A Treasure Found at Home

when i was little i had no fear of needles or medical procedures at all. i would watch the doctor give me booster shots and wonder only where all that liquid in the syringe could possibly go without making a bubble on my arm.

that all changed when i was five. popular theory at the time stated that if you told kids what would happen to them when they had medical procedures it would only scare them. so everything that happened to me that day in the hospital was a surprise, painful, scary, and so traumatic that i developed a real phobia of anything which might puncture or cut my skin and (to my mind) invade my body.

i’ve tried on and off over the years to address the issue. hypnosis, imagining a shot was already over and went well, sedatives, changing the way i think about needles, learning to use knives better… nothing seemed to work.

recently i started going to an acupuncturist, which seems odd all things considered. she’s spent a lot of time doing acupressure for me, giving me needles to take home and look at, giving me herbs, and letting me watch her put needles in her arm. last week i put the needle in her arm.

and this week…

i put a needle in my leg!