needle? phobia
The gastroenterologist is sending me for tests. The ultrasound of my gallbladder I can live with, they just shove the probe thingy into my stomach really hard and will probably leave a bruise.
The blood panel I am very not ok with, and the endoscopy which requires general anesthesia and an iv I am quite frankly freaked out about. Needlephobic doesn't quite cover it.
My GE is a nice guy but a big idiot in this department. He laughs it off and says "Oh, both my daughters had that, and then when it came time to have a baby they both were fine with it, so you'll grow out of it." My regular doctor says "I understand your phobia, here is a prescription for Xanax, make sure you test it out and figure out how much you need to take to be ok with everything."
The thing is, the phobia goes much, much deeper than "I'm afraid of needles, they hurt." I have a blood phobia that begins at blood drawing and ivs and continues down to being unable to examine my own veins in too much detail. It is so severe I had a LOT of trouble studying the circulatory system in my college biology classes.
Injections I've learned to tolerate. Blood draws and ivs combine the whole needles/pain/blood/veins/medical phobia into one nightmare package. Not to mention the last iv I had was utter agony the entire time it was in and took over a week to heal up and stop hurting enough that I could use my arm.
So here's hoping the Xanax is effective enough to save off a massive panic attack, and in the meantime a rousing "fuck you!" to everyone in the medical profession who goes "heh heh, that's cute, you'll get over it."
The blood panel I am very not ok with, and the endoscopy which requires general anesthesia and an iv I am quite frankly freaked out about. Needlephobic doesn't quite cover it.
My GE is a nice guy but a big idiot in this department. He laughs it off and says "Oh, both my daughters had that, and then when it came time to have a baby they both were fine with it, so you'll grow out of it." My regular doctor says "I understand your phobia, here is a prescription for Xanax, make sure you test it out and figure out how much you need to take to be ok with everything."
The thing is, the phobia goes much, much deeper than "I'm afraid of needles, they hurt." I have a blood phobia that begins at blood drawing and ivs and continues down to being unable to examine my own veins in too much detail. It is so severe I had a LOT of trouble studying the circulatory system in my college biology classes.
Injections I've learned to tolerate. Blood draws and ivs combine the whole needles/pain/blood/veins/medical phobia into one nightmare package. Not to mention the last iv I had was utter agony the entire time it was in and took over a week to heal up and stop hurting enough that I could use my arm.
So here's hoping the Xanax is effective enough to save off a massive panic attack, and in the meantime a rousing "fuck you!" to everyone in the medical profession who goes "heh heh, that's cute, you'll get over it."