Fear of Needles?

My lack of memory for traumatic events bit me in the ass again today. Lex had his oral surgery. Talk about an interesting experience. That is putting it mildly. He seemed okay with the entire thing. He never once said he was scared or didn't want to go. I told him in the morning that he needed to wear a short sleeve shirt and he immediately asked me if they were going to have to use a needle. I never would have made that connection, but I'm a little slow. I told him yes. They were going to have to give him medicine through his arm and he said okay. We went to the office, filled out our paperwork, and went back into the room all without incident. The doctor came in and talked to us. He said he thought we should go ahead and pull the tooth. Still no reaction. They got everything ready and the doctor told Lex "I'm going to put this numbing spray on". The second the spray hit his skin he was screaming. It was all down hill from there. The doctor tried to convince him it wouldn't be so bad if he would just sit still. I kept trying to distract him by talking about other things. Every time the guy came near him he started saying "ow ow ow" before anyone even touched him. They let him take a break and put some numbing creme on his arm which takes fifteen minutes to kick in. They also gave him the medication to calm you down, which also takes a while to work. They waited and tried it again. He was fine until they went to put the needle in. He just wouldn't stop jumping. I was holding him down and telling him if he would just stay still it wouldn't hurt. The doctor was getting a little exasperated. We all knew if he would just stop for thirty seconds he wouldn't have to be so upset. They had to stop again. This time I turned the lights down and told him to go to sleep. They put the numbing creme on his other arm and left for another fifteen minutes. This time he actually fell asleep and when the doctor came back he only had to try about three times before he got it in. They sent me out of the room to pull the tooth and less than five minutes later they called me back in. It took him another 35 minutes to wake up after the anesthesia. At least it was finally over. The last hour I was there my phone was pretty much vibrating non-stop. I told the kids I wouldn't be home and they needed to tell their dad if they needed anything. I guess he wasn't around or listening or something 'cause they just kept calling. I tried calling during the five minutes I had and they had some stupid argument going on about a video game or something. When the technician told me to come back Eddie was on the line saying she wanted ice cream or something. When will I learn my lesson? I finally got home around 5:30 and Lex was running around like nothing happened. I actually had to tell him to slow down because I was afraid he was going to fall over from the medication. It's amazing what your mind can do and what it can keep you from doing if you let it. Lex certainly didn't mean to be such a pain in the ass. He truly couldn't help it. Once it was over he was back to his old self. He is ready to take on the world as long as it doesn't involve anyone putting any needles in his arm!