T1 has never swallowed a pill. That is until last night.
When he was 7 and had an ear infection developing and we had to get on a plane to fly home from Mexico, he refused to swallow a decongestant, despite offering bribes of M&M’s and many other items. He steadfastly refused. Instead he screamed the 15 minutes we were landing. We went straight to the after hour doctor and got medicine (the swallowing kind) for his ear infection.
Yesterday we went to see Dr. Jen. She is my wonderful Chiropractor, who does so much more than adjust your back. She gave him a thorough adjustment and some supplements. 2 of which could be chewed or swallowed. They were not tasty chewy ones, rather a chalky powdery tasteless weird chewing experience. T1 has sensory issues, so I was concerned that the chewing thing won’t work so great.
He did chew the first one and then decided he wanted to swallow the next one. Thus began our 40 minute quest to swallow a pill. Honestly, I amazed myself with my patience. I don’t know if it has been the 20 odd books I have read this summer trying to figure out this boy and getting glimpses into what may be going on in his mind. His intensity, his needing to think about EVERYTHING, his what looks like a bit of craziness, all the beauty of T1. I chose to embrace it and enjoy this adventure of the quest to swallow a pill.
It definitely helped that T1 really did want to do it, he was just scared. So we talked through it and sat together on the floor. He finally got a pill in his mouth after about 20 minutes, WOO HOO. He tried to swallow it many times, but kept getting scared that it would get stuck in his throat. Then it started dissolving. So he is having an issue with that. I say, chew it once and swallow it. He finally does that, but ends up spitting water and pill bits onto the floor.
I sympathize with him. I say in all honesty, “Good job trying.” We clean up the mess.
I give T1 another pill to swallow. He looks at me incredulously. He shakes his head NO. But I am undeterred, we have come this far, he will be swallowing a pill tonight, or it may be another 3 years until he tries again. I think that the book, 5 days to a New Kid, helped me find this resolve.
It only takes 10 minutes for this pill to find its way into his mouth. I said embrace the experience, take it down, and let it slide down. Then he swallowed and VOILA he DID IT!
It was amazing. I was amazed. I was proud of him and me. He stayed sort of calm through the whole time and I stayed calm. We worked well together as a team.
As I tucked him in and rubbed his back we talked about it, how sometimes my job is to help him do hard things. I didn’t tell him it is one of the hardest parts of my jobs, especially because he usually doesn’t like me helping him, he fights me every step of the way.
It was interesting when Dr. Jen was muscle testing him, she said, that he had a lot of anger and she did something to help it move out. I was standing near his feet as she swished it off his body. I quickly moved out of the way, but said, “That is where it usually goes, to me or T2” T1 is typically very angry and we bear the brunt of it. Hopefully that will change over time. Maybe that little clearing helped him be open to my support as we traveled together on the Quest to Swallow the Pill.
