Terminalcoffee discussion

i'm not, jim is, are you?

Oh yes, very, very afraid...I get nauseous and dizzy when I get my blood drawn, and I avoid shots like the plague.

Not at all.

Not really, but when I see them I feel like I should be afraid and in turn get slightly afraid.

Nope. And I better not be since I had to give myself a shot every day for 6 months and now get an infusion once a month!

But Richard is an absolute baby when it comes to shots.

My friend is a nurse, and hates getting shots which I find pretty amusing since she obviously has no problems giving them.

I'm not afraid, but I do pass out cold every time.

Lori wrote: "Nope. And I better not be since I had to give myself a shot every day for 6 months and now get an infusion once a month!"

i think i'd be afraid of giving myself shots. it's different when someone else handles the needle, someone who knows what they're doing.

See, I think I could handle giving myself a shot. I must have trust issues.

Janine, the subcutaneous ones are very easy to do. But admittedly, I was not afraid of shots beforehand so that helped. I was very nervous the first few times, I confess.

not in the least. ok, here is a hilljack kevin story i'll share because i am an idiot:

i once got a bad case of medial epicondylitis from weight training that was aggravated by softball. this turned into a weird gout deal because of a bursa sac bursting and i had a big swelled lump on my inner elbow. it was mostly bugging me and a bit sore so i took a turkey baster (needle/syringe combo the size of red bull can) and jabbed it in my elbow and self drained off the fluid. (yes i threw the whole deal away). the next day it all came back even worse so i had to go to a doc who asked me "where did this big puncture mark come from on your elbow?"

i would say i played dumb but i suspect it wasn't too much of an act

I have a good trick if you're getting blood drawn - drink tons of water the day before, have a Gatorade and some chips or something salty. Docs don't want to spread the salty trick since Americans are so overdosed on that already, but I'm not like that.

I just passed out reading Kevin's story.

Lori wrote: "I have a good trick if you're getting blood drawn - drink tons of water the day before, have a Gatorade and some chips or something salty. Docs don't want to spread the salty trick since Americans ..."

Lori, what does that do?

I agree with Ko on blood draws, depressing words and the ew at Kevin's story.

I'm not afraid of needles, but I don't particularly like them. When I did my own injections, the only way I got through it was by not seeing the needle. Now I just can't afford the meds.

I hate hate hate needles. I've gotten better about them, but I still have to focus on a magazine or something and tell them don't warn me, just do it. I'll jump if I'm warned.

I've had to get a couple of shots in my foot recently that were AWFUL and I swear I didn't move but the doctor said I made her miss. She jabbed me four times before she got a burly pregnant nurse to hold me down. I SWEAR I didn't move, but after that she got it done. The next time she was ready to go through the same thing again and I said NO. Get the nurse FIRST.

Sarah - it plumps up the veins so they are easy to find and stick.

Jammers - I didn't know that! Have you called because I know others who have gotten it free from their financial aid. Also, have you applied for Medicaid or Care - I can't remember which one is for oldsters and which for those in financial need.

I was hoping it was a pain thing. My veins are easy to find because I'm the palest person in the world.

Yes but if they are not hydrated and plump it's can be a harder poke.

Lori wrote: "Yes but if they are not hydrated and plump it's can be a harder poke."

Ew.

I'm waiting for someone to get NSFW with the poke reference.

DON'T DO IT!

Kevin, I love your Rambo self-surgery story.

I don't mind shots, but giving blood always makes me light-headed and a little woosy. I think it's mostly a psychological thing in my case, not something to do with fluid or salt levels.

Kevin "El Liso Grande" wrote: "not in the least. ok, here is a hilljack kevin story i'll share because i am an idiot:

i once got a bad case of medial epicondylitis from weight training that was aggravated by softball. this turn..."


You're bat-shit crazy, you know that?

Needles don't bother me at all. I'd be freaked out if I had to give myself shots but that's more because I'd be afraid that I would do something wrong.

Lori wrote: "Yes but if they are not hydrated and plump it's can be a harder poke."

that's a good trick, though i've never had complaints about the plumpness of my veins.

when i was four i spent eleven days in the hospital for tests and my parents always bought me ice cream after anything involving a needle. i am conditioned to like needles.

I always got Breyer models after Bad Stuff. It helped a little bit (but now I have about 100 of them at my mother's house.)


I hate needles so much that when my horse put me into a barbed wire fence, before going to a real doctor I went to this little old 90 year old retired doctor family friend and asked if there was anything I could do to avoid stitches, and he said "well, you could scrub your leg out with alcohol from the inside out three times a day, never letting it scab over until it starts healing from the inside out...but I would think stitches would be easier."

Not for me! I did my scrubbing! I think my leg would look like Frankenstein's monster if I had gotten stitches, but instead you can't see the scar unless you know to look for it, and it's only about a half an inch.
I hate needles a lot.

Sarah! Sarah!

i gave myself stitches once on a camping trip but that did not involve needles really. just the hooky suture deal in an ancient army medical kit

Oh good god Kevin. heh.

I'm not afraid of shots/immunizations because I went to medical assisting school and had to go through many, many, many, sticks from other students practing on me. What really helped me was to learn that it's not the needle going in that hurts, but rather the medicine going in that burns. We did all of our sticks with saline solution and since that's pretty much salt water, this point was proven to me when I really couldn't feel anything, even with clumsy hands sticking me.

As for blood draws...I HATE getting my blood drawn. My veins are so hard to find, and every single time I come away with bruises. During my last pregnancy, I had a woman try both arms and was literally rooting the needle around in my arm trying to get a vein. It flipping hurt.

I don't have a problem with needles, and I have the same problem as Stacia. they can NEVER find my veins.

I'm not afraid of needles. My Dad is terrified of them. He passes out at the sight of blood.

Poor Stacia! I'm telling ya, drink lots of water, and a full Gatorade the day before, it really works. And the salt helps you retain that hydration.

As for shots, that makes a lot of sense, because some shots definitely hurt more than others. I think tetanus is the worst. But I'm OK with shots as well, always have been.

Kevin "El Liso Grande" wrote: "i gave myself stitches once on a camping trip but that did not involve needles really. just the hooky suture deal in an ancient army medical kit"

See message 24.

Kevin is starting to remind me of that scene toward the end of No Country For Old Men where Javier Bardem walks away from that horrible car accident, and the two kids on their bicycles call after him, "But mister, there's a bone sticking out of your arm!"

*snort*

Jonathan wrote: "Kevin is starting to remind me of that scene toward the end of No Country For Old Men where Javier Bardem walks away from that horrible car accident, and the two kids on their bicycles call after h..."

Or the black knight in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."

Just a flesh wound...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! *still giggling*

I was going to say "No" until I read Kevin's stuff. In relation to that, I have to say "yes" because I would NOT stab myself with a turkey baster or give myself stitches unless I was in some sort of life or death situation.

i was. both those times i coulda killed myself :)

i'm an idiot

When I read the title, all I can think of is:

Kevin "El Liso Grande" wrote: "i'm an idiot"

You'd the same again.

Not afraid, but I can't watch the close-ups they show on TV of a needle entering the skin.

Phil you are so right! I hate the medical stuff on TV, have to cover my eyes.

They show that shit on the television? Thank GOD we don't have one. Jeez!

I HATE NEEDLES. I just can't watch. Don't make me watch, and I'm okay, though.
And fortunately, I have a very big, easy to see and find vein in my left arm.

:::shudder:::

Ha HA!

I do not fear needles. At least not after 1979 when I was in the hospital for a DVT (deep vein thrombosis). between the port in my hand with all the IVs going and the drawing of blood every 4 hrs for 9 days I got used to them. My veins collapsed and they were drawing the blood from between my toes at the end.