To help Emily cope with the painful injections and frequent doctor appointments we do a lot of medical play. We learned about this in the hospital. Child Life teachers (Ms. Cathy and Ms. Kellie) at Rady Children's worked close with us from the beginning and they were amazing.
So anytime Emily starts talking about this nasty disease or the hospital or doctor or even someone else she hears about being sick we encourage the discussion. I'm a big believer in talking, calmly, about things that bother us.
Emily knows then it's "time for the needle" so last night when we pulled out the Kineret to get it to room temperature (the company says to let it sit for 90 minuets to help with the stinging) we offered to let Emily give shots to an orange. We have some extra ones we can't use and some saline so Emily and daddy filled up the syringe and doctored that orange right up.
While she does that we talk about why the orange needs a shot every day and how it helps the orange feel better and then we talk about how this injection helps Emily and how the medicine, doctors and time in the hospital saved her life. She still screams because shots hurt, but she holds still for us without us holding her down. That is a big thing for such a young girl.
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