This made my day.

[Marmalady]

I regularly give blood, any needles for shots or blood test are not noticed.

I tried to get over my fear of needles by becoming a blood donor......

I would always, but always end up in the 'feet raised, cold cloths on forehead and neck' position. I never progressed to a hot drink afterwards (you were meant to have a cold drink on your first time, a cup of tea afterwards from then on). Always had to have the cold one. I also gave my blood very fast, which maybe didn't help matters. Eventually I gave up because I always just felt so bad.

Then when I was pregnant I found that was all the excuse needed to be continually shoving needles into me. Did it help me lose my phobia?

The heck it did...............................................

[ADoyle90815]

I've never been afraid of needles, and I give blood on a regular basis. The only issue is that sometimes the nurses who take blood for donation sometimes have difficulty finding a vein, even though I never skip meals and I drink plenty of water before donating.

[Sapphire Silk]

<snip>
i suggest it's mom because one of my coworkers made her daughter terrified. whenever she got a shot as a baby, her mom would gasp and over-react about how horrible it was that her baby was getting an injection. so now, yeah, the girl's afraid of needles. (and yes even she thinks her mom's behavior created the fear).

when i told my own mother the story, mom said..."when you girls [sis and i] got shots, i just wouldn't watch".
<snip>

though that does remind me - got the flue shot at walmart a couple of weeks ago. I don't know where these nurses came from but... they were very skilled. I never felt the needle until they swabbed the area after the shot. i even commented on it.

Kids ping off their parents. If the parents don't become drama queens, the kids usually don't either. My mom never made a big deal over shots, so I didn't have a phobia of needles until nursing school.

Back then, we had to demonstrate (check off) on each other before we were allowed to stick a patient. I got so nervous watching some of my peers I had a panic attack when it was my classmate's turn to stick me. They had to hold me down

When I got my polio shots back in '61 the doctor lined the whole class up and injected everybody with the same needle . Honestly, he had a spirit lamp on the table and sterilized the needle in the flame between each child but I still remember how much it hurt to be stabbed with that thick, blunt needle.

Yeah back then was before they had disposable needles, and before they realized some infections, like Hep C, are transmitted via shared needles. My aunt was a nurse in the late 40's/early 50's and told me one of her jobs on night shift was sharpening the needles before they went into the autoclave.

I have a couple in my collection of medical antiques. Really cool, actually.

[Teskeria]

about 9 years old (based on my brother being in diapers, boy did my mom love disposables after 6 prev kids) and I stepped on something really sharp at the pond (in state park). Nothing was stopping the bleeding so mom wet a disposable diaper and held it to the wound. it worked. We get to the hospital and I need stitches. Now I was a slight skinny kid. I was almost 19 before I hit 100 lbs. It took my Mom, Dad, 4 nurses and an extra doctor to hold me still enough to get it numbed and 3 stitches in.
And I still HATE needles.

[Marmalady]

Neither of my parents are needle phobic (just as well seeing my dad was an ambulanceman) so I can't say I got it from them. I just hate them. Spiders? No problem. Rats and mice? Who cares? Heights? Bring on your longest ladder. But a needle, oh lawks a mercy......

Ever see cartoons (e.g. Tom and Jerry) where one of the characters runs straight through the wall, leaving a hole shaped like them, to get away from someone or something? A needle is enough to make me want to do just that very thing.

[PepperElf]

Did it help me lose my phobia?

that's not surprising in a way.

reminds me of nursing school (i only lasted 3 months and never progressed into anything like giving shots). one of my classmates had diabetes and had to wear an insulin pump. she told us that because she had to inject herself daily before hooking the pump up.. that people assumed she LIKED needles. which pissed her off cos ... self injections were not fun-time for her. it was just something she had to do.


giving blood: now the worst part of that for me is the finger-stick. but i've gotten a little callus about that lately too.

as for the actual injection... the needle itself doesn't bother me. the pain isn't fun tho. so one of my old tricks against it was to pinch myself. the reasoning was that the pinch was something i was in control of so i could focus my attention on that instead of the needle going into my arm.

of late though, like the finger-stick, it's been less annoying. prolly cos i've lsot count of how many times i've given blood. *shrug*

[LadyAndreca]

I gave blood somewhere once where they pricked your ear instead of your finger. They also let me choose to give blood from my left arm instead of my right. So much nicer than anywhere else I've ever been...of course, they were also desperate for my O- blood.

Nowadays I'm not allowed to donate. I might be a mad cow or something, even if I was too young to eat beef during the time frame I lived in Europe. But Mom did while pregnant and breastfeeding, so...no go. Too bad, I liked donating blood, so long as I didn't have to look at the actual stick. I can while the needle's in, and it's not like I'm going to faint, I just don't want to see it go in or out for some reason I can't explain.

[firecat88]

Needles don't bother me so much anymore. Sure, I hate getting blood drawn, but I'm fairly used to the whole thing after having had 12 surgeries. I just put my headphones on, crank up whatever I can that I can sing along to, and let the nurses go about their business. Granted, it's not always easy. I'm what they call a hard stick. 9 times outta 10, it takes a good 3, 4, 8 tries to find a good vein that doesn't shrink or that the blood doesn't clot right away. There's this one facility, though, across from where my mom works, where I actually enjoy getting my blood drawn. It's because two of the techs there (both male, both actually pretty cute, but, alas, I think they're both taken) are very good at what they do. They somehow manage to get it on the first try every time. I don't know how they do it. They're just that good.

MRIs, on the other hand....those bother me. I have this weird thing (I don't want to call it a fear or a phobia) about loud noises. Thus, I do not like getting MRIs. Never have, never will. My mom had to bribe me with going out for breakfast at IHOP to get me to endure an MRI.

[boringscreenname]

My son has hated shots ever since he was a baby. He's so terrified, that just putting him on the exam table makes him start crying, and he cries through the whole exam and shots. He also reacts the same way when I have to use one of those public changing stations to change his diaper.

Now on Tuesday I get to start all over again and take my 2 month old daughter to the doctor for her shots. God help me.

[Andara Bledin]

I gave blood somewhere once where they pricked your ear instead of your finger.

Every time I've ever gone, it's been the blade to the earlobe to collect the sample to check iron level.

They only resort to the finger when they have to do a metered check for those who are borderline. I got denied, once, because my iron level was just barely below the limit.

Nowadays I'm not allowed to donate. I might be a mad cow or something, even if I was too young to eat beef during the time frame I lived in Europe.

Does that also apply to doing platelets?

^-.-^

[LadyAndreca]

Does that also apply to doing platelets?

^-.-^

I...don't know? *looks it up* Oooh...that's cutting it close. Donating whole blood is '3-6 months in Europe, dependant on location', but platelets is 'five cumulative years between 1980 and the present'. *counts* Four years, ten months, counting mom's pregnancy.

[Moggie]

Hey Lady A, you're ok on the platelets and plasma front. I lived in Europe at the time and I can't donate regularly either, although I keep popping into the local center and asking.
I can however donate just fine at the local plasma place and have been known to pick up a little Christmas money that way now and then. They haven't had any objections yet and I've done it for a few years now.

Someone needs to get on that mad cow screening test fast. Blood is too hard to get and keep and far too vital to cut off so many people from donating.

[Fire_on_High]

I'm just the opposite...I *have* to see what's being done or I reflexively jerk from the needle stick.

[ShadowBall]

I'm not afraid of needles...doesn't mean I enjoy them being inserted. The only thing is I'm a lightweight when it comes to getting blood drawn. About four of those tiny hospital vials and I get very nauseous...ten and I faint. I remember needing to get about a dozen vials drawn when my idiot doctor thought I had lupus and connective tissue disorder - I fainted the second the nurse got the needle out of my arm and a bunch of other nurses caught me because I fell forward out of the chair and almost did a faceplant. That was not a fun day - I was out for 30 minutes and my lips were grey the whole time.

I don't think I could ever give blood considering how weak I get after losing such a small amount of blood. The finger pokes with the itty bitty needles don't bug me. IVs I do not like, especially when they are used to inject a painkiller that hurt like eight bitches on a bitch boat*.

When I was a kid, my doctor would tell me to look the opposite way and blow as hard as I could while she was administering a shot. Worked really well - I didn't feel anything, except when the nurse misfired and I had a swollen, sore arm for a week following the shot. Grr.

*cookies to whoever knows the reference

[Racket_Man]

I regularly give blood, any needles for shots or blood test are not noticed.

that is how I mostly got over my fear of needles. for a couple of years I donated Plasma (ya know the BIG 15 guage blood needle). the problem was I could only get stuck in one vein. if they tried to stick me anywhere (same arm or other arm) else I would pass out.