My Implant Experience with a Needle Phobia

Hi,

After speaking in the Discord and people seemed interested, I thought I’d write up my experiences as a bad sufferer of Needle phobia getting a NeXT and HF Led installed In L0.

The idea of blood tests and such, make me feel weak, even typing this gives me a bit of a low feeling.
I’ve collapsed being in the same room as it being done, no idea why, it’s not painful. I know it’s fine etc, my body just full on kernel panics.

BUT, for some reason the idea of a larger needle does not instil the same uncontrollable reaction :man_shrugging:

After about 2 years of research, I finally decided fuck it and bought them from Ksec and booked an appointment all in under a week so I didn’t over think it and give myself a choice to back out.

I booked the install at Interskin Studios,
And I couldn’t have wished for it to go any better.
11/10

I didn’t see any results when searching for them here, but saw they were an official Ksec location and not too far away.

They definitely deserve some love. <3

Extremely helpful answering a few questions I had, friendly and completely understanding of my phobia. Making me feel well looked after and relaxed from the moment I entered to the moment I left.

After reading up on some threads, watching plenty of install videos and seeing a few comments by Amal on how people deal with the Vasovagal Syncope.
I made sure I had a bunch to drink and had a sports drink with plenty of electrolytes and some sugary sweets before hand.


I opted for freeze spray which numbed my hand entirely with a dull ache, the install was done whilst we chatted and I had my head pointed as far away as possible :sweat_smile:

I barely noticed other than the tiniest pressure point, getting a hair snagged in some clothing as you move about is far more than what I felt.

I knew it was likely being done but carried on talking, after about 20 or so seconds I started to feel distant and the typical low energy, drowsy feeling.

Clenching your muscles helps to stop the sudden BP drop, but I felt myself going so had to announce it.

I woke up, sweaty, drowsy and slowly rebooting and I couldn’t talk for a bit until speech.exe loaded…

“All done”

“oh? Both?”

“yup”

Oh thank god, because the first thing I thought as I woke up was that I’d have to prepare myself for the second one.

I had passed out a good bit after it was all over and it was being cleaned up to stop the bleeding… Hadn’t even noticed lol

10 seconds to install, 10 minutes to recover :sweat_smile: :laughing:

Managed to scan and write data to the NFC side of the NeXT through the plaster straight away, brilliant!

The Day after I changed my plaster over for a smaller one and bumped the tender bruise slightly, felt faint, woozy and passed out. S I G H

1dayafter

The only explanation I have Is that the internal bruise type feeling is associated with an injection/needle and my body panicked, been fine since.

I’ve been overly cautious in ensuring they healed in the position they were installed in as they were perfectly parallel and spaced a good 8/10mm apart

I’m 2 weeks in now, with a slight tinted bruise across the back of my hand and the occasional tender feeling.

Slowly starting to use my hand properly more and more.

I keep looking at it and thinking, surely If I can get this done I can get a blood test etc
Hopefully I can psych myself out of this uncontrollable reaction.

Either way I’d totally do it again,

Logic doesn’t come into play for a phobia, but to anyone else that is maybe thinking about it, Do it.

One of us, one of us, one of us

I’m even contemplating the big custom needle for flex installs… maybe…

Healing Progress:

And of course the obligatory Blinky show off (3 days after install)

Hopefully this might help someone else that’s contemplating it!

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hahaha, well stated! And congratulations!

I don’t get it nearly so bad as you do, but for example blood draws send me spinning like Gemini VIII, though I’ve never passed out. Weirdly, when I first did blood donation, I was fine - like to the point I got up on an empty stomach and sprinted to catch my bus in high school, because my bastard classmates stole all the cookies and juice. At some point though, pow, it just hit me like a ton of bricks and I have to be super careful about blood draws now. Even thinking about it, like you, is making me woozy.

Anyhow, I oddly have no issues with doing implants. Not sure what the difference is in my head, but I’m assuming it’s there like you. Either way, welcome to the club!

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Awesome, thanks for the write up!

This is a brilliant write up.

I have to say I’m the same, I recently went to hospital for a few weeks and they had to take my blood every 2 days and every single time I fainted.

I’ve had my covid vaccine, and nearly fainted at both doses.

The idea of needles freaks me out!

But I too found a good place and they were really professional and friendly, and hey ho I had a significantly sized magnet in my finger with no numbing at all and didn’t feel uncomfortable once!

I hope more people are able to see this thread and use it to help them pluck up the courage to give it a go, safely.

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Really nice writeup! Great you found such a wonderful place to get your implants done :slight_smile:
And big respect for all those people who are afraid of needles and still decide to poke such a big thing into their hands :wink:

From my experience, a lot of it has to do with the mindset… though I’m (luckily) not afraid of needles, I have a serious problem with dentists - I totally panic, sweat a lot, my body actually cramps when I’m lying there. And to make things worse, the (injected!) numbing hardly works at all there, so I’m always afraid of the pain, and there always is pain.
When getting my silicone implant, I was a bit nervous when my installer told me that the anaesthetic he uses was “basically the same stuff you get at a dentist (just without the epi)” - funny enough, it worked. No pain at all, just because I was in a calm and trusted environment and not freaking out like hell.
The bodmod-setting does something to my brain that the doctor-setting just can’t do
:unicorn_i_dont_know:
So for all needle-/scalpel-fearing people here - if you really want to get it done, get a place you feel really comfortable with, find a person you can trust a lot, and maybe just give it a try. Might work better as expected :wink:

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