....but I hate needles

I'm not scared of needles. But I do have a fear of giving blood. I have no idea why. I tried to sneak out of a doctors office once when they wanted to take it. I got caught. I used to give to the Red Cross because work gave me a half day off if I did. In the end I would puke my guts out before and after so I stopped.

I thought for sure seeing my wife give me birth would cause me to puke or faint. For whatever reason I watched the whole thing and didn't flinch. I'm shocked by this. My biggest fear is seeing her in pain and not being able to help. And she was in lots of pain. But some how I watched it with intent like a good movie. I guess it was the baby maybe.

Back to the topic at hand. If you want to get the flu vaccine then get it. If you don't want to then don't. But for the love of fucking Christ, don't blatantly lie to people in order influence them one way or the other.

 

FOCUS: Flu shots are a fucking scam.
When I was in prison, they made you get them, unless you signed a release stating that you knew the risks of getting the flu, and that you could possibly die by NOT taking the shot.
I opted out every time, and I'm just fine.

Alt. Focus: I am not afraid of needles. When I was in my late teens, I used to sell plasma twice a week for a couple of years. For that, you get a stainless steel coffee-straw jammed into the biggest vein in your arm. The phlebotomists tell you to look away, but I couldn't NOT watch the needle go in.
I even asked them to let me stick it in, but they wouldn't let me.

Fun fact: Unlike most kids (myself included), Li'l Bandit never cried when he got any of his shots as a baby/toddler/child.

 

I do not care for needles. I passed out when I got my ears pierced. I passed out every every shot that I had to get until I was probably 20. It was embarrassing as hell. I vomited when I got my foot tattoo. I can't remember if I passed out or got sick when I got my other piercings but every time I would warn them that I might pass out. Like I said, embarrassing.

Thankfully I had apparently grown out of it by the time I got pregnant. Good luck being pregnant and scared of needles. I never passed out for any blood draws or anything related to that. I hate IVs most of all though, which has less to do with the needle and more to do with something being attached to me. It gives me the heebie-jeebies. I had to have c-sections with both my kids and was literally scared stiff of the spinal block. With my daughter it ended up being nothing, one stick and good to go. With my son the anesthesiologist had to try 5 times before he got it, and he kept telling me to relax. Fuck you dude, fuck you.

As far as the flu shot goes, I never got it and I didn't have my kids get it until my son was 3 months old and got Influenza A. He was really close to being admitted to the hospital and I felt like the worst mom ever. Now my kids get it, I get it, and my husband doesn't. I'm pretty passionate about vaccinations so I'm not sure why I didn't take the flu shot seriously before but I do now. Maybe it doesn't make any difference at all but I'm not going to risk it either way.

 

I got my first flu shot I think ever last month. I haven't gotten the flu since I moved out of the dorms (both years I got it really, really badly) and I never got the shot because I didn't want the chance of getting sick. But when I was picking up a prescription last month the pharmacist sold me on it because they had a kind I didn't even know existed where it was more like an immune system booster than the other one. Maybe he was just lying to me, or maybe I got something weird and am now unknowingly part of some test, because everyone I've told about it doesn't believe me. But, it was free and I haven't gotten sick, so, whatever.

I'm not too bad about getting shots, but I am very, very, VERY bad with getting blood drawn or IVs. I have really small, really deep veins with very little blood in them. Annoyingly, I have to get my blood drawn every six months, and every time I go I get stabbed 2 or 3 times by the nurse, then the doctor, then they pawn me off on the lab technicians, and they usually need a couple tries. I always walk away with bruises and bandages all up and down my arms like I'm a junkie. I just had it done last week and the lab tech told me that if I ever wanted to donate blood I'd have to pay her to do it. I got surgery last year and after not eating or drinking for 30 hours it was so bad they had to give me my anesthesia in my neck. It was awful.

 

I'm hearing a lot of misinformation on here about the flu shot. Please take a second to look at the link. The flu shot will only give you mild autism, aids, herpes, and scabies, but thats it, it won't give you the flu.

The difficult thing is its impossible to say how many cases of flu were avoided because of the vaccine. From an individual standpoint you don't know if you're been exposed to a flu and don't get it, I think thats one of the things that impedes vaccination rates.

I got my vaccination yesterday and I did get a mild headache, but as you guys know my twin has leukemia so I had to get one. If he wasn't sick I may not have got one because of fear of flu shot side effects I've experienced in the past. In the past I had had night sweats. This time I picked up advil just in case I did get a slight fever. If I did chose not to get the vaccine it wouldn't be because of doubts of how effective it is. 60% effective is far better than 0%.

http://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/10-flu-myths

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/misconceptions.htm

 

Come on. You can't believe those hacks at HARVARD. It's not like they do research or anything.

 

But, don't you feel guilty that you let yourself get malaria, and now the tens of people you could have saved will have to die?

Red Cross wouldn't let me donate for a time after I got back from Morocco.

 

I used to give blood, I have A-. I was thinking about providing a direct donation to my brother but I guess thats a more difficult process than meets the eye.

 

I'm not a fan of needles but I put up with them. The only time I even got mildly queasy was when I had to get rabies shots. I got scratched by the shop cat at my first duty station and my supervisor made me get the shots just in case, despite my objections. They informed me that the entire series was going to be four shots with some big fucking needles so instead of risking the first shot was going to hurt and then having to endure it three more times, I told them to give me all four shots at once - one in each arm and each leg. I didn't even hurt that much, but the sensation of getting an injection on the top of my thigh was just so strange I got a little light-headed for a moment.

Like Frebis though the thought of giving blood makes me uncomfortable so I don't. I think it's the thought of lying helplessly while my vital fluids are drained from my body reminds me too much of this, which I admit freaked thirteen-year-old me out:

 

I don't necessarily mind needles, except for some reason I can't stand watching them being inserted into the body. Once it's in, I'm fine; so I have to look away whenever I give blood. However, I have pretty big veins that are easy to hit, so I don't typically have issues with people trying to stick me.

Regarding the flu shot, I typically don't get one, not because I think I'll get autism or anything stupid like that, it's more due to the fact that I'm in a low risk group and am usually pretty good about avoiding contracting communicable diseases (minus that one time in college).

 

It isn't, actually. I did directed donation for my daughter. Two pints, one week apart. Gave me anemia for a bit but the process itself was easy. They just log you differently and you sign a LOT more paperwork.

 

I get the flu shot every year, and never have any bad reactions to it. I know how dangerous the flu can be and is rather not take the chance on getting it.

Needles don't bother me in the slightest. When I worked in the Bio lab at a college, I was asked, and agreed, to sit at the front of a Blood and Body Fluids class, while aspiring phlebotomists repeatedly drew my blood for a lab exercise

I had strep throat a lot as a kid, and got used to getting penicillin shots in my ass.

I've had several rounds of rabies shots also. On round 2, I received them at the hospital where my sister works. She introduced me to a couple of cute nurses she worked with. When my sister left they both turned to me and "take off your pants", and proceeded to give me the injections via the ass cheek. Strange how all the other round were given in my arm.

 

My daughter gets the flu shot every year. The only time she's ever gotten the flu was the year H1N1 made its rounds in 2009. I caught it from her.

The H1N1 was the only time I've ever had the flu in my life, and I'd never gotten the flu shot either. Until 2 years ago when my employer had this new health care program where certain "do rights" would get $$ added to a pot of money that gets dipped into for your deductible (when the pot runs dry is when you start to get bills). One of the do rights is getting your flu shot. So basically I am getting paid to get the shot. Works for me. I've not had any adverse effects the two times I've gotten it.

I actually need to get that done this year. Gotta make bank, we just about cleaned out the pot with my daughter's wisdom teeth removal. Our bill was $1300, but didn't have to pay a dime because of that pot.