09-23-2006, 05:53 AM
Putting my views into perspective...
When I'm faced with a needle, medical staff tend to hear a feral growl from thier patient. They're usually warned by said growling patient beforehand to make no sudden moves, try anything, and NOT to rush things and deny said patient a chance to get his fight or flight reaction under control. One doctor ignored that warning. He was rewarded with said patient going BERSERK and filled with a desire to rip his lungs out. Said patient had to be restrained but managed to get in a rather heavy blow to the doctor's gut. (I was a middle schooler at the time who was visibly trembling, though partially from blood loss, when a numbing injection was mentioned earlier.) When I had to have blood taken at my last physical, I calmly asked for a scalpel or something sharp so I could eliminate the need for a needle. The request was denied, but when the nurse handling the proceedure saw a normally joking, happy, model patient change into someone who looked about five minutes away from murdering someone, she began to see why I suggested the scalpel.
And it's not just hypodermic needles. A friend was messing around with a sewing needle once when I was still in school. He jabbed me with it. I responded by dragging him out the door of the classroom when class was over, to the stairs and telling him in no uncertain terms that if he ever tried that again, I would end his life. On the way back to the classroom, I slammed his face into a door as an additional warning.
To summerize...
I. HATE. Needles.
When I'm faced with a needle, medical staff tend to hear a feral growl from thier patient. They're usually warned by said growling patient beforehand to make no sudden moves, try anything, and NOT to rush things and deny said patient a chance to get his fight or flight reaction under control. One doctor ignored that warning. He was rewarded with said patient going BERSERK and filled with a desire to rip his lungs out. Said patient had to be restrained but managed to get in a rather heavy blow to the doctor's gut. (I was a middle schooler at the time who was visibly trembling, though partially from blood loss, when a numbing injection was mentioned earlier.) When I had to have blood taken at my last physical, I calmly asked for a scalpel or something sharp so I could eliminate the need for a needle. The request was denied, but when the nurse handling the proceedure saw a normally joking, happy, model patient change into someone who looked about five minutes away from murdering someone, she began to see why I suggested the scalpel.
And it's not just hypodermic needles. A friend was messing around with a sewing needle once when I was still in school. He jabbed me with it. I responded by dragging him out the door of the classroom when class was over, to the stairs and telling him in no uncertain terms that if he ever tried that again, I would end his life. On the way back to the classroom, I slammed his face into a door as an additional warning.
To summerize...
I. HATE. Needles.