Needles Don't Hurt!

So, remember my post about my needle phobia and how I had to go back to the hospital to get more blood taken? Remember how I was determined that I was going to get over this because needles really aren't that bad? Remember how I mentioned that the world likes to screw things up for me?

Well, life did it's usual little trick of throwing a spanner in the works, and I endured what is probably one of the most horrific bleeding experiences ever. Really.

Things actually started off quite well - I explained my phobia to the lovely old lady who would be taking my blood, and she was very reassuring and promised me that she would be extra gentle with me. Then the guy from Device Technologies turned up with his little box of...needles and syringes...and things took a turn for the worse.

First of all, I found out they were taking twice as much blood as last time - 120ml of blood, I think. He had these two massive syringes that both had to be filled to capacity.

Then things got worse. You know what you don't want to hear when you go to get your blood taken? This...


Nurse: Wow, these needles are huge! I don't think I've ever taken blood with a needle this big.

Man: Yeah, normally we take blood from people when they're unconscious and having biopsies. This is the first time I've seen these used to take blood from someone while they're awake.

Nurse: I suppose they have to be big to stop the blood coagulating. Say, these needles are a little strange. How does the needle and tube attach to the syringe...?

Man: I'm not sure...

Meanwhile I was sitting on the chair freaking out while they waved giant needles and syringes around and tried to work out how to attach the needle and blood tube thing to the syringe. Eventually they got set up and it was time for the needle.

Now, I should mention that the last time they took blood from me, I was in tears by this stage. This time I was dry eyed and in reasonably good spirits. The entire thing was pretty surreal.

Then this happened - now you have to excuse my terrible drawings (worse than usual!) but my arms hurt a lot from the needles, so I drew these quickly. I think they illustrate what happened pretty clearly though...

Apparently the tube thing hadn't attached to the syringe properly, so when she stuck the needle into me, blood went everywhere. Everywhere. It was all over me, all over the chair, bench, floor and everything else within about a foot of my arm.

I will never, ever forget the poor lady screaming out, "Don't look! Don't look! Oh god, don't look!" As blood went everywhere.

The Device Technologies man kept his distance while the nurse desperately tried to stop the blood from spurting everywhere. Me? Surprisingly, despite the fact that the giant needle had really, really hurt, was too busy laughing to do anything. It was surreal.

Finally the tube attached and they took the blood. Then they realised they still had to take a second syringe of blood, and they realised that they would have to use my other arm to take more blood. Luckily, the second syringe of blood went better - it didn't go anywhere except in the syringe! It did however really, really hurt.

It was over soon enough and the lady bandaged up my arms and told me to leave it on for 6 hours, because the holes the needles had made were quite large and they would take longer than normal to close up. She also told me that she had never seen needles this big before and apologised for the blood and the pain that I'd experienced.

I was able to tell her, in between giggling fits, that although it had really hurt, I had actually found this the least stressful needle-related experience ever. Which is funny because I think this is the kind of experience which would have usually cause needle phobias in people!

So, despite lunch serving up giant horrible needles and a bucket load of blood, I think I've actually taken quite a big step to getting over this phobia of mine.

Take that, fear!