What would you think...

[Nicky032605]

I know this post is some months old, but I just wanted to put in my two cents. Being someone who has had many Many MANY needle sticks to last two lifetimes, I think I know where you might be coming from on this. Every blue moon when getting my blood drawn, I would let out a few tears. I know the pain and what to expect. I couldn't understand why I would cry. Looking back I think it had to due with the stress I was under with my illness and what the needle stick/blood draw represented. Sometimes the stress would just get to me and for myself the pain was sometimes a release. I always look when they they do the stick and for the longest time it wouldnt faze me.

When I had my epidural this past year I could not stop shaking for the anesthesiologist. I tired to calm myself and was very upset that I couldnt do what he wanted. It wansn't the needle stick hurting that made me cry, but the embarrassment of not being able to stay still and stress of having my first baby. When I had to have a pyonidal cyst lanced in the hospital, I could not stop shaking violently when they were trying to knumb the area. After the procedure, the nurse told me they gave me enough vallium to nock out a grown man.... and yet I shook throughout the whole thing. I didn't always have this problem of shaking. If I could make it stop I would. It is very embarrassing. With how much you have been through, the fact you let out only a few tears is nothing to be ashamed of and completely reasonable. Please don't ever feel bad and let something like this hinder you or keep you down. Sometimes we just need to cry.

[Indy, LPN, LVN]

I want to cry every time I'm stuck. So I tell my patients that I'm a baby about it too, if I see them getting anxious. It seems to help them to know they can "do anything but hit me," and that remark usually makes them laugh and tolerate it better. (Which is good, I'm likely to miss 50% of the time.) I'm giving blood next week and fully expect to cry about it.

[Bipley]

Please be hounest I want to know if the nurses thought I was a baby about it.

Absolutely NOT! You mentioned this was to donate blood. Let me tell you about needle sizes. The needles they use to siphon a river of blood out of you are nothing more than garden hoses with pointy things on the end. It DOES hurt.

No worries, you did fine!

[Bipley]

When I was 17 I had to have blood drawn for something...believe me, you crying is not a big deal. I was hysterical and crying and sobbing...people had to hold me down. The nurse was like, "Is she serious?" My dad replied, "Oh, yes. Absolutely!" Talk about embarassing...I have improved greatly!

Jaime

Jaime....

My best friend has her PhD and she teaches. She STILL behaves that way. I'm not kidding, she's horrible. It's gotten to the point that her doc orders labs and she brings the lab req to me, I draw her, and she takes the blood to the lab. And let me tell you, it is no easy task to get the lab to permit you to bring your own blood there not drawn by them or the doc's office. But she's so bad her doc arranged it.

She is a hard stick but I usually get her the first time. Takes me an hour to pick which location I want to use considering I know it won't be easy if I have to stick her again.

Childbirth would kill this gal. :chuckle

[Ayvah, RN]

If she was only 17, it may have been her first time giving blood or just having a basic blood draw. For some reason when I would think about getting a needle slipped into my vein I'd think about bugs crawling under your skin like they have in the movies. It was weird but as soon as that needle hit my skin I started getting light headed and felt weird. When I went in for my first surgery, I had an IV put in for the first time and I started to cry. Not because it was so terribly painful, but because I was scared. I felt so bad because the nurse was asking me if I'd hurt her. It was all I could do to shake my head no because I didn't want to start crying out loud. I wish I could have told her that she did nothing wrong, that I was just very nervous/scared, but i just couldn't speak. I know this post is kind of old but if the patient is upset for some reason, it probably wasn't you but just first-time nerves. :) Now I give blood (as well as take other's blood) regularly and don't feel any apprehension at all!

[nurse4theplanet, RN]

:)...I got hysterical when I had to have an EGD done last summer...had 15 mg of valium and 125 of demerol on board and was still to restless / anxious to even let the doctor get close to me...had to reschedule and have general anesthesia because they couldn't even get close with just the conscious sedation...everyone reacts differently...some people can't do needles, some people can't swallow pills, some people can't handle a tube being stuck down their throat...it's all good. :)

oooohhhh....that's me! Come at me with a thousand needles at once and I won't flinch an inch or batt an eye. But try and stick something down my throat and I go hysterical!!!! My Family Practictioner used to have the worst time examining my throat because I would gag if I even looked at a tongue depressor

[LeahJet, ASN, RN]

Iv's/shots do hurt and I always feel sooo bad about hurting people.... especially little kids.

However, I refuse to "hold down" a teenager (or older) I'm not going to risk injuring myself or anyone else involved. I try to calm them down and talk to them but sometimes, their over-reaction is too much. At that point, I'll turn to the parent and let them know if she/he changes their mind, to let me know....then I excuse myself.

But to the OP, I know how you feel....seeing someone with big ole tears in their eyes just does something to me. But they know, as well as you, that it is all for the greater good.:)