Shots Follow-up

So Wednesday actually turned out to be a good day for Sweet Pea. While the morning totally sucked, what with the five shots, TB test and finger prick, Sweet Pea cheered up some before going to school.

Then, while she was at school, I got a phone call from our family dentist. We went there last Monday and Slipshod, Sweet Pea and I all got our 6-month teeth cleanings and checkups (and all passed with flying colors, hooray). While Slipshod and I were having our cleanings Sweet Pea and The Bug, after they got bored with watching me get my cleaning, went to the reception area and the really fun receptionist gave them crayons and paper and other things to play with. The receptionist also invited Sweet Pea to participate in the monthly guessing game so she could enter to win May's prizes.

Turns out that Sweet Pea guessed exactly right (how many balls and jacks were in the jar), and she won their totally sweet prizes, which were a bocce ball set AND an Eddie Bauer competition badminton set (which also includes a volleyball)! It was fun to get to tell Sweet Pea that as soon as I picked her up at school, and then we went directly to the dentist's office, where the receptionist and dental assistants and the dentist himself came out to congratulate her and take her picture with her prizes. The picture will go up on their bulletin board in the waiting room as soon as it's printed and sometimes we stop by to say "hi" to the receptionist (because the dentist's office is in the shopping center very close to our house where we go to the grocery store, Jamba Juice, and sometimes Starbucks).

All that excitement made for quite a thrilling afternoon for Sweet Pea and as soon as we came home after picking up the badminton and bocce sets, we put up the net in the back yard (well, I did my best - apparently competition sized nets are twice as long as normal nets and we have a teeny tiny back yard) and had fun trying to hit the birdies. The girls somehow miraculously both managed not to hit each other's heads or anything else with the rackets OR drop any bocce balls on anybody's feet. Whew! We had lots of fun with those toys in the back yard again yesterday and will continue to do so all summer, I'm sure, and for years to come!

Getting back to the shots, the nurse who gave them told me that the day after the shots would be worse than the day of. Sure enough, Sweet Pea had a hugely swollen left shoulder/upper arm yesterday. While putting an ice pack on her arm, I called the doctor's office for advice. The receptionist told me to ice it (hee), and to draw a circle around the swollen area so I could tell if it was getting any bigger, and to call if it got bigger. Sweet Pea's discomfort in the swollen area was not pain, but itching. The swelling appeared to go down for a few hours but at bedtime it looked bigger, however, it had been doing well enough all day that we decided to let her sleep on it, and this morning it's getting better. There is still swelling and redness and it's still hard, but all of that has lessened some and seems to be continuing to go in the right direction.

Sweet Pea also had a fever at bedtime last night, but we gave her Motrin before she went to sleep and this morning she's fine.

Her cough is also MUCH improved from the walking pneumonia, so WHEW, I think she's really going to be okay soon.

Yay! :o)