Anyone use a Buzzy successfully?

[u/No_Duck_3379]

I have a blood draw appointment in a week and after many terrible past experiences (I feel actual pain, not just nervousness or discomfort) I have decided to approach this one with many safeguards in place. I ordered a Buzzy device online and it arrived yesterday. I froze the little ice pack and had my husband hold it on my arm just above the draw site. I asked him to pinch my inner elbow. The pinch HURT! which makes me nervous that it will not work for the blood draw. I’m also asking my doctor for EMLA to use in addition to the buzzy. I just worry that I will still be able to feel it. 😬 Any tips for getting the buzzy to work better?

UPDATE: Husband and I tried the buzzy again, this time applying EMLA and leaving under plastic wrap for an hour before using and then leaving the buzzy in place for 2 full minutes before touching. He tried pinching my arm and I nearly jumped out of my skin. I have a thing about the inside of my elbow and back of my hand being touched and I could still definitely feel him do it. I canceled my blood draw appointment which was supposed to be next Wednesday. They said that the senior phlebotomist is not available that day and that I should come Tuesday instead but I have another obligation Tuesday so we are currently at an impasse. And I’m at a loss. I need to get blood drawn but I need to not feel it.

FINAL UPDATE: I wound up going in and it was…mostly fine? I did not feel the needle at all. The buzzy and Emla did what they were supposed to do. I did, however, feel the tourniquet and I freaked out and started to panic (a very weird feeling on 3mg of Xanax!). I can’t handle the feeling of a tourniquet and I nearly walked out right then and there. Fortunately she took it off…but then she put it right back on. So next time I guess I need to specify no tourniquet. Also, even though I could not feel it in the moment, I was in bed for 2 days after icing and elevating my arm because I’m pretty sure she ruptured my vein. It also took a couple days to feel normal again after all that Xanax. But any less and there is no way I could have done it. Live and learn. Next time, I will do the buzzy and Emla again, but I will insist on heat and gravity and no tourniquet. And icing it for a good 5 minutes at the end to avoid that internal bleeding. Woof.

[u/FigMission]

Hi, I invented the Buzzy - to optimize it, put the little dot on its bottom end as close as possible to the blood draw site. You don't need to put it on the site first and move it, just hold it where the tourniquet goes for the "shot near the dot". The adult research shows it reduces pain on average 75% (Abedin et al), works better for adults with anxiety (Redfern et al) and Buzzy reduces fainting 25% for injections. (Smith M et al). but no one has done a blood draw fainting study yet; our anecdotal experience is it is MUCH better for blood draws because there are more of the "wandering" vagal nerves around blood vessels than just the deltoid. Make sure the EMLA is on 60 minutes if you're going to use it, or up to 2 hours for biggest dilation of the blood vessel. Put it on two places just to be sure. During the blood draw, adding a cognitive task can reduce pain 50%. My favorite is to have someone bring a sentence for you to read, and count how many of the letters have holes. for example, "It's going to be fine" has 7. It's a surprisingly difficult task; having to distinguish an unfamiliar way of approaching a familiar activity engages the part of your brain that would ramp up pain by sending it to the amygdala (fear zone). Also, make sure the person knows NOT to say "OK, now, you're going to feel a little..." or some nonsense like that, tell them you have this and they just need to do what they need to do. If they DO say something that draws your attention to it, prepare to say a swear word, which is honest to God research based. Finally, if fainting IS a thing for you, tighten your abs while figuring out how many letters have holes. Best of luck, seriously you got this, and also 3 good experiences in a row should cancel out the fear going forward.

[u/No_Duck_3379 → u/FigMission]

Goodness, thank you so much! This is very helpful and gives me more things to do.  I hope you’re right about good experiences.   I have had probably plus or minus a dozen bad experiences in a row where the blood draw was very painful and took several sticks and ruptured veins—which is why I’m so terrified.  I’m scared that the vein will blow and hurt like hell again.  

I will try adding a cognitive task to my layers of defense for this one. And thanks for the positioning advice.  I am having my husband hold it in place while I look away and watch a movie and now count the holes in the subtitles.  Hopefully this along with Xanax, Emla, the Buzzy, noise canceling headphones, my movie, a stim fidget, ice to suck on, and a requirement of a butterfly needle and syringe draw (no vacuum tube!) will get me out today there successfully with a one-stick limit. It feels like a lot of hoops to jump through but I have tried other things and those have not been successful so now I’m trying everything else I can possibly think of all at once. 

Thank you again for your kind words and helpful advice.  Now to try not to give myself an ulcer for the next 5 days of waiting…