Thursday, July 31, 2014

How can he be so afraid of needles?

    I have often wondered how William can be so afraid of some needles but not others. When he was first diagnosed at 2 years old we had to hold him down to even check his fingers. It was such a traumatic event and giving insulin after was even worse. He would see the syringe and it would take both of us to hold him down. It always made me feel so bad to have to poke him with the needle and to know that I was hurting him. I knew that it was saving his life but it also still hurt that he had to go through that.

    Now that he is 6 he puts strips into the meter and tests his own blood like it is nothing. He knows when the lancet in his "poker" needs to be changed because it hurts too much. The new one we have has such a small needle that you can barley tell it has poked you. If you leave the lancet there more that a day it starts to hurt or becomes ineffective. Then there is the needle for his site insertion. It can not be much bigger than the needles that he has blood drawn from but he has not problem letting me change his site. He will even tell me that he didn't even feel it go in a lot of the time.

    This brings me to my question "How can he be so afraid of needles?" for the other times he has to have blood drawn or to have vaccinations? I took him in to get the flu shot last year and was hopeful that he could have the nose spray but that is not possible for someone with diabetes. He had to get the shot and I felt so bad. Just a couple of weeks ago we had to go to the doctor to have his last vaccination (well at least until he is 11). He was happy to hear that. I know we will have more blood draws over the years and it will take three people to hold him down, for now. I have wondered how he can be OK with me inserting a new site every three days but not sit there for a blood draw.

     I know it is the anticipation of sitting there waiting to get poked, walking into the room and the build up to the even that psychs him out. He is so wound up by the time we get in for the needle that it takes three people to hold him down. My little man is so tough. I know that I would not want to be poked 10 times a day with needles and eleven on the days that he has site changes. Who would want a site on your body all of the time. Having the pump reduces the injections over the month significantly. One poke for three days vs 5 per day for a total of 15 pokes using a syringe or pen. My little guy makes me proud every day with his ability to deal with all of this like it was normal and I do my best to make it feel normal to him. I know things with needles will get better as he gets older. I try to make sure that he sees when I get poked when giving blood or getting my flu shot.

Needles will rule his life until there is a cure,

His Loving Dad

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