To be surprised people find cannulas painful

[User4647]

I’ve had Loads and they had one be painful. I’m surprised that most other people find them painful.

Have a round of applause 👏🏻
Have you ever had to get one in the underside of your hand? I’m hard AF but even winced at that one.

@Howlooseisyourgoose no headaches ever?! As a regular migraine sufferer, that's definitely a super power I'd like!

Fucking horrible. Nurse couldn't get it in and felt like she was trying to peel back of my hand up. Second nurse did it fine. But that one still majorly bruised. Put me right off injections in general and I never had a prob before.

Good for you OP. Go get yourself a big shiny bravery medal.

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn

I had one in the back of my hand during labour. It was more painful than the birth - mainly because they tried about five times in my right hand unsuccesfully and then after several attempts got the massive bloody needle into. It hurt a lot.

Thinking about that makes me wince, you poor thing! Why on earth did you have to have a cannula in during labour? Unless there were complications of course or were induced. It sounds dreadful. I got on wth my labour with no needles; I am not scared of needles but imagine any sort of drip would make labour more difficult.

In the back of the hand is very painful. I was hospitalised last year and had that, two in fact. I was warned it was going to hurt; it did very much and I'd say my pain threshold is OK. However the medics seemed to think I needed to have a drug delivered into my blood stream quickly. It was a nightmare because it gave me diarrhoea - even in my sleep - and I had to call to have the cannulae disconnected every time I wanted to go to the toilet. Never again!

@DueNumberTwo
Thank you, I sit in the car and wait for him. It's usually about 7hrs, I read and people watch but I can't go home just in case something happens and he needs me.

had loads ranging from didn't feel anything to like it was going to come out the other side of my arm.

My 16 year old had one a few weeks back, and she was crying it hurt so much, and she's a hard lass.

I have rubbish veins. I find any blood test or cannulas uncomfortable. The worst experience was when my vein collapsed. I do have a high pain threshold but I always find the experience of the nurse taking 4-5 attempts trying to insert a cannula whilst I am feeling unwell or in pain just pushes me over the edge.

I have had a few and I have a real phobia of them thanks to a nurse who when I had my tonsils out put one that was too big and caused my hand to swell it was pure agony.
When I broke my ankle and had to have an emergency operation to put in hardware the anesthetist was amazing he had seen on my notes I had a phobia and he was so kind and gentle .But I don't care what anyone says they hurt like hell.

I've had some that I barely feel and some that have been incredibly painful. They very much vary.

Lucky you op. My veins are crap so they hurt and leave a huge bruise. Once a fdiled cannula got infected and the pain was worse than the operation site.

I have had 100s of them, sometimes the hurt other times they didn't. Depends on how dehydrated and the Dr/nurse. I remember one occasion as a child the Dr attempted over an hour to put one in.

I had one in my wrist and let me tell you it was bloody awful, especially when you have next to no fat on you which I didn't.

@SquitMcJit

Well then you are lucky.

I am practically phobic about them now after several horrible experiences. Apparently, my veins are hard to find. And one time I had one put in incorrectly which did a very scary thing to my hand. And really hurt.

Amazing that people are different, eh?

I'm another one who had one inserted incorrectly. It was too big and had slipped so was pumping whatever it was directly into my hand. I'd just had DS2 via section (it was put in during the section) and was cradling him in Recovery in that arm. I switched arms as it was hurting and was horrified to see it had ballooned to twice its size and was bright red. The nurse practically shit herself. To this day my hand tingles when I think about it, and it is still referred to as my 'Hellboy Hand'. It's took a good 36 hours to return to normal too.

Then there's all the times they've had multiple attempts to get one in. They're fun too.

So do knob off and come back when you've had that experience.

Mine are fucking painful because they always manage to blow my bloody veins when they do them!

I've got a pretty high pain threshold, but there's something about things going directly into my vein that makes me feel incredibly uncomfortable until it's removed. It feels really gross. I don't think it's that unusual.

I HATE them, and find them painful. Shite veins though, so probably due to that.

Some people seem to have better veins (mine are rubbish) and some people are better at doing it (I have a doctor do it when it was totally painless but alas he is the only one to achieve that particular level of excellence.)

I may have to have an endoscopy. I don't know if that or the IV sedation (because there's no way I'm doing it without) is worse. I find cannulas really horrible and I'm hoping to obtain some EMLA. The midwife got me some when I had my induction with DS3

OP the midwife during my DC's birth was rushing so much the registrar had to take over (having tried three fingers and failed). DC now 6 but to this day I still get awful Carpal tunnel pain and sensations and very weirdly cannot get a fingerprint to work on any iphone I have had since. I could not speak at the time but take it from me it was sheer agony!

Maybe it’s to do with the fact that you have had loads? I have epilepsy and have wound up in A&E loads of times as a consequence - I’ve had so many cannulas I barely even notice them these days. I think it is because I’m so used to it that it is genuinely no big deal.

But if I had to go to the dentist and have one of those anaesthetics that they inject into your gums I would cry like a baby. So it’s nothing to do with pain thresholds, or needles....

I gave birth in January and they left one hanging in my hand all night. It kept catching and was really sore. I was on the verge of tears the last time I had to ask someone to take it out, it was a really thick needle and was just adding to the many other discomforts of post birth.

I'm not usually one of those "why did you post this" people but this is so weird and trivial even for mumsnet 😅

Is EMLA the cream they use on children so it doesn't hurt? My DD was terrified of having it done when had an operation when she was about 9 but that stuff was brilliant, then she started worrying about having it taken out. Sometimes you can't win with kids, well mine anyway.

I’ve had a few. Twice I’ve had fluids go into tissue instead of the vein. Several times the site has become inflamed. And sometimes it’s been fine.