What is the world coming to when you have to stick your own self with a needle to do your own health assessment?
This question is from someone who, as a child, had to be hog-tied and held down to get vaccinated and to have blood drawn for her physical exams.
I’ve had a life-long fear/hatred of needle sticks.
It’s justifiable.
Two years ago, at a real health assessment done in a doctor’s office, as it should be, the needle stick was almost painless.
For me!
I told the phlebotomist that she was good because I almost did not feel anything.
Which had never happened before in my whole lifetime!
She told me the needles are so fine now that there is hardly any pain involved any more in needle sticks.
I had the same experience during my annual blood work at my doctor’s office last year.
I hardly felt it!
That phlebotomist said pretty much the same thing about how the technology has grown causing the needles to be finer and sharper.
I’m all happy about this evolution in something that has caused me a life-time of dread.
I can remember myself saying the only thing I am afraid of is mice and dentists. Actually all rodents are rats to me. Forget that mice crap. I am only now realizing needle sticks should have also been on this list.
My kryptonite. Rodents Dentist. And needle sticks.
Want to subdue me?
There you have it. The three thing that would bring me to my knees quickly.
Those things would have worked.
Not any more!
I had to learn how to be responsible about the needle sticks during my first pregnancy.
It seems like drawing blood was what all pre-natal visits were about.
And, there were a lot of pre-natal visits.
I figured out how to almost slide out of the chair just about hitting the floor BUT keeping my arm still while I was being stuck.
I would warn the lab tech that I would probably jump out of the chair but I had the good sense to tell them although my body would be doing some things, they were not to pull the needle out. Hit it and be done!
I may be the biggest woos they would ever see, but, don’t play with me!
The first thing they would say is, don’t look.
What the???
Don’t look???
You’re about to invasively stick a metal object into my arm and you expect me to look away?
Something is wrong with that thought process.
I can’t not look!
It probably has to do with the idea of giving up complete control, which I am not built for.
I will watch you through the whole process. And guide you if I have to!
When I see you about to withdraw the needle after a perfectly good stick because I flinched (hell, I damn near convulsed) but my arm is still available to you, I will tell you straight up “do not pull the needle out”. “Do what you got to do”. “My arm is still here”.
The price I have to pay for a small amount of control. Or, to simply get though having my blood drawn.
That self assessment kit sat on my table for almost a week until I could pull myself together enough to do it.
I was not happy about it, but I did not have any other choice.
As it turned, out I had to stick myself twice.
My blood was so thick that after wiping away the first drop, I could only get one more drop to come out.
This left me with only one other option.
I had to stick myself again!
I prepared another finger and did the damn thing a second time.
I wiped away the first drop and barely managed to massage maybe two more drops out to get my test done.
My fingers are still sore the next morning.
I’m not happy about this at all.
But I did it.
To be totally honest, I did not stick a needle into myself. It was a lancet. Needle. Lancet. It all adds up to the same thing to me.
I guess the moral of this story is:
When faced with having to do what seems like an impossible task, remember we have everything it takes to make it happen, and know we always do come through and prevail!
Oh, yes.
I conquered my fear of dentists too.
Dentist visits are no longer the painful ordeal they used to be.
Thank God for evolving technology.
And rodents?
I no longer live in New York so it is a non-issue for me.
See.
LIFE IS ALWAYS WORKING OUT FOR US!
Thank the Lord!
Heart. Based. Sharing.
Peace. Love. Blessings.
JOIN MY FACEBOOK GROUP: https://www.facebook.com/groups/783186216094652
FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/yaminah.yisrael/