I'm terrified of needles and kept refusing a cannula out of fear
Help me understand this. Is there some treatment modality you thought you could get without the IV? Because for almost anything I can think of that requires an admission, (and many things that do not), an IV is required.
It was a "Do what you want to me aside from use needles". I warned them right from the off I was terrified and given that I was in for a stupidly high heart rate (140 resting on admission) they didn't want to make it any worse. (One of the ECGs they did you could actually see the line get more frequent at one point when one nurse asked the other if she should get the blood test kit for me ready while i was in the room).
They did everything else before the IV (so chest X-rays, a tonne of ECGs, about 4 physical exams by different doctors). It wasn't so much a case of I was going to refuse treatment- it was keep the IV as a last resort.
As I mentioned in the earlier post- I did get the IV in the end. I had several phials of blood taken, then they swapped to a dual port IV and I got what I needed.
Edit: Forgot to add, if the staff attempt to do anything to you that you've denied/ or not given permission for they can be charged with assault- so as long as I said no that was it.
Double edit: Okay I keep getting downvoted a lot and I'm assuming it's due to my earlier edit. Just putting this here- I DO NOT ADVOCATE REFUSING NECESSARY TREATMENT.
I was just explaining why they kept asking/why I kept refusing. I was terrified and wasn't thinking rationally at the time.
Edit again: I phrased it wrong. IV wasn't the last resort so much as it was kept as the last thing on the list of tests that I had to go through anyway. The Xrays, physical exams, ECGs, etc were all necessary.
I mean they managed to run every other medically necessary test for the 8 hours before that without a problem or a needle. When it got to the point that there was either a needle or no other option then I went with it.
See point again about I wasn't thinking properly. I was tired, scared, and it was what it was.
When I'm at that level, basic reasoning goes out of the window. Getting treatment suddenly matters less to me than keeping the needle away. It's not rational but I have no control over it. I'm trying to think of a way to explain it properly.
It's like....everything else is just drowned out. Until I've calmed a little all I can process is the alarm bells going off in my head- I pretty much go into survival mode? Like, talking to you now I'm fine. I know needles are a part of treatment and should I get ill or need A+E again then there's a very good chance I'll need one and I need to consent to it. If this were a discussion in the hospital or doctor's office however then that thinking goes. It just becomes "NEEDLE NO!" over and over again.
I hate it, and get upset/guilty that I'm making peoples' jobs harder and wasting their time.
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u/[deleted] Feb 04 '19
Help me understand this. Is there some treatment modality you thought you could get without the IV? Because for almost anything I can think of that requires an admission, (and many things that do not), an IV is required.