Sensitivity

[cjsmith]

I had an interesting moment of "What? You mean some people DON'T?" this weekend.

[Poll #1308075]

My answer to both of these is "Duh! Doesn't EVERYBODY?" (In the case of mosquitos, how else do you know to swat them?) These are not small sensations for me. They are obvious and can be startling. Last weekend I learned that there are people for whom this is not the case. I was pretty surprised.

At the vet clinic, it's obvious that some animals feel the needles while others do not. That also seems very strange to me.

Comments

[recordersmith.livejournal.com]

I rarely feel mosquitoes when they bite, which is a pity, because I certainly feel the bite later on when it turns into a huge welt and itches for days....

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh, no kidding. I hate mosquito bites. Sadly, feeling the start of one doesn't often translate into avoiding the itch, at least for me. I swat fast and I'm still too late.

[recordersmith.livejournal.com]

Hmm....how do you actually figure out if you always feel mosquitos? if you dont feel one....it wont be counted in your survey?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I guess if I didn't itch afterward, then I wouldn't know for sure.

[platypus]

I said always for the blood draw needle, but I did once have a phlebotomist who was so talented I'm not sure I felt anything. I very rarely feel pain when I have my blood drawn; just a little tweak. When I donate blood, though, it's much more painful, and it takes them all day to poke at my vein. As a result, I'm quite fond of phlebotomists, and always cheerfully thank them for their help.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I once didn't feel a needle for a contrast injection during an MRI. I was STUNNED.

[eveningscribe.livejournal.com]

Ditto on blood draws, and in the last few years I've enjoyed talented phlebotomists and even one of my doctors who were able to give me injectons where I wasn't aware of anything. There's apparently a technique that involves lightly pinching/pulling the skin upwards near the insertion site that confuses the nerve cells in the whole area, resulting in almost no sensation at all.

As a small child I had to be held down by four male nurses to get an I.V. in.

[eveningscribe.livejournal.com]

Oh, and as a data check, I'm female, half Hispanic, and have a testosterone imbalance: too much.

[aelfie.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who fought off adults to get a needle near me. It once took 3 adults (female) to hold me down long enough for the doctor to give me a shot in the sole of my foot, and then to burn off the wart.

Not fun for anyone.

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

I have 'roll-y' veins. Which means that I really, really need to have them use a butterfly needle. So I guess that now I often feel it, but not always.

I had hepatitis A when I was in my 20's so I have a lot of scarring now on my veins from all the blood draws. I got pretty used to it. I mostly only felt it when they didn't/don't listen about using a butterfly and end up 'chasing' the vein. I HATE that.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I hate it when people don't listen. I told a guy once that I get woozy about needles, so please sit/lie me down, and he snapped at me and ignored the request. When I passed out at his feet, he was the one who had to drag me off to the side. Idjit.

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

The 'experts' always seem to think that they know better than the person who is about to be poked. You'd think that they'd get a clue. Hell, most laymen have never even heard of a butterfly needle. If I'm asking for it, there's a reason for that!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Isn't it weird? The experts are, I will completely grant, way better at doing their job than I would be at doing their job. However, I have much more experience with how THIS PARTICULAR PATIENT -- me -- responds to having that job done! You'd think they'd be accepting of the hint. THIS one has rolly veins. THAT one gets faint. If it were me, I'd want to know.

[lkeele.livejournal.com]

I'd say he got what he deserved, except YOU were the one who had to pass out. :-P Idjit indeed.

I remember the first time Chris passed out at a blood draw (two of my children share my trait of passing out at the sight of blood, one unfortunately is diabetic, so he's had to adjust). We were in a diabetic clinic, having his blood drawn so he could have an HbA1c. So, you know, clearly the boy is diabetic, and the two nurses in the room clearly knew that. Yet I was the only one to think to test his blood sugar to make sure he hadn't gone really low, to make sure he was 'only' reacting to the sight of blood. I was on the floor making sure he was ok, barking orders at the nurses (Hand me his glucometer! NOW!) while they stood there like startled bunny rabbits. Um, which one is the 'expert' again? I forget.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, some people are just impervious to any concepts coming in from outside.

(Me, I didn't mind the dragging-aside bit. I wasn't "there". I do chuckle, though, at the thought that everyone else in the room knew exactly what had happened and why. There is no love lost between me and anybody who's condescending or dismissive.)

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

I've never had a shot or had blood drawn standing up - I had presumed sitting was a standard precaution.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

It was in the Army, which might explain some of it ;-)

[excessor.livejournal.com]

I feel those things when I think about it. For direct injections, I often don't feel it at all. For example, my flu shot this year was completely without sensation. Taking blood often (but not always) has an associated sensation.

I wonder if there's a difference between very light-skinned people and dark-skinned people and if there's a difference between men and women. I would guess that men are less sensitive—not only are we socialized to disregard such things, but the higher testosterone levels often blunt some sensations.

[kuangning]

Well, as a data point, I'm female and black, and I feel it when a mosquito bites (unless I'm distracted by some other sensation or asleep, so I picked almost always) and when a needle's inserted.

[excessor.livejournal.com]

Perhaps I'm wrong. I meant no disrespect.

I have a friend who has similar coloring to CJ: very pale white skin, reddish hair, and blue eyes—he not only feels everything, but he faints if he just thinks of a needle for any length of time. He also faints if he sees any blood at all, on himself or someone else. He once told me that this is more common for northern Europeans, so I was extrapolating.

I'm a dark-skinned Mediterranean type and I can watch full operations and get injections and have withdrawals without much problem.

I'm also the kind of person who doesn't remember getting scrapes, cuts, or bruises (“How'd that happen?”) and I don't feel minor temperature changes very much.

Another data point involves some folks with minor autistic characteristics who are ultrasensitive to their environment. If you know anyone like this, you've probably seen him or her get very fussy over the tiniest of feelings, like the feeling of a mosquito on his or her skin. They go wild trying to get rid of that feeling.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I had no idea about the coloring versus faintness. I think of that axis as very different from the sensitivity to sensations axis. (Also, the faintness bit can be trained away. I've made dramatic progress along those lines.) Interesting idea.

Like you, though, I don't remember getting bruises. I always guess that this is because I bruise when someone just *blinks* at me.

[kuangning]

Oh, I didn't take it as disrespectful, I thought it was an interesting question (although I'd be surprised if you're correct.) I hear you on the autism however; my Aspie ex-husband and autistic first child both have that level of sensitivity.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I feel those things when I think about it.

Oh wow. For me, that's inconceivable; if I weren't expecting an injection, I'd jump. I *have* jumped in startlement at a mosquito bite.

I would not be surprised at all if testosterone levels had something to do with it. (Even for a woman, I'm low on that.) There's also some weird connection between serotonin and pain perception, I believe, which is only now being investigated and understood.

[excessor.livejournal.com]

It would not surprise me at all to learn of a relationship between neurotransmitter (such as serotonin) levels and pain perception. The topic of pain is very, very interesting (but only when someone you know isn't living with chronic pain).

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

It's fascinating when you're the one with chronic pain, too. (wry grin) I'm looking at the serotonin thing next for my feet. My doc says that every patient she's ever had with chronic pain has shown an allergy-type reaction to serotonin injected transdermally, while most non-chronic-pain patients she sees do not. Mine was off the charts. This makes me go hmmmmm.

[aquarian-azalea.livejournal.com]

I've read that redheads tend to have a lower pain threshold, and blue-eyed people are supposedly more prone to allergies. I have an extremely low pain threshold and have pale skin and reddish brown hair. I've always thought there was some correlation just based on anecdotal evidence.

[hnybny.livejournal.com]

I feel both. I only wish I could not feel a needle stick as it would have made those 4 AM draws while I was in the hospital so much easier.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

4AM draws in the hospital? Yuck! What was going on?

[hnybny.livejournal.com]

It was when I had gastritis back in July. I spent three days in the hospital and they draw every day between 4 and 5. If only I could sleep through that.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh UGH. I'm sure that that modification to your sleep schedule did wonders for the rapidity of your recovery.

[juverna.livejournal.com]

I have never in my life felt a mosquito bite me. (And I seem to be the only one on your list.) This seems very odd to me, because I think of myself as being very sensitive to sensations on my skin (I am very responsive to touch; my skin itches much of the time, which I think of partly as a phenomenon related to being aware of sensation on my skin more often than average; etc.)

I didn't even know that other people could feel mosquito bites until fairly recently (when I think I saw someone, in RL or on TV, swat a mosquito that was biting them without looking at it). It had never occurred to me that that was possible!

I ABSOLUTELY HATE having mosquito bites, so I am a little paranoid about being anywhere near the little buggers. I will swat them if they buzz near my ear (it can wake me up from a sound sleep in an instant -- and it's just about the only thing that can!) -- I slam myself on the side of the head, but I still usually miss. I've also gotten pretty good at recognizing what they look like when they're flying around the room or perched on a wall, and that helps. But not enough.

There are people who can't feel a phlebotomist's needle being inserted? Srsly?? I envy those people.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I envy anyone whose sensory apparatus is less sensitive than mine. I suppose vision hasn't given me any serious trouble, but if I could cut in half my senses of smell, hearing, and touch, I'd be eternally grateful. I wouldn't mind downgrading my ability to detect bitterness in taste, either. Life could be so much better!

[elgecko.livejournal.com]

I'm with you... they are not small sensations to me. The mosquito is a very big irritant the moment it begins, and the needle is actual pain.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yes! They're not something I feel only if I'm paying attention; they grab attention.

I'm not saying they're a LOT of pain. I have had a LOT of pain, and those aren't it. But yeah, if I had to classify them as something, they'd be in the "pain" camp.

[kimatha.livejournal.com]

I feel needles way more than mosquito bites, but I definitely feel both. Yuck.

I REALLY feel shots that take a long time to give, and also blood draws - those REALLY, REALLY hurt.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, these two poll questions are showing distinctly different shapes in the response bar-graphs. It seems that needles are more dramatic than mosquito bites.

Some shots don't really hurt much -- I mean, I feel 'em, but whatever -- and some are truly nasty. Injections into nerves fall into the nasty category.

[aquarian-azalea.livejournal.com]

I can't fathom not feeling the needle when getting blood drawn. It's always painful for me, although only for a second. (I've even had pain from acupuncture needles.) As for mosquitoes, outside in the summer I'm often so uncomfortable from the heat and humidity that I'm less likely to notice other sensations, but I do feel it sometimes.

Regarding the comments on neurotransmitters: serotonin definitely plays a role in pain, and I've read that dopamine and norepinephrine do as well.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I know at least two people with diabetes who claim they don't feel the tiny insulin needle. Now that I've given myself subcutaneous injections of B12, with a needle designed for insulin, I can firmly state that I am NOT one of those people. I can't imagine not feeling it. My nervous system would have to not be working that day or something.

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

Once upon a time, I was so phobic about needles that I would get faint when having blood drawn. Nowadays, it's nothing. I don't even feel the needle prick when it goes in for the kill--I mean draw.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I'm getting a lot better about that myself, mostly from having a) given lots of shots to a diabetic cat, b) watched a lot in the vet clinic, c) given myself B12 shots for a while.

[mbumby.livejournal.com]

I think the only time I don't feel a skeeter is when I'm asleep -- or REALLY distracted. (I got the 4 skeeters on my arm, and missed the one on my leg.)

My Huh? moment came when I was talking with a housemate who had spent some time "vacationing" in 'Nam and he didn't really care if they bit him -- he didn't react any more. Guess the critters we've got here just don't compare.