Injections

A friend was talking about his acupuncture session: that the needle felt like a nail going in.  This reminds me of my own experience.

    One year, I got myself organised early enough (November) to get my hay fever jabs arranged at the GP’s.  I’d always missed it until it was too late (season had started), so I was proud of myself.  The pack of 6 duly arrived at the GP’s.  The lady doctor (Dutch, I think) said, upon opening it, “Oh, the needles are so big! I’m sorry this is going to hurt.”  My reaction when it comes to jabs is to want it over ASAP, so the last thing I want is to have my attention drawn to it. She then said it again when she was actually doing the injection, apologising that it was going to hurt. The same thing happened again for Visits 2 and 3. I never finished the course.

    When I tried to donate blood on a regular basis in the 2000s, my first visit was an agonising one with the person taking ages and being unable to find a vein in the crook of my left arm, then going for the right arm but it was so small that they didn’t fill a whole bag within the time limit.  The regular blood donation idea was abandoned after the same thing happened all over again in a second visit.

(London)