Ok... who all here has a needle phobia?
I would like to state for the record I am a recovering needle-phobe, just like I am a recovering germ-a-phobe. I say recovering, because I do fall off the wagon every so often
I hate needles! Shiney, metal, forgein objects peircing my teeny tiny little veins
And please do not get me started on the germs... germs are EVERYWHERE!! If I could I would live in an all white room, and no not a white padded wall room either, but one where I can see the germs and they can see me coming at them with the bleach water! I was not really a germ-a-phobe until I had my daughter then I went on a germ killing spree for years. Now, since I cannot really clean the house like I use to push myself to do... I just lay in my bed and freak out about the germs on the bottoms of my feet that are now getting my once nice clean sheets and bed covers germified!
Ok enough... or I can go on and on and on and on...
Hey Joonie,
I can sympathise on the germ front! Before RA and the many doctors/hospital appts that come with it I used to have panic attacks about having to go to the doctors ans sit with sick people. Still not overly fond of the surgery or the hospital..... *shudders*
Worse is my phobia of vomiting (yet another reason to find doctors sugeries impossible!). If someone says they feel sick or someone in their family is sick then you'll find me carefully adging away unitl an appropriate distance is reached between me and said person. Normally several rooms apart. And then i wont eat properly for a few days just in case I do catch what they had. It's stupid! And very unhelpful when it comes to RA drugs.
joonie, cannot identify with the needle thing. I've been stuck so many times that my veins stand at attention when they see those test tubes coming. I don't even feel it anymore.
Usually, I try to focus on something else in the room. A lot of times, I will try and engage the person doing the shot or bloodwork in a conversation. Giving yourself shots is tougher. But when I was taking them, I made it into a ceremony with everything in just the right order.
joonie, I know that needle thing you got, I had it before the RA.
Go on and laugh, the big man afraid of a little needle, o don't let me faint. My wife has held my hand many times.
But the PAIN of RA was worse, now needles are fine. I gave myself the first shot of humira and have done so for over a year.
Hang in there it gets better, shots still sting, but the pain in yourbody is far worse than the shot.
There are plenty of people who fear the needle.
I'm a needle-phobe. I can't look when I'm about to get jabbed for anything.I always hated neeedles. I fainted during a lousy EARLOBE pinprick blood test.
I once pased out cold WALKING PAST a blood drive set up in one area of my university commons area. I wasn't even in the same room..sheesh.
My veins hide terribly, and often they have to try another one to draw blood or set an IV.
Finally though I've calmed down... and after self injecting for about a year, I came up with a handy self help guide. Soooooo here it is for all you phobics, and scairdy cats.. :) jk
It is such a non issue now. I used to faint at finger tip blood tests..Here is what works for me.
First thing give yourself time, this isn't a facial, but it is something you are doing for you. treat it like a gift. fix a cup of coffee, go someplace quiet, play calming music.
Make sure the syringe is WARM. your body is 98.6... room temp will be a shock. I rest the syringe across the top of my coffee mug. Then just before I inject I roll it between my palms. Have it out of the fridge for about a half hour.
Ice the area of your tummy you will inject. Get it REALLY cold. I have an ice pack in a light tshirt, and leave it there for a good long time. You want that area numb. Wipe your tummy with the alcohol pad and let it dry.. Completely. You don't want to inject the slightest amount of alcohol, that is probably what is stinging.
Pinch up a roll of flab about the size of your thumb and finger together, check the syringe, and gently push the plunger in a little to get the air out of the syringe..
Hold the syringe like you are throwing a dart, and slide the point into the skin you have pinched up. Slide it in at about a 45 degree agnle, not straight down. The ice will have numbed it so much you won't feel the needle slide in.
Release the flab, and shift your fingers on the needle holding it between the index and middle finger, with the thumb on the plunger.
SLOWLY depress the plunger..I depress to a chant..."My toes won't hurt, my ankles won't hurt, my knees won't hurt, my hips won't hurt, my fingers won't hurt, my wrists won't hurt, my thumbs won't hurt, my elbows won't hurt, my shoulders won't hurt, my jaw won't hurt...this shot stings but far less than my body hurts."
You should be finished then, remove the syringe, place the ice pack back on for maybe 30 seconds, and dispose of the needle...now finish your coffee.
You can do it
well I get a depo injection every three months for birthcontrol because i had a really really really bad experence with the pill...so i'm just the opisit...i don't like pills (and now i'm taking about 6) and i would rather have a needle. I just can't look...i absolutly can not look while i'm getting a shot or getting blood work done. However I do give injections at the hospital and i look when i give those (which is a good thing)!
I love the tips for injections you recieved from kathy...there basically what i would have said. one thing to add is giving an injection is like throwing a dart, not just the old but the way you throw it is also the action you should do, also inject into the skin fast because it seems to hurt less (from a giving prospective).
Good luck! Jessica
I think needles ar intresting! I love to watch when they put an IV in or when they are giving me a shot, or drawing blood! I think it is so cool how such a little thing, (or big, LOL) could do so much! Yea I know you guys probably think I am crazy, but hey think of it this way at least it is germ free!! As for the germ thing, lets put it this way, I dont open a door bare handed, I always use my sleve!!LOL!!!I have been taking Humira since last February... and well... I was getting use to the needle when they swithched me to once a week. But the once every other week, I would still freak out when hubby would try to give me my injection.
I got a humria shot Sunday night and I still freaked out and I had already been back on it for a month. Hubby just told me to suck it up and shut up and stay still then he "jabbed" me. I say jab because that is how I see it when a needle is inserted into me. No matter how nicely, gently someone sticks me, it is they jabbed me.
I would never be able to give myself my own injection. I would not be able to do it. I would just go back to hurting, being stiff, and unable to do anything vs giving myself an injection.
Hey Joonie,
My long lost friend,
I've way got you beat, I'm going to be 47 in March and have been on Humera for a little over a year and have still not given myself a shot.
My Mom gives them to me..
I have knocked her hand away, can't stand it!
She makes me put my hands ontop my head
and for some reason I start singing Old McDonald.....
By the time I get to "On this farm he had a chicken...with a...here..."
I say Quack......lol......
then its over and me and mom laugh.....
There's no way I can give myself a shot....I can't even look....
LUV
KAT
Hey Ms. KYcatfan!
I remember that time when you told me about the time your mom pierced you thru to the other side on your arm.
I hope everything is going go for you, life wise that is.