DD frightened of anything 'medical' after hospital admission. Help!

[EmilieR91]

My 6yo DD has Spina Bifida and had two operations at birth. Since then, she was really well behaved and not worried at all about hospital/doctors check ups (obviously she couldn't remember any of the nasty stuff!). More recently (3 months ago) she was admitted to hospital with a severe kidney infection and was really ill. She had to have bloods taken and was put on IV antibiotics and fluids. Since this visit, she has been completely terrified of needles, the thought of going to the hospital/doctors in case there are needles and even a trip to the dentist made her frightened that she was going to have something that hurt her. She wouldn't even let the dentist blow air into her mouth because she thought it would hurt and when the Dentist picked up the sharp tool to 'wobble the tooth', she started crying and wouldn't carry on with the examination.
Because of her condition, unfortunately she has many more experiences with hospitals to come. More specifically, she is due to have some really serious surgery a few years down the line. In the meantime we have a normal hospital consultation with the consultant coming up and although she seems OK about it now, I am worried that when he comes to examine her she will completely kick off unnecessarily.
Does anyone have any experience or advice on this?

[elliejjtiny]

I have a similar problem with DS aged 3. He has hydrocephalus and cleft lip/palate so lots of time in hospital. I find the biggest thing that has helped is the episodes of topsey and tim on the iplayer when topsey has her appendix out.

[eskimomama]

something that helped us is asking the doctors to remove their white blouses for the examinations (some are more willing than others though). And call in advance to make sure we skip waiting too long in the waiting room as it always made DD super anxious. I must say though that some doctors are just better than others at handling young children's stress, SN or not...