Shooting Gallery

Last night was Injection Workshop night. We learned how to deliver three types of injections: intradermal, subcutaneous, and intramuscular, or for the neophytes: painless, painless, and painless. First we watched a grainy video from the early 80's on how nurses are supposed to do it, then we watched a nursing student inject a 3rd-year volunteer, and finally it was our turn. Being the "suck-it-up-this-is-medical-school" manly men that we are, my friend and I decided to postpone the experience a for a bit and ease into the process by watching our mutual friend deliver the first shot. She's a former nurse, after all, so she knows what's she's doing, right? Absolutely. It was all over before we could process what happened, and like a couple of gibbering chimps we settled to our task. I went first, and with surprisingly steady hands, delivered my very first intradermal (see picture--not my arm, but equally hairy). My head was preoccupied with the worry that I'm hurting my partner. I listened for ouches or yikeses, but none came, so I pushed the plunger and created the telltale bubble that a properly-administered intradermal would. The rest was easy, but we made sure we watched our friend deliver her shots before we tried. It all was pretty much painless, and I realized that obsessing about needles for so many years has ended in a rather anticlimactic experience. So, flu shot anyone?