Because of a traumatic childhood experience, I have always been terrified of hospitals. I could not even set foot in one to visit other people until I was about 25.
I remember my sister was in hospital for some reason when I was about 14 and I went there with my parents to visit her. Her ward was in a wooden annex which probably dated from the war, and as I approached the entrance I froze. I could not go in and waited for my parents outside.
The reek of old-fashioned disinfectant which all hospitals smelled of then sent me into a cold panic. They don't smell like that anymore, but even now the only way you could get me into hospital as a patient would be unconscious on a stretcher.
If you think I am bad, consider a friend of mine who is infinitely more phobic about medical matters than me.
Last year he was due to go to his doctor for an injection - it might have been a flu jab, I don't remember - and as the days before his appointment ticked by, he became more and more anxious.
On the morning of his appointment, he got a girlfriend to come round to his house, cover both arms in a mildly anaesthetic gel from wrist to shoulder (he didn't know which arm they would inject and he didn't know on what part) then completely wrap the gelled arms in cling film, through which the nurse would put the needle. He actually did this, I am not making it up.
He arrived - shaking with nerves - at the surgery with his girlfriend holding him up, and announced himself to the receptionist. She consulted the register and told him that he had got the wrong day and should come back tomorrow.
That's how I feel about dentists. My phobia dates back to when I was about 6.
ReplyDeleteMe too.
DeleteI have a similar phobia about GP surgeries. I have just got over the dental one after 50 years.
DeleteI did not trust any doctors and dentists. They lied to me as a child.
DeleteYou have a fine collection of bawdy illustrative pictures!
ReplyDeleteI steal them from Mr Google.
DeleteTom - funny but not so if it is you I am sure. Phobias of any kind are very real to the folk who have them.
ReplyDeleteMy first fear aged 4 was justified.
DeleteI used to be a blood donor. For years I donated, never a problem. Then I had to have chemotherapy and its buggered my veins up. The picc line didn't help either.
ReplyDeleteNow I have to have a lorazepam before I go for a blood test. I can highly recommend it!
Hmm... sounds interesting....
DeleteOh boy, I can relate to the traumatic childhood experience and subsequent fear. I'm guessing there are a few of us out there. You must be a very healthy individual, no broken bones, or stitches required over the years? It's difficult to avoid hospitals sometimes. -Jenn
ReplyDeleteBroken ribs, but they heal themselves. I am very careful and always have been. Something will get me in the end.
DeleteI once said hello to a visitor in a lift at the hallamshire hospital in sheffield who promply fainted and smashed his face on another visitor's zimmer frame. Apparently he was petrified of health workers
ReplyDeleteSo he ended up a patient. That's like an appointment in Damascus - you end up meeting the health worker in any case.
DeleteNobody likes doctor or dentist appointments, but they are a matter of ‘have to’ rather than ‘want to’ if we want to keep on living.
ReplyDeleteSome of us don't care either way.
DeleteMy dad and his brothers had had bad experiences with a dentist when they were children. The dentist's rates were dirt cheap, but that was because he was a horrid drunk, or so we were told. My dentist is not a drunk, fortunately, speaks in soothing tones and has nimble hands. I'm lucky.
ReplyDeleteOne of my best friends is a dentist, but it's too late to change my attitude.
DeleteI know that it’s hard when you have a fear of hospitals and dentists but things have moved on and , especially dentistry, is nothing to fear. I have no fear of the dentist as I was in the profession but my dentist is amazing with patients who don't like it. He also had a fear of dentists as a child and went into dentistry because of it so is very sympathetic to those who have a fear of it. I recommended my fearful of dentists friend and she loves him !!! He does so many things to put patients at ease including baking bread and brewing coffee to give a nice ambience. P.S : I never dressed like your photograph !!!!! XXXX
ReplyDeleteShame he wasn't around when I was a kid and dentists were earning £5 for every filling they drilled into a child's good teeth.
DeleteAn old friend was terrified of hospitals. He had a chest infection and the GP said, "hospital". When the ambulance came for him (he would not go of his own accord) he died of nerves whilst being loaded into it.
ReplyDeleteThere is an awful video out there of a woman hysterically refusing to board a little island-hopper aircraft on what looks like somewhere remote. She kicks and struggles but eventually they get her in, close the door and take off as quickly as possible. The plane goes over a thick bit of jungle and out of sight, then there is a huge crash followed by a plume of black smoke.
DeleteEither she had a premonition or grappled with the pilot and made him lose control. We will never know.
I am a minimalist when it comes to my own health care. I am not afraid of hospitals or doctors, but I find sitting around a waiting room in a hospital gown one of life's worst experiences and avoid it at all costs. Probably to my eventual peril.
ReplyDeleteI stopped going to the dentist in about 2009 because it hurt my mouth, OMG my wallet! and the hygienist was so fucking patronising. Then, I had to suck it up a few months ago as I had a failed root canal and the tooth was a mess. WHAT A DIFFERENCE. I went to my sister's dentist in a far flung suburb and it was a third of the price, I felt nothing, they were lovely and adult and fun and professional. And my teeth were not as messed up as I feared. A huge relief to have that fear finally put to bed.
ReplyDelete