I have a massive needle phobia too, but I have found my saviour! It's called Emla, you can get it at the chemist, you put the cream on your skin (don't rub it in), put a patch over it and let it soak into your skin. You have to do this at least an hour before the needle. It will numb the area and you won't feel the needle at all.
I had a blood test a couple of weeks ago and didn't feel a thing!
I discovered it when they used it on my son's hand in the hospital paeds department. They call it angel cream there and use it so kids won't feel needles.
I have a needle phobia too. I also use Emla patches for blood tests and they are fantastic! The thought of IVF had me really worried and the first needle was the hardest but after that I was ok. DH always did them for me and I found the more I had the less anxious I felt. The IVF needles are that fine all I needed was a bit of ice to numb the area first. It is worth it in the end... Try not to worry about it until the time comes too - I would always be a mess leading up to blood tests etc for a good week before and then realise afterwards how silly that was. I thought I would never get through any of this but I have. I saw a councillor who specialised in phobias and the trick was gradually getting used to it. I started just looking at pictures of needles which freaked me out enough and then when I was comfortable enough with that I moved on from there and got my MIL to buy me a needle which every now and then I would just look at. Of course that got the heart pumping too but gradually the anxiety lessened. I can honestly say I can now get a blood test without any anxiety at all (still use the patches though - i'm not that good yet!). You can do it, you just have to believe in yourself that you can!
Bookmarks