With everything that has gone on since Gavin’s 11th birthday in January his 11 year check up has pushed back. He’s at the doctors all the time so it’s really more of formality but we wanted to get it done.

We went into this knowing Gavin had at least 2 vaccines today. Gavin was getting more and more anxious the longer we had to wait. That’s a very common trait amongst Autistic kids in general.

Gavin is physically growing well. He is 58.3 inches tall and weights in at a whopping 79.75 lbs. While we were waiting Gavin was becoming increasingly more aggitated. I tried distracting him by talking about the story he’s writing. Gavin decided that he didn’t want to wait anymore and wanted to get it over with. I told Gavin that he should tell the doctor just that when he comes in. I want Gavin to learn to stick up for himself and tell people what he wants and how he feels. I think that’s very important.

So when Dr. H came in Gavin shouted out he just wanted to get the shot(s) now so he doesn’t have to worry anymore. Dr. H was great about it. He told Gavin that would be just fine but that he has to make sure Gavin is healthy first. When the nurse came in with the vaccines Gavin’s anxiety went through the roof and he started jumping around and shouting. As it turns out he was supposed to get 2 shots today, the tetanus booster and the menengitis vaccine. Well thanks to Emmett biting Gavin last week he only needed the menengitis vaccine as the tetanus was already given last week for the bite.

Gavin sat on my lap and it only took me to hold him. He screamed but it was manageable. Now if he had needed that second injection it would have been a different story entirely. So in some really weird and inappropriate way, I guess we have Emmett to thank for today going relatively smooth.

It’s amazing how kids on the spectrum perseve things. Gavin actually had a much more difficult time getting his toe nails or finger nails trimmed then he did getting a shot. My guess is that many people reading this would not know that.