Most people probably know that I am awful with things medical (injections, having blood taken etc.) - not just having the procedures done but people talking about on themselves or sometimes in general as I have a completely irrational thing of imagining it happening to me as they speak, I know weird.
If you are a bit prone to this yourself, you may want to skip this posting.
True story - the height of my infamy on this front was probably when Alien 3 opened back in 1992. There is a scene where an autopsy is carried out on a little girl, you don't see anything but you see the prep, the tools and you hear it when the chest is being cracked open. First time I saw it no problem as I didn't know it was coming, however I ended up seeing it again with my housemates at the time and seriously, I quietly passed out in the cinema - what a nightmare!!!
So, with the amount of blood that needs to be taken to check levels, chemo going in etc. this whole thing is a bit of a nightmare and this is where the Hickman Line comes into it. Essentially it's a main line to the heart, the picture gives an idea as to how...
The procedure takes a while and a specialist team of nurses (certainly at the John Radcliffe, not sure for other hospitals) performs it in the ward.
Some people have it done with just with local anaesthetic but I know that would be beyond me to as there was an option to be sedated that 's what I did and so slept through the most of it but was awake for the final bit.
Being absolutely honest - I am still a bit freaked out about it even after a couple of weeks now and I try not to look at it, however the benefits are immense as blood is taken and drugs administered without you feeling a thing saves your arm veins getting shot to pieces.
So, I'll stop at this point as I was hoping that writing about it would make me come to terms with it a bit more but unfortunately not that much :-(
If any one has ideas as to how to get over this nonsense - leave a comment!
Hi Chris. Glad to see you're keeping good spirits. I have a bit of a phobia for needles/blood and gory stuff myslef. Ask Mika & Darren, they were torturing me the other day while describing a nasty injury... Anyway whenever I am forced to deal with it (as in when my kids were in hospital), I try to visualise the procedure/cut at a microscopic/mollecular level. It doesn't always work but wouldn;t hurt trying. I focus on the mechanics behind the experience itself. The smaller I can break it down visually the better, to the point that I don't see what's happening around me because my mind is so intringued and fascinated by the science itself. Give it a go
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