Our Family Home Evening Flu Shot Fiasco

On Friday night at midnight I began making chili for our wards super Saturday activity. I started by chopping onions and toward the end I got lazy and stupidly chopped my finger. Ouch! I cut off 1/4 of my fingernail and a big chunk of flesh underneath the nail. Steve calmly dressed my wound after he found out I really hadn't "cut off" my finger as I had screamed at him from the kitchen. What does this have to do with Family Home Evening you ask?

On Monday night I had to call in sick to work because my finger was still totally raw and bloody and you can't be a good ICU nurse with a bloody finger. So, we decided to go get our annual flu shots for FHE (family home evening). We told Zack we were going somewhere and then we would go get Gelato after. When we pulled into the Smiths parking lot (they have a clinic inside the store where Intermountain employees can get free shots for their whole family), Zack got really mad and said it was totally stupid to go to Smiths for FHE. I agreed it was stupid and told him why we were there, which he also thought was stupid. Oh well. What are you going to do? In we went to be greeted by the most unhappy medical "professional" I have ever met. First off she yelled at me because I thought I needed to show her my badge when really she needed my insurance card. Then she was testy on the phone to some poor person, probably her husband.

We entered the room to get our shots, Steve went first, no problem, then it was Zacks turn. He had been crying the whole time and it got worse. Then he wouldn't cooperate, flailing about, so Steve and I had to hold him down on the bed. Well, Nervous Nurse SLAMS the shot down on his arm and as she pushes the plunger, the liquid explodes all over our faces, none of it going into Zacks arm. (I am not sure if there was a defective needle or if she hit his bone or what.) Then she yells out "S**T"! And just stares at the needle sticking out of his arm. Finally she takes the needle out and informs us that it will have to be re-done. Obviously, we knew that because the fluid was all over our faces and in Steves eye which is now pink. She quickly re-did it, this time correctly and then I got mine and we ran out of there. There was a family waiting outside the room when we came out and you should have seen the looks on those kids faces. Pure terror! I actually can't believe I was as nice about it as I was, I guess I realize that everyone has bad days, and maybe she was new. I bet she cried when she got home that night.

Since Zack was so upset I told him we would take him to buy a new Lego set, shopping always makes everything better! And ice cream.

"That's STUPID!"