Author:
Liz
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Date Posted: Thursday, July 18, 2013, 01:05: pm
I only remember one shot in my bottom from when I was a kid--an injection of penicillin in the spring of '83, when I was 8 years old. A few weeks earlier, I had been diagnosed with strep, and was prescribed an oral antibiotic. But a few days after finishing the antibiotic, I felt a scratch in my throat once again, and so my mother took me to the doctor for another strep test. The next morning the doctor's office called and reported that it had come back positive. Back then, the policy--at least at my pediatrician's office--was that you gave an oral antibiotic one try, and if that didn't work, it was straight to a penicillin shot. So I guess you could say my "waiting" started when my mother told me the news and packed me and my siblings up to take us to the doctor for my shot. Then, Part II of my waiting began in (appropriately) the waiting room. After a few minutes of sitting there, my mother asked the receptionist (who was a good family friend) if it would be possible to give me the shot behind her desk in the office, without having to wait for an exam room to become available. "No, because this shot goes back here," she replied, tapping her right buttock for emphasis. My younger brother (who had gotten his first butt shot for strep just a year before) started to snicker ("Did you hear, Lizzie? Ellen said you have to get your shot in your tushie!") and I felt my stomach drop. Now, I wasn't only waiting for just any shot, I was waiting for a shot in my rear end. Which also meant I was waiting to see what shots back there were like, since I had no recollection at least of ever having been pricked there before. Honestly, I knew nothing, and I recall worrying that they might actually have to give the shot in my rectum. Part III of the waiting began when I was called back to one of the exam rooms, and Nurse Agnes explained to my mother that she would be right back and asked her to get me ready for my shot. So, then I sat there for a few minutes, pestering my mother with questions about what to expect (she explained that the shot would be going in the "cheek" and not in the "hole"). Part IV of the waiting began when Nurse Agnes finally returned. I was already sitting on the exam table, with my panties off, even though I still had on my dress on covering my nudity. Now, I was told, it was time to lie on my tummy and hike up my dress so that my bottom would be all bare for Nurse Agnes. Except my waiting still wasn't over. While making small talk with my mother, Nurse Agnes asked if I was running a fever. After my mother said she hadn't checked it since the night before, Nurse Agnes decided they had better get a measurement before giving me the shot, and, basically, since I was already lying prone on the examining table with my bottom fully bared--and since my mother, under questioning, had admitted that my temperature was still taken rectally at home--it made the most sense to do it that way here as well. Which meant a whole new round of waiting--first, for Nurse Agnes to get the thermometer all lubed and ready and plant it in my backside, then to wait for the measurement--which, with the old glass thermometers still used at the time, was a good 3-5 minutes. Finally, finally after the reading came back normal, and the syringe was ready, it was time for the main event. But it would be fair to say that from the moment I was informed I was getting a shot that morning to the actual injection, a good 2 hours had passed.
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