Subscribe via RSSAdministrating Injections January 24
I would never in a million years be able to give someone an injection, even if you paid me. It's painful enough to get them, but to give it to a person?! No thanks.
Obviously this doesn't apply to nurses and doctors, but they're brave and awesome, unlike me.
You may be confused as to why I chose to blog about such an obscure topic, but it does actually apply to my life right now. Like I said before, my father ripped his Achilles tendon, the strongest tendon in your body. This isn't the first surgery that my father has had. He's had to have one of his heart valves replaced, and because of that he needed to thicken his blood to get this surgery.
Normally, my father takes these pills that thin out his blood so nothing forms on the mechanical heart valve that he has. This drug stays in the body for a long time so it would be very difficult to determine the correct time to stop using them in order for the blood to be able to coagulate after the surgery. This is where the needles come into play.
Two days before the surgery (which was on Thursday) he began using this other drug that thinned out his blood for 12 hours. After 12 hours, it becomes normal blood thickness. This meant that twice a day for four days (two days before and after) he needed to receive this injection twice a day. He decided to have his brother who is a fireman give him the shoots.
The doctors said that he (my father) could inject himself, but that was totally out of the options. Can you imagine giving yourself a shot in the stomach?!?! Talk about going unconscious right then and there.
It's not the pain associated with the injection, it's the thought. The thought of the needle breaking your skin. You skin. The thing that protects your body from so many things. The needle just "pops" the skin like nothing with the sharp 45° cut tip. I'm getting queasy just thinking about it.
That's why I hate needles. The idea of them breaking my skin, my barrier, and inserting some drug into me that will help me, but is foreign to me. Doing this to someone whether they don't mind needles or cannot stand them like me, impossible.
Update: I had orignally planned on adding something about diabetics and how they must have insolent in them which sometimes requires injections. If in this case or a similar one, I would have to get used to the fact of my situation and just give myself the injections. I'd have to get over this "fear" in order to save my life.
Meh, people who have diabetes have to give themselves insulin shots all the time. I imagine it's something you'd get used to.
Lovenox shots suck. I had them every day when I was in the hospital. Some nurses were able to find that "right" spot where you didn't feel it at all. But the more tender areas you could feel the pinch and then slight burn right after it. I lucked out after I got home since they just tossed me on Coumadin pills instead of Lovenox since the prescription would have been $1000/wk and I still had 3 weeks to go D:.
The shots themselves aren't honestly that bad and you don't really have long needles with them. They're more akin to a quick prick than anything else. :P
Clem - I had originally planned on adding some sentence or paragraph on diabetic people, but decided not to in the end. My mom kept saying stuff about them but I still did not enjoy the thought of needles. ;)
Jordan - Coumadin, that's what my dad normally takes. It seems like a much better option than $3000! :o
My cousin has had diabetes since we were 12 or 13ish, so the idea of giving myself a shot doesn't seem weird to me at all. I'm sure I would I would get used to it, and honestly so would you if it would save your life. A small puncture from a needle is far less painful and easier to watch, especially since you know it's going to happen, than, say slicing your hand while cooking, which produces a larger wound, and is generally unexpected. How can you be afraid of something so sanitary and not be afraid of everything else in the world that could potentially harm you?
Aisling - I never said that I wasn't afraid of other things like slicing my hand open or getting into an accident. Yes, I know that syringes are one of the cleanest things normal people come into contact with, but that doesn't help the fact that it still goes into me. If I were to slice my hand with a knife, or even get a paper cut, I had no clue that I was going to get it. If I'm getting a vaccine in a doctors office, I know that I will eventually have a tiny, but still there, hole and a burning sensation. I've begun telling the nurses/doctors to not count or do anything like that to let me know when it's going to happen because it's just that thought. It might seem silly but that's just what happens when I think of needles.
Of course I would get over the "fear" if I had diabetes or another disease that requires me to get regular injects. Thank God, I have not had that happen to me yet. *knocks on wood*
I can't imagine giving myself injections, either, much less those that are required every day (such as the insulin injections for diabetics). I wouldn't be able to do it. I'd have to have someone else do it for me. It's not the fear of pain, like you said, it's just the thought of the needle piercing my skin. I'm okay if others do it, but not myself.
I hope your father does okay with his surgery (if he hasn't had it already). Hope everything goes well!
I'm not bothered by needles/injections at all. However, I don't think I'd particularly enjoy administering injections to others...