75th centile)
• Height: 41.25 in (75th centile)
• BMI: 16.0 (65th centile)

We were surprised to learn that at 4 they also do urine and blood work.  If you think getting a shot is terrifying, getting blood drawn is much, much worse.  At first Amber tried to hold Wesley in her lap, but he was struggling too much so I had to hold him. He is getting so strong!  I was a little afraid he’d snap a bone the way he was struggling. Imagine the shots for that. Again he screamed like you wouldn’t believe, but once it was started he actually watched the blood being drawn and had lots of good questions.  And it wasn’t all bad. He got to pee in a cup!

We made a "Not at home" rule for peeing in cups.

On Friday we had to go back and get the stitches removed. By this time Wesley was terrified of going to the doctor. He even started begging me to take out his stitches at home, which I probably would have done had Amber been home to help hold him still.  Plus one of his vaccines (DPT we think) had caused his leg to swell up so I wanted to have it looked at. His poor left thigh is about 1.5 inches bigger around than the other. It is stiff and quite warm. The doctor looked at it and said it occurs in about one in thirty vaccinations (though it is getting less frequent since they have changed the composition of the shot). I had the same reaction in my arm to the same shot a few years ago (a booster I got while working at the UW) so I guess it’s genetic.

So for those of you keeping track:

• Shots: 7 (5 vaccines, 2 anesthetic)
• Sprays up the nose: 2 ( 1 per nostril)
• Blood draws: 1
• Stitches: 3 (six pokes in all: in one side, out the other)
• Unusual and painful reaction to a vaccine: 1
• Pees in a cup: 1

 

Tags: Wesley