On Sunday morning, we brought Darius to the GP for a follow-up booster dose of his 5-in-1 vaccination. This was supposed to be done during his 18-month but as it coincided with his second MMRV, we had to wait a few weeks before proceeding with this injection.

Arriving there, there were six patients in front of us and we expected ourselves to be waiting for a while. We thus decided to take a walk outside the clinic to pass time.

We saw a playground just behind the block but as we got closer, we were taken aback by the bad state of it — there were plenty of sand on the slides, some broken glass bottle pieces on the ground, dirt accumulating on many parts of the playground and worse of all, a couple deep asleep in the middle of the playground! o_0|

That’s why we merely passed by it and led Darius to walk in the other parts of the neighbourhood instead, while he did one of his favourite activities – stairs climbing.

When we returned to the clinic shortly after, we were surprised that the queue number had moved fast and we were only one number away! Guess the clinic was closing soon so the doctor had to quicken his pace to ensure all patients were attended to before then.

It was soon our turn and we entered the room. After determining what vaccination Darius was coming for, the doctor proceeded to prepare for the injection. Unlike our previous visits, he didn’t talk much, probably as time wasn’t on his side then. We had wanted him to perform an assessment on Darius (according to the health book there should be one around this age) but he advised us to come by another time for that.

When it was time for the injection, I handed Darius his mobile phone toy, hoping that that would help distract him. Catherine and I then held onto his arms and legs tightly while the doctor prepared to perform the injection.

Darius seemed to know something ‘bad’ was going to happen to him and so he looked distracted and uneasy.

As the needle pierced through his flesh, I tried to distract him by singing/talking to him but it didn’t help much. Darius let out a painful expression and attempted to struggle from our grip . He then let out a cry and tears began to trickle down his eyes.

When it was over, Darius stopped crying for a short while before whining again. Like the doctor jokingly said, Darius was whining now because he was feeling angry with him for ‘inflicting pain on him’. ^^|

I then carried him and walked around the consultation room while the doctor finished up his paperwork. I also took the opportunity to take his weight and it was a whooping 13-kg mark that popped up when Darius stood on the weighing machine! No wonder our arms are getting tired and aching easily nowadays whenever we carry him.

After we left the consultation room, Darius immediately regained his usual active and cheerful self, completely forgetting about the ‘trauma’ earlier. Still, he had certainly grown more aware about the pain caused by the injection than when he was younger. ^^

Unlike the previous vaccinations, the doctor did not mention anything about looking out for fever symptoms nor prescribe us with any medication. Perhaps this was to be a mild booster or was it because he knew we were ’seasoned’ parents already so he felt no need to go through all these again?

When we got home, Darius had his lunch and his afternoon nap. When he woke up, I brought him for a walk downstairs as he appeared normal and had no feverish symptom.

Although we took his weight at the clinic earlier, we didn’t manage to get his height. When he surprised me by successfully reaching for one of the fitness equipment downstairs (which he hadn’t previously been able to), I thought he had grown taller all of a sudden.

Later on in the night, I noticed a big round moon hanging in the skies and beckoned Catherine and Darius to join me for some ‘moon sighting’. Being the last day of Chinese New Year (元宵), no wonder the moon was so full and bright.

While I was setting up the tripod and camera for some photo-shooting, Darius was merrily running about with Catherine catching up after him. We were glad to see him in good spirits despite his vaccination in the morning, which might indicate that no side-effect of the jab had gotten to him.

Starting to look sleepy after running around

When it was time for him to sleep, it took a while before he could settle down, probably due to the excitement he had earlier during our walk. He also woke up several times with his eyes still closed later on. His body temperature was normal so it was still likely that the excitement in the day had got into him.

When he woke up this morning, it appeared that his injection had swell a bit and tender. According to the articles I read online, this swelling is rare (1 out of 10 children) but not entirely uncommon. Meanwhile we will keep it clean and hope it will get better soon.

Anyway, we did manage to measure his height before he slept last night Dand found out that he was still 86.5cm tall. So he must had learnt how to stretch and reach for things above him. Also, according to the height-weight chart in the health booklet, Darius appears to be on the heavier side now. ^^|

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