Hypodermic Needles image courtesy of Metalmen Sales.
Being a child of a couple hippies who have certain cynical, suspicious and sometimes paranoid opinions of conventional modern medicine, I did not go to the doctor or hospital very often when growing up, my parents preferring a “wait and see” line of thinking when an illness or injury occurred. Luckily, I never experienced anything worse than a cut or a cold, but I often wonder how much time a serious disease would have had to metastasis before my parents got over their pretensions and brought me to a fully-licenced MD.
And so it wasn’t until I was a teenager that I got myself a proper checkup; I remember experiencing a mixture of terror and fascination as strangers in white coats touched me, stuck things inside of me and examined intimate parts of me– all while not blinking an eye. The fear really kicked in, though, when they needed to take some of my blood; mind you, I hadn’t been exposed to needles prior to this and the sight of the doctor approaching my arm with this seemingly enormous, pain-inflicting hypodermic needle just about sent me running the other way.
Hypodermic needles are hollow, cylindrical tubing typically made from stainless steel and used as a tool to quickly and safely channel and transport liquids. They are categorized by their outer diameter and wall thickness and can be found in a variety of settings in addition to medical, including dental, automotive, petrochemical and semiconductor industries, in which hypodermic needles are used in processes involving the precise measurement of various liquids, such as lubricants and adhesives. Because it is difficult to decontaminate and re-sharpen, many hypodermic needles are designed for single use, as in the case when drawing blood in a doctor’s office.
While the idea of needles continues to distress me, I managed to survive that perilous first doctor’s appointment without experiencing too much bloodshed or trauma and, believe it or not, have gotten through many subsequent ones, as well. I am thankful that we live in a time when hypodermic needles are available, as they are an extremely helpful and effective example of stainless steel tubing.
