::inject-o-phobia
2:11 a.m. - 2006-12-10
Today was one of 'em feel good days. I finally plucked up the courage to donate blood today. Okay, since i come from a family where everyone donates blood and that too on a regular basis, this shouldn't really be much of an issue right?
WRONG
Anyone who knows me long and well enough would know about my fear for injections. Yes, i have no idea what it is called, but for today it shall be inject-o-phobia
See i never understood how the idea of something poking into your skin could be helping you? Its just very very disturbing. It punctures your skin! Makes a hole in it! Stuffs a sharp thing down your skin! It could bleed! It could go in the wrong place! It could be dangerous!
I still remember one of my first injections. Okay,i'm lying. It probably wasn't my one of my first injections but just one of the ones i remember. I had gotten away without taking the Primary 1 vaccination cos i cried like mad and the nurses really gave up. My mother relented as well i guess so i just got oral medication.
However, there was this other test thing they did when i was in Primary 3. All they needed was my blood. A syringe full of it! So i tried to be brave(cos you know, you're in Primary 3 and crying was soooo Primary 2!) and i tried to grit my teeth as that wretched needle pierced my skin. My eyes were welling with tears and i tried my best to look away. But how on earth can you look away when something is going to enter your skin?!?! That's like telling me not to swat a mosquito that has landed on my leg!
Needless to say, i was injected. But i fainted the very next minute cos i saw my own blood.
Then came the very daunting Primary 6 where i had to undergo the BCG. I remember bawling my eyes out and my Primary 6 teacher(this really evil Mrs Sim who throws your books out and insists you write with a fountain pen) had to hug me.
Never mind the fact that in between, i had actually undergone at least 2-3 major surgeries which involved skin grafting and the likes of it. I still hate injections.
I always try to avoid getting injected. Somehow the clinic below my block(Grace Clinic) has this knack for giving me jabs. Right before my A levels, i got a jab on my butt for an infection. Then when i had a fever in between the first sem, i got a jab. Then before my exams i got TWO jabs.
So you'd think I actually have gotten used to injections right?
NOPE
I still insist on gripping onto hands around me and my eyes still automatically well with tears. I still ask the doctor or nurse a million times if it would hurt and take at least 5 minutes to breathe. I still stop e doctor right before he/she injects me and give her a pitiful face. And i still go OWWWWWWWWW when i get jabbed(the thought of it is making me ughhh).
SO you can imagine the look on my face when Kevin suggested this morning that I donate blood along with him too. I tried looking all brave but within 10 minutes i was just trying my level best to find excuses(i.e:my weight isn't right. i was unwell last week. i having flu.)
So Kevin slaps me back to reality by telling me that i'm just scared and explains the process to me(still doesn't help). Even till the moment we entered the Bloodbank, i was still finding ways to escape this hell. I hate having a needle in me for 20 seconds, a bloody suction-ish tube for 10 minutes???!?!
But as i thought about it, i kind of realised that somewhere out there, someone definitely needed my blood. What if tomorrow, i get injured and a blood transfusion becomes vital for my survival? I'd be eternally thankful for that one person who took time off his/her busy schedule to donate blood and today i wanted to be that one person. So i plucked up my courage and signed all the forms.
Some of the questions asked were really hilarious. Important but still hilarious.
Eg: For female donors: Have you/Are you having sexual intercourse with a male who has same sex intercourse?
Okay, maybe it doesn't sound so hilarious now, but to me it ermmm brought back some memories of certain twits i know.
Eg:Have you given gifts or money to a prostitute or had sexual intercourse in return for gifts or money
If the questions in itself weren't classic enough, right after we took our refreshments, we found this pamphlet that was phrased as below:
"Have same sex intercourse. DO NOT DONATE BLOOD."
I guess what it meant was, if you have same sex intercourse, please do not donate blood. But when phrased like that, it just looks like, why donate blood? Go have same sex intercourse!
Anyhow, donating blood really wasn't that painful since we are numbed through most of it(i swear i wasn't completely numbed though cos i felt the second bit of the needle too and when they took something off, i felt a sharp pain shoot to my head!) Nevertheless, its really nothing in comparison to saving someone's life.
I'm still afraid of injections and needles, but if it means that someone could actually live normally or that one more person gets to live another day, my fears are super inconsequential. Being squirmish for a few seconds or a little sharp pain is really nothing in comparison.
Plus, it was a priceless moment when Kevin(right after getting his arm bandaged and all) turns to the nurse attending to him and says, "Ok auntie. I'm leaving already. So where's my blood pack?" The auntie's reaction was a classic..
Moral of the Story: Injections SUCK. Blood donation rocks!
