Tonight was Robert's last dose of oral steroids. What a feat! The doc warned us that the meds would be bitter and that we should request a flavoring...well, smelling our pharmacy's version of "grape" almost made me gag. Robert could NOT abide the bitterness. Sobbing, wailing, gnashing of teeth.
Eight doses, people. EIGHT!
Enticements like chocolate syrup, doughnuts, and screen time only worked once each and only worked to reduce his torment to 60 minutes. That's an hour of oscillating from moderate distress to the gall of bitterness and back up...gearing up to swallow just 8mls of medicine.
One thing I learned from this: I can't make my kids eat anything they don't want to eat. Robert thought we could pin him down and pour the whole dose into his mouth. I didn't dissuade him of that notion, but it's highly unlikely I would even try it :)
One thing I noticed about Robert: He can do hard things. He's gotten better recently at describing his thoughts and feelings. He even used self-calming techniques that he learned in school (love his 1st grade teacher!). He kept describing his conflicting emotions, "I WANT to drink it, but I DON'T want to drink it." And when it came down to it, he really did it. Swallowed it all. No sputtering, no gagging, just downed the whole thing. Brave boy!
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| Brave boy and his buddy hanging out in the back of the rental truck a few days ago. |
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Good for Robert! What a mature person he is becoming. More mature than a lot of adults.
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