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Needles
North Miami Beach, Florida 2-2 Aug.1, 2000 Aaron H. Schectman
THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on issues, ideas and reflections on the times. Published now and
then. Opinions pro or con are welcome.
NEEDLES
As a needle phobic person I cannot understand how acupuncturists can sell
their pain "management" by inserting needles into specific points on the
human body. My recent hospital and doctor's office stay is a case in point.
It seemed that it was necessary to invade my veins over and over to sample
my blood. It was also necessary to install a "port" into which it was
blessedly painless to inject medicines into those same veins. Installing
the port was a gruesome moment and each time I happened to look at it I
relived the moment of the needle sliding into my flesh. I hate needles.
As a devotee of science fiction I particularly loved the scenes where the
doctor of the future used a wand of some sort pressed against the patient's
flesh and thus injected necessary life-saving substances. If I recall
rightly, there is some sort of vaccine injecting machine that actually
exists which does not involve needles and speeds up handling masses of
children requiring the attention. Seeing these procedures enacted on movie
and television screens had none of the cringing, fear inducing images of the
dreaded needle.
I suppose that "vampires" (my name for the professional blood extractor)
have feelings for the pain and dread patients feel at their presence. They
say they sympathize but I KNOW it is just a job to them and I am silly to
invest so much emotion in an act that will be over in such a short time. It
is funny how time stretches and shrinks according to the trauma one
experiences - particularly in hospitals where unimaginable magic is taking
within one's supine body.
The saving grace of all of this is, after the needles are out and the
endless blood samples are evaluated the doctor tells you that your "numbers"
are all where they should be. I know I could never be a doctor or
technician who handles blood or describes it to a patient. My own blood is
precious to me and I dislike it being the object of discussion for any
reason. However, my health is also precious to me and I accept the doctors
and vampires for their services on my behalf - reluctantly. Carol's
Evaluation: 10 out of 10.
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