When confronted with a needle, I...

[Arclight]

Went to the hospital to get some blood samples taken today. I'll admit I'm not to fond of needles, but looking the other way, making sure I don't see the thing really takes the edge of. Last time I was in a hospital on behalf of my own health was like 18yrs ago, when I had to get a vaccination. I ran for the hills, screaming like a little girl. Sure, I was 5 or 6 years old at the time, but the memory stuck (actually one of my first memories), so I guess that's still lurking in the back of my mind. :D

Any brave stories?

*voters remain anonymous, don't be afraid to be honest. ;)

[seafarer]

:p Well you just haven't been sick enough, or spent enough time in a Hospital.

Have a heart attack (like I did) and follow that up in a few months with a problematic angiogram and emergency open heart surgery. You'll think nothing of needles or IV's in your arms, back of your hands, your neck (after bypass surgery, I had one in my carotid artery - they have to flip the bed over so you are head down to remove it).

And since I take warfarin as a blood thinner (mainly because of a pulmonary embolism before the heart problems), I get my arm stuck every 6 weeks or so anyway for a protime (INR) sample.

I'm surprised they even need to stick me anymore. They should just wave the needle over my arm and the blood should just squirt out by now.

Needles are nothing - just think about a diabetic giving themself their own shots (I did my own shots of low MW heparin for a week after my PE, but that was easy). :p

[Terrax]

Like all kids, I was terrified of needles. After a doctor completed a sentence, I would ask if I was going to get a shot. Sunburn, poison ivy, didn't matter, I followed up with "am I going to get a shot?" I went from ages 12 to 28 without facing a needle and had to get blood drawn for an employment physical. I was nervous as hell, but after it was done I felt embarrassed. After the the pain of broken bones, bruised ribs, and the like I had experienced between those ages, it was nothing. I can't believe I made a big deal out of it. It doesn't bother me at all at this point.

[rifleman13]

I despise needles!

I hope I wouldn't see another one again.

I have been hit with 2 suspected cases of dengue fever, one during I was nine and another when I was 18. The docs needed to run some tests: and they need to extract my blood using needles! Good thing I was young since the symptoms I had were: (from Wikipedia)

rashes
fever
bladder problems
constant headaches
severe dizziness
loss of appetite
uncontrollable laughing <-never had this, although when I was 18 was extremely sarcastic about the thing since during that time, it was our college's foundation week celebrations
extreme constipationThey suspected dengue fever because the my school had a fishpond that needed some attention. A student already died because of dengue fever! God rest her soul...

After 2 weeks in the hospital, I was cleared to go home and was immediately back on the computer!

[Tchocky]

My girlfriend has to have blood taken every month or two, she now hates needles :)

[Monica Lewinsky]

Well ... being 50 sumthin, the old family jewels are not so shinny anymore.

Sorry for being gross:

About a year ago, a cyst half the size of a marble on the left testicle eventually got inflamed by an in-grown hair gone wild and it had to be removed. The simple act of walking was total torture on the day of removal.

At some point the needle had to go in three times for the local anesthetic to be applied so it could be cut out.

I did "look" between the shear crys of pain. Man did that hurt. Needle did not hurt all that much, but when the good old doc pressed that plunger for the anesthetic injection ... I thought I was giving birth to triplets. ;)

[Schroeder]

When I was a child I was extremely scared of needles.
When I grew older I still didn't like them and tried to avoid them when possible (I only volunteered once for a sample of blood so that my genetically code could be examined for the purpose of finding some donator of bone marrow for someone who suffered from leukemia).

Now two years back when I was at my university of applied sciences (what a term in English:rotfl:) we had the Red Cross coming to us for blood donations. I read a pamphlet with the announcement and thought to myself "well, they can take all the blood they want, but definitely not mine...".
On that special day I came down from our canteen after having lunch and was approached by a nice fellow student who asked me with this irresistible smile to donate blood. I immediately said that I hated needles and wasn't going to do it... But she kept talking to me and all of a sudden I felt like a total whimp standing in front of a girl and telling her to be afraid of a needle.:rotfl: So I finally gave in and donated half a liter of blood... I survived.:yep:
Well this is now slightly more than two years ago and by now the Red Cross received a total of 4.5 liters from me in 9 donations. I still don't like the sting of the needle (the ones for blood donations are a bit bigger than the normal ones for drawing samples;)) but I don't mind it anymore that much, and it is a good feeling to know that one has helped others to survive.:D

[Letum]

I have a condition that reduces my sensitivity to pain...
I still don't like giving blood samples tho.

[seafarer]

Well ... being 50 sumthin, the old family jewels are not so shinny anymore.

Sorry for being gross:

About a year ago, a cyst half the size of a marble on the left testicle eventually got inflamed by an in-grown hair gone wild and it had to be removed. The simple act of walking was total torture on the day of removal.

At some point the needle had to go in three times for the local anesthetic to be applied so it could be cut out.

I did "look" between the shear crys of pain. Man did that hurt. Needle did not hurt all that much, but when the good old doc pressed that plunger for the anesthetic injection ... I thought I was giving birth to triplets. ;)


:hmm: Okay, that needle was NOT nothing :o I mean, I've had catheters in my groin (femoral artery), but to be stuck right in the nads - that's just nasty, times 3 even!!!

[Platapus]

It is strange but when I was preforming phlebotomy on my patients, I obviously had no problems. But if I am on the "wrong" side of the needle, I look away and think happy thoughts.

[FIREWALL]

Vasectomy. I'll leave the rest to your imagination.:cry:

[Oberon]

Stuck a sowing machine needle blunt end first into the palm of my hand once. Other needles just haven't been the same since... :lol:

[Platapus]

Scrotum Self-Repair

http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~pinto/scrot.html

A classic :up:

[Blacklight]

My uncle tends to faint when he gets a needle. Even back when they were going down the line vaccinating people when he was in the army, they had to arrange people behind him in the line to catch him. They stick him and he just goes out like a light.

[Monica Lewinsky]

Side trip - sorry:
Nurse at a senior care center is stopped by an old patient.

He says:
"What's that thermometer doing behind your ear?"

Nurse says after removing the thermomter from behind her ear:
"Gee, wonder which a-hole has my pen in it?"

:D

[Skybird]

Medical items do not scare me, but the typical smell of hospitals, and the awful atmosphere inside hospitals. If being seriously ill and being a bit older, and chnaces are 50:50 that a stay in hosital would save my life, I am not sure that i would not prefer life quality over life quantity. even more so when in during practice time in psychiatry I have seen how awfully bad life can be. some people do everything to stay alive as long as possible, no matter the cost. tragic fools, i then think of some of them.

However, during elementary schools, I was terribly afraid of vaccination pistols. I once blocked the school for three hopurs because escaped from standing in line, raising quite some terror, ran away, and forced them to search for me on three floors and in the cellars, and calling my mother. the thing snapped so loudly, like an air pistol, and that noise scared me to death. I hate loud noise until today, and since always.

[bookworm_020]

I was born three months premeture and had to have blood taken from me regularly for months after my birth. I also had plenty of needles when I went back in to hospital at 18 months, 7 years and 14 years old. I may not have a memory of the early neddles but I still have the same reaction to them... I hate them!!!:stare:

I must be a madman though, I give blood regularly, but just look away when they insert the needle. The fact they are good with needle sticks helps as well. If you get a bad one, it's like they're drilling for oil!:doh:

[Monica Lewinsky]

Medical items do not scare me, but the typical smell of hospitals, and the awful atmosphere inside hospitals.

Agreed. Was in the hospital for my third go around with severe pnuemonia 3 years ago [2005]. Got woke up at 2 am for some "tests". Was taken in a gurny thing into the basement of the hospital. Man it smelled like a sewer and worse.

They stuck me in this thing [machine] that looked like a big over sized Dunkins Donut. Machine was harmless but they shot me up with a pint or quart of iodine so they could monitor what was wrong. Came real close of heaving my guts out.

What got me "sick" is the prior patient of the room DID what I was planning on and no one cleaned it up. Guess you have to wait to 8 am for the workers to clean up the puke? ;)

[Sailor Steve]

At some point the needle had to go in three times for the local anesthetic to be applied so it could be cut out.

I did "look" between the shear crys of pain. Man did that hurt. Needle did not hurt all that much, but when the good old doc pressed that plunger for the anesthetic injection ... I thought I was giving birth to triplets. ;)
Vasectomy. I'll leave the rest to your imagination.:cry:
Yep, worst possible place to get shots.

When I was younger I once gave blood. The needle went in, and I started squeezing the rubber thing they give you to help the blood flow. After a while the pain was intense. I called over the nurse and said "I hate to be a crybaby, but is it supposed to hurt like this?"

She looked and suddenly said "STOP SQUEEZING!"

The bag, after two minutes or so, had less than an ounce of blood in it. It seems the needle had slipped through the vein and into the muscle. I had a big yellow bruise from my elbow to my shoulder that lasted more than a month.

No, I don't like needles.

[Arclight]

Wow, guess I've been lucky so far. In general, never had anything more serious then a fever. The blood they took today and the upcoming echo will probably only reveal that I'm constipated (hurts like hell when I lie down though, pain shooting through my whole right flank?!). But I'm kinda young, coming up on 25, so who knows what the future holds in store.

The two times I was in hospital before was for that vacination and for a circumcision (my "gross" story);

Also one of my first memories, sometime after that vacination, no more then 6 months. It wasn't because of a religious thing, but improper hygiene (as far as I remember, blame my mom, I do :rotfl: ). After taking a bath, the foreskin wouldn't go back in the uh... "covered" position. So a doctor gets called in, guy walks in to the bathroom and takes a look. He decides that first he should try to force it back. I do remember screaming in pain, but not the pain itself, guess that got blocked out of my memory somewere along the way. After that, I was having none of it anymore. :nope:

I remember seeing the hospital from the car as we were driving up to the parking, and then there's a gap until the struggle that took place when they placed me on a bed, before carting me of to the O.R. I fought them with all I had in me, must have taken at least 2 people to keep me pinned down to that bed. And then we arrived in the O.R., and they had to move me from the cart to the operating table. The cart had metal railings, which gave me an excellent grip to hold on to. When they finally pried my hands loose and forced me down on the table, they had to keep me pinned until they could get the mask for the anesthetic on and wait for it to take effect.

Next, I remember coming too in the recovery room, and then a fragment after they had moved me to another room: A nurse walks up to me with a thermometer. My mom always put the thing in my armpit (she's a nurse as well), so when she explained she wanted to stick it where the sun don't shine I just yelled "No!" and dug in, ready for another fight. My reputation must have preceded me, because she quickly, but clearly annoyed, backed down. Can't remember if she didn't take my temperature at all or asked me to put it in my armpit instead, though.

I learned that I'm a fighter and I don't give up easily. The dokters and nurses in that hospital can vouch for that. :yep:

But they certainly did a good job. :smug:

Ah, good memories. :rotfl:


I must say that I admire all of you for being so open, that's not easy sometimes. :up:

[d@rk51d3]

I HATE needles. They send me running to the hills.:cry:

Hell, I even go without at the dentist.:yep:

Must admit however, that a recent bout of kidney stones, convinced me that needles aren't too bad...... in the right hands.

[baggygreen]

I HATE needles. They send me running to the hills.:cry:

Hell, I even go without at the dentist.:yep:

Must admit however, that a recent bout of kidney stones, convinced me that needles aren't too bad...... in the right hands.needles i can deal with, they hurt like buggery but they're ok.

kidney stones on the other hand... they're what frighten me most medical-wise, them and catheters!