Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Hypodermia

In the past week, I have had two experiences with hypodermic needles.

On Wednesday past, I got my nose repierced. This is something that has been a long time coming. I first got my nose pierced during the summer of 2005. I was 17, and could not get it pierced without parental consent. Fortunately for me, I have an identical sister, whose ID was readily available. This is the only instance in my life I have ever used an alias. It totally worked, even with my sister standing right next to me. I had my nose ring for a little over a year. When I switched to a new school, I had to take it out, because at that time they did not allow facial piercings. It was a sad moment in my life. When they finally allowed them at the start of this school year, there was a mad rush of Ozark students to the piercing parlors, but I was not among them. Seeing so many of them made me not want one. Not yet. Then on Wednesday, the urge struck me, so my friend Kylie took me to her favorite place in downtown Joplin and, about ten minutes later, I had a hypodermic needle in my nose. I couldn't have been more thrilled.

As for the second hypodermic needle, that came late on Sunday night. I had been experiencing chest pain off and on all day, and finally got scared enough to go to the hospital. They gave me an EKG and did some blood tests - thus, the hypodermic needle. Everything turned out fine. I apparently have been stricken with a really bad case of heartburn (which is still mildly ongoing, despite the use of antacids). But I learned that when you're in the hospital, they put in an IV needle to take blood, and then they just leave it in you. I had a needle sticking out of my arm for about three hours. When I have a needle in my vein, I'm afraid to bend my arm because I'm sure that the needle will go straight through the other side of my vein and I'll suffer massive hemorrhaging and get sick bruises. I don't want to look like I have drug tracks.

2 comments:

  1. When a person is trying to prevent drug tracks, she might want to consider having the needles inserted between her toes. I saw it on "Intervention" and it seems to work for needle users (though their families are already aware so I'm not sure why they think they're being discreet).

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  2. I never bruised, even when I was hypoderming regularly twice a week for eight months. I bet you had no idea.

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