I Hate Needles

I had my horrible, burning, stinging, shots last night…I must seriously consider a new course of treatment. I’m not convinced that the pain of these injections is worth it when I’m not even sure how much they are helping. It seems to have reduced the pain but my trips to the bathroom are just as frequent as before. I plan to discuss this with my doctor on the 19th. I should have known better. What was I thinking agreeing to a treatment that involves needles??? My history with needles is not a good one. First of all I HATE them. I have always hated them and I always will. You would think by now that I would be oblivious to them. After all I have been tortured with them for 20 plus years now. Yes tortured….if there is a dull needle carrying incompetent nurse/doctor/iv team anywhere within a 5 mile radius of my veins they will flock to me and proceed to poke me repeatedly with no success while they mumble things like “your veins are so small”, “I’m so sorry”, “let me just try one more time”, leaving me bruised and bloodied. No I am not exaggerating. I am sure many unskilled phlebotomists have abandoned their lifelong dreams of drawing blood from anyone who is still breathing, or at least I hope so, because of me. Most of them just can’t seem to get the needle into the vein…hmm let me try that again…hmm the vein rolled…hmm let me go get someone else. Oops I went all the way through the vein…umm you may have some bruising. One phlebotomist “in training” not only could not get the needle in the vein she hit a nerve or something and I had pain and could hardly move my arm the rest of the day. During a Remicade infusion the nurse tried and tried and finally got the iv needle in but then my arm was getting all wet. Upon closer examination I noticed a large puddle of blood…ahhh excuse me I think something is wrong. “Oh my”!!! While I was in the hospital an iv nurse tried, tried, and tried again then went and got someone else. A few days later she showed up at my room, took one look at me, and went to get someone else. I laid there thinking “that’s right honey there’s no way you are coming anywhere near me with a needle”. Then there’s the visiting nurse who would to come and give me my horrible burning, stinging injections. At that time a visiting nurse was required because the medication had to be mixed before injected subcutaneously. Now you would think that since she didn’t have to insert the needle into a “small” vein this would be EASY hahaha. No this is me we are talking about. After all her visits I was left with at least one very large hematoma. Then there’s the time that she pinched up some skin, plunged the needle in and oops she went through to the other side of the pinched area. Yeah that’s going to leave a mark. Fortunately I now receive prefilled syringes that I can inject myself with but since I hate needles (did I mention that I hate needles) I can’t inject myself so my very wonderful and very gentle and very needle savvy sister in law comes to my house every four weeks and gives me my horrible, burning, stinging shots without maiming me. Yep not even a red mark is left behind. I love her…everyone should have a wonderful, gentle, needle savvy sister in law. Well that’s all for now.
Love, laugh, and always know where the nearest bathroom is