No more painful needle sticks

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magentagirl
magentagirl Member Posts: 101
edited June 2014 in Managing Side Effects of Breast Cancer and Its Treatment

Well, now that I am done with my chemo and the year's worth of Herceptin-I had the most interesting experience at the surgery center where I had my exchange surgery. When they went to hook me up to the IV my nurse got a different nurse who was really good at finding veins (since mine aren't great). She found the vein she wanted to stick and before the jabbing she put a little shot of Novacaine in the area! HOW COME NO ONE ELSE DID THIS??? It didn't hurt at all. I just wanted to share this with all of you who may be at the beginning of treatment. You may want to suggest this nifty trick to your health care providers. It would have saved me a lot of anxiety. For those of you who are about to start-it's all doable and the needle sticks became painful for me over time. They had to jab me on the inside middle part of my forearm and I found that made my eyes water. I guess one can get sensitized to it over time. Let's get the nurses to do the Novacaine thing as needed!

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  • ReneeJean
    ReneeJean Member Posts: 100
    edited July 2009

    As a RN that starts many IVs every shift, we don't use lidocaine on a regular basis for a couple of reasons.  The first reason is that many people can have allergic reactions to lidocaine that is injected prior to the IV.  Also, lidocaine can cause the vein to spasm which makes it close to impossible to insert the catherter in, thus causing another 'stick' in another area.  And the injection of lidocaine for some people is worse than the actual IV stick.

    All that being said, I am so glad you found a solution to your IV stick pain/anxiety.  And for others undergoing frequent IV sticks, it is worth asking your nurse to try this.  You can also use EMLA or LMX cream to IV sites prior to the stick.  It is somewhat effective.  The issue with it will be that if the IV cannot be started in the area where the cream is, it is worthless.  I encourage all patients to investigate ways to minimize needlestick pain and to ask their oncology nurses of ways they may be able to assist in this.   There are options out there.

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  • magentagirl
    magentagirl Member Posts: 101
    edited July 2009

    Thanks for the info. i couldn't figure out why this practice was not more widespread.

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