you swine!

Every year when the time comes to get a flu shot, I find an excuse to avoid it.

I'm needle-phobic; no matter how many people tell me "it doesn't hurt", I can't overcome my dread sufficiently to front up for a needle to protect me from a bug that I've been fortunate enough not to have encountered for at least the past 15 years or so.

This year was no different.

2 weeks ago, the notice came around that we should book an appointment with the nurse for a shot. By amazing coincidence, this year, I was already booked on an off-site training course on the day that the nurse would be present, so it looked like I was once again presented with a perfectly rational excuse to avoid the shot.

Then came the news from Mexico. And then it came from the US. And then from New Zilland. And then they started quarantining people here!

When I got to work this morning, I decided to check the booking list, 'just in case' there was an appointment left before or after my training course. Remarkably, there were several available during the lunch break. So taking a deep breath, I signed myself up.

I still wasn't sure I'd actually turn up, but at least I was going to try! (and yes, I know this jab wouldn't protect me from the swine flu, but I figure that it might make me more susceptible if I had already contracted a different strain.)

When the lunch break was called, I raced out into the street and headed back to my office for my date with the pointy doom!

All morning, people had been telling me "it doesn't hurt", so as I removed the shirt from my arm and the nurse got out the cotton swab and the needle, I looked away and told myself "it's not going to hurt, it's not going to hurt, it's not going to hurt"... and by golly, that needle went in and did it ever HURT! OMG... I swear I felt that bastard every millimetre of its journey into my arm, and for every hour that it stuck there pumping my arm with the vaccine! (Well, it felt like hours, but it was actually only seconds!)

So it hurt. But afterward, I felt better for having done it. No other symptoms apparent so far, other than a little soreness in my arm, and the satisfaction of having overcome that stupid fear... for this year, at least!