No More Pokey, Please!

We had quite a traumatic day on Friday. Emma had gone to the doctor on Thursday for her 5 year check up. Everything was fine, percentiles all good, took the 5 shots in stride... Anyway, they ran her blood work (anemic, cholesterol, diabetes, lead, etc). Everything came back normal, except for the lead. Her content was measuring at 16.3, and the "count" should be closer to 3. She shows no other signs of lead poisoning. She's ahead developmentally, not anemic... the only thing is that she complains of stomach pains fairly regularly. Her pediatrician thinks it may have been a fluke, but to be safe, we needed to go to a blood lab to get a more accurate test. This meant Theo went to. If Emma's high, then Theo probably is, too. We also tested their mercury levels.

Okay, so I warned Emma what they were going to do. She had Theo go first. May not have been the best idea. She watched Theo wriggle, fight, squirm and scream as the used a HUGE needle to draw blood from his arm. They lost the vein, so had to swim around in there until they found it again. It's was not good, although he calmed down immediately once I gave him a lollipop and some chocolate. Now it was Emma's turn. She ran around the lab, screaming, "NO! Please don't make me DO this! No! Please!" She ran and hid in the bathroom. She was simply hysterical. Tim finally got her in the room, and sat her on his lap. She screamed and writhed the entire time. Between Tim, me and the 2 nurses, we were able to hold her down long enough for them to insert the needle in her arm. She kept screaming, begging for the nurses to, "Stop! I want you to stop, please!" It was absolutely heartbreaking. Once it was over, she, too, got some chocolate. We walked to the car and she said, "I don't ever want to do that again." Theo looked at me and said, "No more pokey, Mommy. That hurt."

I'm still on edge a bit. I won't have results until Tuesday.