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Original poster

Any top tips for needlephobic DH at flu clinic tomorrow?

56 replies

FreezerBird · 16/11/2020 21:55

DH is not great with needles, to put it mildly.

He's not had the flu vaccination before but has been recommended to have it this year (living with a vulnerable person).

Part of the concern is that we've realised today that flu jabs are being given in a gazebo in the doctors' car park - it looks like you go in one side, roll up your sleeve, get done, walk out the other side as the next person goes in. Appointments are three minutes long.

So he's concerned about what happens if he feels faint - presumably there's no sitting down at any point. He obviously doesn't want to be embarrassed but even more so doesn't want to cause chaos in what is presumably a fairly fast moving clinic.

I think the conveyor belt nature of it might work in his favour as he won't have time to think about it much.

If anyone has some top tips for him to not end up flat on the ground in the car park we'd love to hear them.

OP posts:
Murmurur · 16/11/2020 22:29

We had our first flu jabs yesterday. I was surprised how little it hurt. I'm awful at having blood tests but this was so much easier. We were at a pharmacy in a supermarket, but they had produced chairs from somewhere and we were told we had to hang round nearby for 10 mins in case of an adverse reaction. You might find there are some chairs around anyway, and at a GP surgery I would be amazed if they don't have somewhere inside to whip people into if need be.

MrsT1405 · 16/11/2020 22:30

Oh for fs man up ! Its 2 seconds mildly uncomfortable! Try to man up

PanamaPattie · 16/11/2020 22:34

I'm needle phobic to the point of fainting. I've recently had a flu and pneumonia jab over two appointments and it was a breeze. Didn't feel a thing.

SpeckledyHen · 16/11/2020 22:40

This years jab is over in nanoseconds. It was in the nurses hand ready to go as soon as I arrived in front of her standing in the corridor outside the surgery . No chat , checked name , jab straight in and out and directed to the door to leave .I literally didn’t feel it .

Suggest he has his sleeve rolled up ready so no delay or time to think!

GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat · 16/11/2020 22:45

Eat a banana 10 minutes before.

Original poster
FreezerBird · 16/11/2020 22:48

@MrsT1405

Oh for fs man up ! Its 2 seconds mildly uncomfortable! Try to man up
If that was a feasible option, he'd have worked out how to do it by now, as I'm sure would all the other people in this thread who've said that they also faint/feel dizzy/fear needles.

It's not the pain that's the issue; he has a far higher pain threshold than I do. I have no problem with needles, he does.

OP posts:
AdaColeman · 16/11/2020 22:51

The people running the clinic will have done it over many years, it will be a very slick process.
They may do family groups together, rather than exact appointment times, which are more to ensure that not everyone arrives at the clinic opening time.
A sugary drink before he sets off, a pack of chocolate and biscuits with him, possibly a bottle of sweet squash too. Just in case he needs them!

andweallsingalong · 16/11/2020 22:53

I get through it by asking for the most experienced person on that day (even if I have to wait longer) and asking them not to talk me through it at all, just fast and clinical. I then roll up my sleeve, tense up the opposite arm hard, and stare intently at someone or something in the opposite direction. Then on the way out think of the children or others who might be worried in the waiting room, slap a smile on my face and march out.

Never been too bad with immunisations (although this year will be my first flu jab), but have been phobic with needles for years and had to have annual blood tests as a kid, which were all awful, so loads of "coping practice", not that it makes it any easier.

Hope it goes well

BashfulClam · 16/11/2020 22:55

Look away, both me and husband didn’t feel it at all. I actually wondered if she’d find it, so if he looks away he won’t know.

andweallsingalong · 16/11/2020 22:57

Oh, and I'm the opposite to others in that I don't eat first because if I have an empty stomach if I feel sick during the wait I can reassure myself I'm not going to be sick and don't have to rush off to the toilet.

designercornishbird · 16/11/2020 22:58

A nurse told me to sing any nursery rhyme in my head.

By the time I remembered one - the jab was done! Smile

AgeLikeWine · 16/11/2020 23:00

Don’t look is the golden rule.

The jab will probably go into his upper left arm, so he just needs to roll his sleeve up, turn his head and look the other way. I had a flu jab a few weeks ago. It took literally 10 seconds and needle used was so tiny that I barely felt it.

squeekums · 16/11/2020 23:04

@MrsT1405

Oh for fs man up ! Its 2 seconds mildly uncomfortable! Try to man up
Your midly uncomfortable is my feeling like im being murdered A phobia isnt just "man up" At 10 i broke a drs nose, even while being restrained When pregnant, it was deemed unsafe to even try take blood from me after my reaction when they tried the first time. I launched from chair from under hypnosis, like someone possessed as DP puts it, ran to door and hid in corner of the room as i couldnt work out how to open the door in my frantic state. If id got door open, id have broken Usain Bolts sprint records DP admits i scared him that day, he had never seen anything like it
MissConductUS · 16/11/2020 23:04

I'm a nurse and agree with PP, it's much better to let the staff know so that they can be prepared. This phobia is common enough that they will surely have something planned to deal with it.

If I know a man has this phobia I flirt with him a bit as I give the jab to distract him. It never fails. Grin

BluebellsGreenbells · 16/11/2020 23:07

He can take paracetamol prior to the appointment so he’ll be pain free

WitchesBritchesPumpkinPants · 16/11/2020 23:08

I had it for the first time this year. It's the tiniest, finest needle ever! Blink & he'll miss it!

Maybe you can ask them
What's best when you get yours done?

I was expecting it to be a visiting team as that's what we'd been advised, and I was expecting some kind if gazebo type arrangement, but they had us going into the surgery into various rooms and by chance I got my Dr, if it hadn't been her I'd have been concerned it hadn't been done properly tbh it was SO quick.

Hope he's ok.

averythinline · 16/11/2020 23:16

This years def less painful...I didn't realise it had been done either...
My dB who is not good with needles ...tells the injector looks at opposite shoulder and chews gum/toffee/ sweet...says the combination of fixed viewpoint and sugar helps ....I would get yours first...then if he faints at least your done!
One friend was cured by practicing with syringe on a needle ...
Another meditates/ another sings..I'm surrounded by needle phobes..:).

Elieza · 16/11/2020 23:18

A bag of something frozen from the freezer, transported in the car in a cool box, produced at the appointment and put on the forehead works well. Prevents queasiness and takes your mind off the jag.

If you freeze a damp facecloth in a plastic sandwich bag that would do the job and look less embarrassing than a bag of peas! (Although the bag of peas would work better) It won’t last long but the shock of feeling it fair makes you forget everything else. Confused the nerves!

Don’t put it in a pocket on the way to the surgery or it will melt and not work!

It could just look like a hanky if he took it out of the bag prior as walking in to the doc, (held it by the corner so only that would melt until his sleeve was up and the jab was getting prepared) and then held it against the opposite side of his face to the side the doctor is standing on. So even the doc prob would think he’s just wiping his forehead and the side of his face. Rather than what’s this big woose up to....Grin
(I too am one of those wooses incidentally)!

SheepandCow · 16/11/2020 23:26

In case it helps, I'm like your husband with blood tests. I freak out, but the flu jab is so completely different. It's not in a vein, it's literally a tiny prick, and you really don't feel it. I have one every year, always get nervous, and then it's over before I realise it's done. He should tell them if he's nervous. They're always very understanding and do their best to distract you. They're very used to people with phobias of needles. It's nothing to be embarrassed about as it's quite common.

BeginningToFumeALotAtMIL · 17/11/2020 06:41

Why take the DC back to the car? If he has to occupy then so they don't annoy the other people waiting, he has less time to think about it!

Hm2020 · 17/11/2020 09:20

I’m going tomorrow for mine in my chemist tomorrow it’s a tiny chemist and all though they used to take you In the back room they now they do it in the chemist with people queuing behind you I did wonder what happens to people like your poor dh Covid has complicated so many small things that make life so much more difficult for some people

Original poster
FreezerBird · 17/11/2020 09:45

We're back! All good, he didn't even need the emergency chocolate!

I think part of the issue was the only injections he's had in recent years are dentist ones so he just expected something similar. Is quite up for flu jab every year now Grin

Oh, and there were chairs! To be honest once I saw that I stopped worrying as my main concern was a full length faint onto the pavement and/or a five foot nurse.

OP posts:
Toddlerteaplease · 17/11/2020 10:27

@MissConductUS you are much more sympathetic than me and my colleagues are. We are paediatric nurses, so regularly do much worse things to children. So adults being silly about an injection get no sympathy, our play specialist was the worst! (
( Not including people with a genuine phobia of needles. But haven't had anyone with that yet)

SpacePug · 17/11/2020 10:45

Mine was a similar set up but in the GP's waiting room, I was in the building about 30 seconds, so I think 3 mins is way longer than it will actually take. Hopefully it will be so quick he won't have time to panic. Maybe go with him and wait outside at the exit of the tent

DownWhichOfLate · 17/11/2020 14:06

He did NOT faint when you had an epidural?! Shock Grin