Convince Me To Get The Vaccine

[moonscape]

42. So agree. Those who don't have needle phobia

can’t fully understand. The only times I ever fainted involved needles, so I always asked to be horizontal and given a pillow to hold over my face. It has nothing to do with pain, everything to do with a phobia of any sharp object piercing my skin.

I got cancer 5 years ago and have had several surgeries, hundreds of blood draws, shots in my eye for macular degeneration, and have tons of stories to tell about my terrifying needle journey. It has taken all that for me to =finally= lose my terror. But I was forced to go through it because my life depended on it, and without the eye needles I would have totally lost my vision.

My strategy was to be honest and I found so much support in the medical community to do whatever I needed to make the injection/biopsy/whatever happen. I didn’t respond to distractions, but needed quiet and to meditate myself into a calmer head space and then nod when it was okay. Also, I learned to make sure and breathe because I used to hold my breath which one time made the IV impossible to go in. I forget the explanation of mechanics, but the system literally rejects the intrusion. That was a painful lesson! Breathing makes a huge difference.

Phobias are illogical real things. I empathize.