Smirks and 'Carry On......' innuendo aside, has anyone else noticed that this year on TV, virtually any mention of Covid on the news has got to be accompanied by long, lingering shots of someone on the receiving end of a jab. Of course, up to now we've always seen brief shots of patients given a pre-injection swab on the upper arm but, as far as I can recall, hardly ever of the needle going in - though now in close-up too - and being held there for several seconds before being withdrawn. It makes me wince seeing it so much now, just about daily, that I have to either look away or change channels. In fact only the other day I changed channels for that very reason from BBC national news to ITV local news and - as you might guess - both sides were simultaneously showing the same procedure. Even Channels 4 and 5 as well as Sky News are doing it now. so that I just want to screeeeeeam!
I have to get a regular such poke for giving a sample of blood to be checked twice a year for my diabetes [type 2] condition, as well as getting the annual Winter flu jab, plus maybe once or twice more for other reasons, but I just get it done and over with as speedily as I can as there's no alternative. I just start looking away and gritting teeth long before the needle goes in. But it's really no big deal. What I do not need is for my nose to be rubbed in it by constant visual reminders of what it's like. Jeepers creepers, we all know!
Every time I go for the annual diabetes check with a nurse at the doctor's surgery it's suggested (every flaming time!) that I really ought to do daily self-monitoring of my own blood to check glucose level, which involves pricking the head of the thumb to obtain a small smear of blood which you can measure on a little thingummyjig they provide you with. About 5 years ago I was given all what's needed to do that very thing myself. When it came to it I just could not give myself the required thumb-jab. Surely I can't be alone in this. It's not cowardice - well, okay, maybe it is - but I've always been a haemophobe (as regards other people's blood as well as my own) which was a major reason why I could stay no longer with St John Ambulance after a two-year stint. My phobia was hindering any effectiveness I might have otherwise had.
As for my diabetes, it hasn't caused me any major problems. Maybe just once a month or so I might get a dizzy spell through having low glucose, but that's put right quite easily by chewing on a few glucose tablets. As to how I'm to know if that level is higher than it should be, well I suppose self-monitoring would have revealed it, but not being able to do so I don't know how to tell. However, so far it's not caused any discernible problems.
Anyway, when it comes to Covid, at my present age and with the underlying condition I have, I'm not expecting to have a long wait before being called for my turn to take the jab - and go I shall, with no hesitation, albeit with just a little trepidation and gritted teeth. What I certainly do not need is to be shown on TV what the experience looks like. If their idea is to show how trivial the whole matter is, I can't be unique in it having precisely the opposite effect on me. (D'you hear that, all you TV companies?)
My antipathy for Winter is exacerbated by having two large rooms to keep warm, living room and bedroom (plus kitchen, of course) not just for me but for my four co-residents who feel the cold as acutely as, or even more than, I do, despite their being permanently enshrouded in their fur coats. The expense of keeping us all from freezing is a challenge every year - and now, as reliable as ever, come the warnings that this Winter will be the coldest, if not since ever, then for many years past. But we hear this doom-laden prediction year after year around this time though it never turns out to be as bad as that - so far.
Perfectly aware that I ought to be grateful that I've got a roof over my head - being homeless for just a short while would see the end of me I'm sure. Any thoughts about the depth of suffering of those unfortunate people cuts deep, as it should. So let's stifle my grumbling - after all, it's just three weeks to go before nights start, even if hardly perceptibly, back to getting shorter. In the meantime, my current mood is - ROLL ON SPRING!!!
