“They call me Sir DC the Braaaave”
10
“and history someday will rave…….”
DC had to go for blood work today. He has never had to have blood drawn before. They did take blood in the ER after his first seizure but he was so “out of it” that he did not give them a problem about it at all.
DC has always been very healthy so his doctor and I had decided to put off blood tests unless it was necessary because having blood drawn would entail making an appointment at the hospital to have him put out – an all day affair. He is big and he is strong. Even when he was younger and had to have a vaccination, I had to bring reinforcements to the Doctor’s office. Most of the time we had, his Dad, Doug, me, the assistant and the doctor in the examination room. No one could hold him, no one. It was exhausting and even with all of us trying to hold on to him, the doctor would eventually have to resort to chasing him around the room until she had a semi-good shot at sticking him. I often wondered if he ever actually got everything that was in the needle.
Well, we could put if off no longer. Due to his seizures and medications, he had to have blood drawn. He did let the paramedics put an IV in during his second ride to the hospital and he was much more alert that time. Hoping that he remembered this, I decided we would try to go to a regular lab. I talked to him and explained what they were going to do. I also explained that if he did not let them take the blood at the lab we would have to go to the hospital to have it done. He did NOT want to go to the hospital again.
He was all right until we got to the waiting room at the lab. He was in full-on anxiety mode – yelling “I do believe in fairies, I do believe in fairies, I do believe in fairies.”, jumping up, yelling and making his noises quite loudly.
We got him into the drawing room and into the chair and at this point he had calmed down enough that I really thought we would be able to do this – until he saw the needle.
Let the battle begin.
The technician called for back up and fortunately Doug had come with me as reinforcement. Still no one could hold him. It had gotten to the point where as great as the staff was, I knew they could not do this much longer. They gave it one last try with Doug actually laying across his free arm and all of us holding the “needle arm”. As soon as he saw the needle go in he stopped fighting and let them finish. Sometimes the anticipation is worse than the actual event.
He was fine. He was proud of himself. “I did it! I did it!”
When we walked out of the room all eyes were on us from the now very crowded waiting room. I am sure they wanted to see who had been causing all of that commotion. I could not care less. He did it and that was all that mattered. DC, with a wave and a smile yelled “Good-bye Ladies” and we were off.
In the car on the way to breakfast before heading to work, DC was so proud and not wanting us to forget it, began singing a song. I recognized it from when he was young, but I hadn’t heard it in years. I could not even remember where it came from:
(his name has been muted out of the video)
(A reenactment, of course)
“They call me sir DC, the brave,
and history someday will rave
I’m valiant and daring, and noble of bearing
Courageous and gallant, a mountain of talent.
No wonder folks curtsey and wave
I’m Robin, Sir DC, the brave.”
Later I asked him what movie he remembered that song is from.
The Frog Prince – the Muppet version, of course.
He was brave, very brave. I am happy he is so proud of himself. Hopefully this means that the next time might go much easier.
Now next up…. the MRI……
That should be something!
(video begins at 2:44 – at the song)
