Brave Kari, Wimpy Mommy

Today Kari and I went to a specialist to find out what she's allergic to and why she gets sinus infections so often. She's allergic to grass (isn't that convenient, seeing as how we live in lush GREEN Oregon?), which is good to know, and she was also diagnosed with another sinus infection (that helps explain the major meltdowns we've been having this week). So, we've got a whole regimen of treatments and drugs for Kari and a concrete reason to administer them.

The appointment itself, however, ended up being much more exciting than I anticipated. This is how the drama unfolded:

The nurse sat Kari up on the table and had me stand next to her and hold the hazardous waste bin on her lap to catch the the pokey scratch test thingys. Well, Kari did very well and was very brave for the first half of pokes (there were 28 in all--no fun) but started falling apart during the second half. The problem was I did, too. She really started crying during the last 5, and I started feeling really nauseous. Then my world started spinning. I got very hot, and everything started going black. You can probably see what's coming. The nurse finished up quickly, told me to hold Kari's arm to keep her from scratching at it, and left the room. She didn't notice my unstable state of consciousness, and I was trying hard to pull it together, for Kari's sake. I'm falling to the floor, still trying to hold on to Kari's arm and still trying to comfort her, while wilting to my knees. The nurse came right back in, thankfully, and I managed to say something like, "I'm not feeling very well." She swooped into action, set crying, hysterical Kari on a chair, and helped me up on the table. It was awful and soooo embarrassing. My daughter is the one going through the allergy testing, and I'm the one fainting, just when she really needs me, too. Ridiculous. I laid on that table for 15 minutes before I was able to even sit up again. Fortunately, fifteen minutes is also the amount of time we had to wait to see which scratches Kari reacted to before we saw the doctor, so at least I wasn't infringing on anyone else's time too much. The nurse poked her head in every few minutes to check Kari's arm reactions (and to check on me). After about 10 minutes she said, "Oh, good, your lips are getting color back. You were white as a sheet!" I saw my face in the mirror later, and it wasn't pretty. Kari got to choose some fun things from the nurse's treasure box, and I had stashed a couple princess dolls (Barbie-type) in my purse, too. The nurse had to take them out of my purse, since I was still incapacitated. (I've been holding onto the dolls since just after Christmas, waiting for a good time to bring them out. This was a worthy cause! I have a few more stashed away for other occasions. Gotta love the after-Christmas sales.) Kari still wasn't happy (didn't appreciate the itchy pokes), but the new things helped her stop crying and recover. By the time the doctor came in, I was sitting upright, and Kari was cheerfully playing with the dolls and new treasures.

When I was in high school, I fainted watching my mom get a flu shot, and I passed out when I tried to give blood, too. So, I kind of have a history of this sort of thing, and I do have very low blood pressure, but my goodness, I thought I'd moved beyond this fainting with needles/medical stuff. All three of the kids have been immunized, and I've always been the one with them, but Leah, who very kindly watched Joel and Aubrey for me this morning, pointed out that usually you're holding the kids when they get their shots and don't see it. It's true that I never watch. I close my eyes or look away, and it's over quickly. The scratch test was 28 pokes, and I was watching (what was I thinking?!), both the actual tests and Kari's wincing face and flinching body, so I guess next time I'll stick to my look away method--AND make sure I'm sitting down! Or maybe Greg just needs to go.