Sometimes Growing Up Hurts

Today was a rough day for Katie and me.

One of the "special needs" issues that Katie deals with is congenital hypothyroidism.  Somehow, inexplicably, Katie was born without a thyroid gland.  Because of this, since she was only about a week old, she has had to take thyroid hormones to keep her functioning.  And because of this, she has had to have bloodwork done periodically, to make sure that these hormones are balanced.

Today was a bloodwork day.

When Katie has to have blood drawn, we always go to the Nationwide Children's Hospital "Close to Home" center in Hilliard.  When Katie was released from the hospital that first time, after we figured out what was going on and got her started on the medicine, we went there, and the phlebotomist there, Kristy, was so compassionate and so skilled, that she is the reason we keep coming back.  One day we had to do a draw at the hospital downtown, and the service was exactly opposite what I was used to receiving from Kristy.  I won't go there any more, even though I'm sure the fellow who traumatized me is probably long gone.

Each time we went to Kristy, she would warn me that one day, Katie wouldn't be happy to see her and would fight us.

Today was that day.

Don't get me wrong; Katie didn't put up a big fight.  But when I pulled up in front of their door and went to unstrap her car seat, she started begging me to go home instead.  We went inside, and instead of rushing to the play area or the book area, the way she used to, she stood by my side, whimpering.  When we went to the lab, she froze at the door.  I got her on my lap, but she was squirming, and my lap wasn't big enough to compensate.  I got up to let her sit in the chair all by herself, and she began to plead again to go.

She sat, a little big girl in the big chair, sobbing, while I knelt in front of her, holding her little hand and telling her I understood.  "No, Mommy, no!" she said.

Kristy called Kris in from the x-ray lab to help us, and the three of us helped Katie through the horrible routine.  She did just fine, of course; Kristy always "gets it" on the first stick.  (This, despite the fact that Katie inherited my incredible "disappearing" veins.)  She got a pretty Band-Aid with butterflies and ladybugs, and afterward we went to Target and got her a cheese pretzel.

Hopefully her hormones will still be on-target enough this time that we don't have to repeat the labs any time soon.