Shots

Today Kimball received his first vaccinations. He has missed all of them so far because he was on chemo and steroids, which weakened his immune system, and his oncologist reccommended that we hold off for a while. Since Kimball has been off chemo for almost two months now, we were given the green light for shots.

Today Kimball had his Pneumococcal, Diptheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Hib, Hep B, and Polio vaccinations, all combined into three shots, one in his left thigh and two in his right. Jordan came along and he was the one to hold Kimball while I sat in a chair and watched.

Before the first shot, I closed my eyes. Nothing. I peeked and saw Kimball looking wide-eyed at the nurse. No tears? Could this be possible?

Second and third shots--tears. He couldn't believe she would do it two more times. But he only cried for a minute or two. When we left the building it was as if he had already forgotten. When we got home Jordan gently massaged Kimball's thighs with warm wet washcloths, while I fed him a bottle and rocked him to sleep. We were warned of common side effects that vaccinations can have, so we watched Kimball carefully to see if we could spot any:

Crankiness and irritability: nope
Red, swollen thighs: nope
Apparent pain in legs: nope
Fever: only a slight one

I think they really put sugar in those syringes, because after a very short nap (we thought that after the "ordeal" he would like to sleep for a long time, but nope), he was romping and laughing and chasing us around the floor as usual, if not more cheerfully. What a fun little kid we have!

P.S. I know that pictures make all posts more interesting, like a picture of the Taz bandages on Kimball's legs, but I'm glad that I was more concerned at the moment in his well-being than whipping out my camera for the sake of my blog!!