Injection Machine

I am like most of the people, when it comes to injection. I too get scarred with the sight of needle and will do anything if I can to avoid get injected. But, sometimes we can't avoid the needle piercing our skin with painful way as its a must to save life.

In my vague memory as a young child, I do remember the orange color - it may be the color of burning electric heater  - and then perhaps the health workers are disinfecting the needle on the hot fire before they  gave us injection in on our forearms. Many of my school friends [ from Bal Mandir ] do have that big scars where we got our injection, which bared us for long to flaunt the sleeveless dress during our teen years. That  also remind me how scary it was to get injected in early days. Well, that was 70s era and I was in my early days of school.

Lucky me. It may sound strange but truth is I don't have that scar in my forearms ! Don't ask why, because I am as clueless as you are.

Not being a shy person, I do not hesitate to cry in front of doctors, if I have to get injection or be ashamed to tell him that I get scared to take the injection. Although its very rare in itself.

Once during my college days, I was bitten by a stray dog. Fearing it may be mad dog, I was needed to take rabies injection with its full course. I told the doctor, I am scared to take the injection. He took that feedback and then at the time to inject me he just rubbed the cotton with spirit on my forearms pressing bit hard and then he injected. That small, simple and  inexpensive trick really worked as I did not even felt the pain of needle making the incision into my body.

Of course, not every doctor or nurse is kind enough to be patience with your fear of injection. But, I remember another inject I mean injection machine, when I was young . I was too young to give full description of the disease that had gripped Bal Mandir or the country or the global health at that time. I remember a word at that time, I must have heard it as a reason for that injection. That word was meningitis. May be, we were given that injection to protect us from meningitis.

What I remember very vividly is, that it was not the normal injection tube as we saw as a child or even in use today. Therefore, it tells me that injection machine was under the research phase only. There were white doctors but I don't remember from which country. They made us stayed on lines and then couple of them injected to around 200 children in Bal Mandir in matter of an hour or so.  I think even adult staff were given this injection.

What I remember about this machine is they had to press on the foot pedal to give us a shot and then they were ready to give another shot to another child instantly. Oh yes, they were so nice doctors, as they gave us sweets to engage our small mind before every shot. They would engage us in small talk, like show your tongue, oh it looks so orange and then we would not even know that needle had already made the incision in our skin. They sweet talked into this. That was easily portable injection machine and if I am not mistaken doctors were carrying it without much trouble. But all those memories are really vague.

Its good news that, I do not remember there was any side effects of that injection. Told you I have very bad memory power, but had it been there then there would have been talk of it.

I do not remember it was almost immediately or it was in the following months or after couple of years but after some time there was talk of meningitis like wildfire in school and many school children who attended the school we went which is inside the Bal Mandir premises, falling sick due to this disease. It seemed like this disease once really scared many parents or even doctors here as it spread like epidemic; but we never fell sick to this disease. I also don't remember anyone catching meningitis; even though after taking the injection that perhaps was still under research phase.  I guessed it because of that machine. It was the time when they used to use the same tube to inject another person after injecting one patience. They used to boil needle for disinfection and reuse the same for another patient.

Although, I don't fall sick that easily, but after that I have never ever seen that kind of injection machine in any hospital or clinic here in Nepal not even in English movies.