Needles and you?

[Kaikitsune Makoto 203]

Are you afraid of needles? Some of them are!

Where do needles go in human body? Why do we have needles to poke a human

body? Needles are used in many fields in the society. Sowing wouldn't

exist with needles! Medicine would be very awkward without needles.

Anesthesiologists are probably the world champions in needle magic. They

are summoned to poke people with needles when others fail. There is no

scientific study around that I know of that would have examined the

relationship with anesthesilogists and needles. How many anesthesiologists

suffer from personal needle phobia is also unknown. For normal people

needles are sometimes scary, cause mental discomfort in addition to

usually mild physical discomfort, most people recoil when they are asked

to imagine an accident where a long needle penetrates the eye.

So where needles go in our bodies?

Into bloodveins they go! To open an intravenous line to the body so that

administration of drugs is convenient and fast. From blood veins one is

able to draw blood as blood has a tendency to flow in bloodveins. Drawing

blood is good for laboratories who can then analyze the blood and send lab

results to doctors who then read the results and decide whether to treat

or not, or how to treat and why. When needle goes into a bloodvein, it

usually goes into the back of the hand where most people have good veins

which bulge as if they are screaming "Needles needles, come here!".

Another common place to poke a bloodvain is the area at the junction of

forearm and upper arm. This is the place blood samples are almost always

taken. When a drunk driver is caught by police and he/she refuses to blow

into the alcometer, he/she is taken to doctor who draws blood while police

officers try to keep the possibly wriggling drunkard in discipline and the

arm immovable. Drug users who go intra-venous, inject the drug into their

bloodveins too. Their needles can be less clean.

Since you may be very interested, I suggest you watch very carefully next

time some experienced lab nurse draws your blood. She inserts the needle

first into the vein in small angle and then pushes it further in the vein

tilting the direction longitudinally to vein direction.

Needle can be inserted to any vain really. Jugular vein in throat area is

another good target.

Into testicles they go! (golden testicles may be inpenetratable..) Not

often though. In cases where for example a young man suffers from spinal

cord injury preventing ejaculation and he and his FCIL wish to reproduce,

needle can be inserted into the testicle and sperm drawn which is then

followed by artificial insemination of the woman. Speaking of which

needles can go to woman's ovaries too. Usually to harvest eggs that have

been whipped to grow with the help of hormonal therapy. Ultra-sound device

is used to guide the route. Needle is often taken to ovaries via vagina.

It may hurt. I have no idea if it does. I could imagine it does.

Into spinal space they go! Women are most familiar with epidural they can

get during delivery to ease the pain. Agile anesthesiologist then comes

with a long needle and inserts the needle into the epidural space and

releases local anesthetic substance. In surgeries the needle goes to the

real spinal space ie. few millimetres further and there the anesthetics

will cause total numbness in the lower body. Also if you have had bad

fever, stiff neck and other nuisance symptoms, doctor on call can take a

likvor sample out of you (to see if you have meningitis usually) and

likvor resides in the spinal space so again you get needle into your lower

back. When sumo wrestlers have undergone surgeries with spinal anesthesia,

the long needles have completely sunk into the back as the distance

between the skin and the space is big. It is considered difficult to do

spinal punction to rikishi. I hope some poor Japanese medical student

doesn't have to start with a rikishi and instead can torment some smaller

human with his/her uncertain poking :-P

Good picture of epidural and spinal needles. As bonus there is also

pudendal block needle shown. It is one of the delivery time local

anesthetic options:

Here some spinal punction needles. Longest ones should be enough for even

rikishi:

Into fat they go! Subcutaneous fat mostly. One way to administer drugs.

Diabetic people inject subcutaneously insuline. Liposuction methods

involve a needle too at first I assume. Haven't seen done in any other

place than in X-files where things went wrong and poltergeist-doctor

sucked out more than fat and was arrested for murder.

Into brain they go! At least in experimental Parkinson's disease treatment

a long needle is inserted into the affected substantia nigra and stem

cells injected there in hope for new dopamine secreting neuron growth!

Neurosurgeons' field. Maybe brain gets poked with needles in other

procedures too. Intra-cranial pressure measuring and shunt placing (to

treat hydrocephalus) must involve a needle too before the actual device.

Into uterus they go! To draw a sample of the amniotic fluid in order to

establish whether the featus has some problems with chromosomes or

infections.

Into peritoneal cavity they go! Peritoneal dialysis involves a needle that

goes into the cavity and then sailine is added and osmosis cleans up the

blood. Then the waste product solution is sucked out.

Into joints they go! If you rupture your ACL in knee, you most certainly

receive a nice needle which empties the blood filled joint cavity.

Takanohana's knee was drained from blood with the help of a needle after

his fatal Musoyama-loss in Natsu 2001. Cortisone treatment can be given to

shoulder for example to alleviate inflammation symptoms. Javelin throwers!

Into the bone marrow they go! Usually into iliac crest or sternum. Bone

marrow samples or if you voluntare for bone marrow recipient (good thing

to do!) you can be summoned to donate bone marrow when someone with the

same tissue type is in need (even if the person is in other country!).

Then they insert a needle trhough the bone into the bone marrow. This

procedure can be rather unpleasant I have heard but you can save lives so

do it!

Into muscles they go! Recreational use too. Steroids into muscle can be

injected in crystal form where they slowly get released to blood stream.

Vaccinations are also often/sometimes given to muscle. Deltoid muscle and

gluteus maximus are usual victims. In Finnish military there was at least

a habit 10 years ago to place a conscriptive on the table face down. 4

nurses smiled with needles in their hands. All you had on was underpants

which was then drawn lower so that their vaccinations could be given. One

nurse at each corner. One to left buttocks, one to right buttocks, one to

right deltoid, one to left deltoid. Depending on the update level of your

vaccination card, you got either 0,1,2,3 or 4 vaccinations. I got 3 I

think. In emergencies where bloodveins are not visible and no chance to

wait for an anesthesiologist to come and do needle tricks, medication is

sometimes given to muscle too where it then spread into blood stream.

Many armies give antidotes of various nerve gases in an automatic ampul to

soldiers in case someone is so mean that throws a cloud of sarine or other

nasty nerve-muscle synapse blockers on you, you can hit yourself with the

antidote to for example thigh and needle automatically gives you

life-saving substance like atropine. I don't know if the classic movie

method is in use anywhere but basically you could hit the damn needle into

your or someone else's heart for fast antidote affect. Nicholas Cage's

character in "The Rock" did this very nicely. In Tarantino's "Pulp

Fiction" a woman was treated with same mechanism heh. I think it was

adrenaline to heart with a needle strike. Cocaine overdose she had

perhaps? Can't remember. I don't know if the sternum is so soft that you

can do that so or maybe you are supposed to go next to sternum.

Acupuncture is the gentle needle treatment. Not bad feeling at all.

Acupuncture has old roots. Modern medicine gives one explanation as

acupuncture can irritate censory tracts instead of pain tracts and then

pain alleviates as it drowns into the active stimulation of the near-by

sensory fibres. Other explanations are more complex. Energy flows, there

are links between various bodyparts etc. But this is now needle topic!

Acupuncture needles are thin and kind. Don't let a "expert of everything"-

acupuncturist poke your pleura though. Pneumothorax is not so pleasant.

Pleura!!! Yes needles go to pleura too. "Good breast sounds!" means "both

lungs operate well" and if the pleura which surrounds lungs seperately

gets ruptured, pressure changes cause the lung to collapse and breast

sounds decrease. Not so serious but what is serious is when air gets in

but not out of the damaged pleura and this adds pressure so much that the

lung starts to collapse badly and exert pressure to heart too. Then needle

comes and makes a new route for the air to get away from the trap and

pressure get easier. This is relatively common emergency needle action but

if you need that the needle is not your major concern anymore.

Needle can go to other places too but these came to mind now.

Needle saves lives! Needle is your friend. Needle becomes a bad enemy when

it is found in children's playground as a consequence of IV-drug user's

disposal of used needle. Needle can be an enemy to a police officer too

who does that tapping search for newly arrested humans. They often ask "Do

you have any needles or other items on you?" when they do that search.

Oh, in TV-show "ER" there was some case once where needle was injected to

the back of the eye from the side. It was some kind of emergency

treatment. That was closest to needle in the eye.

Needles used for big animals like a horse are big ones. They can seem

intimidating. Horses don't like needles much I guess. Needle may be one of

those items that trigger a natural defense reaction in animals. No?

Oh and needles are also used when taking a thin needle biopsy of possible

tumour suspicions. Liver biopsy is very common.

Needles are part of life and life is life!

[aderechelsea 111]

i kinda enjoy needles a bit......... :-)

i like donating blood a lot.............. :-P

[Zenjimoto 40]

No problem here, like I already mentioned in the other thread. Although I must admit, there are more pleasant thoughts than spinal needles! :-P

[Jesinofuji 11]

I really hate needles. I voted the 2nd last option. If I need to get a shot, I can deal with it without breaking down, but I really really do hate them.

edit:

I looked over Kaikitsune's long post, but don't really feel like reading it. I would haunt me.

Edited April 18, 2004 by Jesinofuji

[QttP 0]

When I was five I had this illness which the doctors thought was very dangerous. For a couple of months I had between 3 and 6 shots a day. Overall that's probably more than a normal person has in a lifetime. I kinda lost my fear of needles back then. I voted the second option. It's not pleasat, but I really don't mind.

[Tokimori 0]

I'm a diabetic. Needles are essential to my life.

Lucky for me I wasn't afraid of needles before I got the disease and needed to inject myself. :-P

[Manekineko 200]

How squemish I am can be seen by the fact I was cringing and shutting my eyes while reading Kai's essay on needles. :-P Then again I managed to read it through, so it's not phobia - yet.

[Datchayama 0]

I'd have to say mostly I don't..but it really depends on area you're dealing with and if I'd have to poke myself or not..although I'd sure expect that I'd shortly get over that aspect of it if life depended on it.

*Salutes the diabetics*

If we could only get good Star Trek-based medical equipment developed....^^

[Manekineko 200]

If we could only get good Star Trek-based medical equipment developed....^^

Actually, I think we're not so far away from "hiposprays". Fingers crossed, since age-related diabetes trots in my family. :-P

[Tokimori 0]

Agedependent diabetes doesn't mean that you have to inject insulin. It may come to that, but the first treatments are exercise and diet advise. :-P

[Takanobaka 0]

Don't mind getting shots and the like, but don't like giving blood either.....seems like I always have a bruise for two weeks after I give a blood sample, and I can't imagine it's much better when donating blood.

[Onnagumo 4]

I voted the third option, "a bit". I don't mind getting an injection or having a blood sample taken, but the epidural thing with the long needles is a different story somehow (Eek...) I have to admit I don't like the idea of it at all. Glad I never needed that during delivery (Dripping sweat...)

[Datchayama 0]

Then again...what hasn't been mentioned: Acupuncture ^^

Oddly enough....the idea of accupuncture doesn't bother me as much as general blood/needles....

[Doitsuyama 1,173]

Then again...what hasn't been mentioned: Acupuncture ^^

Oddly enough....the idea of accupuncture doesn't bother me as much as general blood/needles....

Read again... the article from Kaikitsune is rather comprehensive...