THIS HAPPENED TO ME
Stop Stabbing me in the Neck
My worst experience in the hospital
I’ve only been hospitalized once in my life. It was a public county hospital in Los Angeles. It was definitely an experience.
I was previously addicted to heroin for over 5 years. Though hospital stays weren’t unusual for my junkie associates, I managed to stay out of the hospital until the tail end of my addiction.
I had an infection in my arm. The staph infection had gone septic. I got it from shooting dope and fully aware what happened and the result was all my fault. I had had infections from shooting before but usually some antibiotics and time cleared it up in a few days. This was different.
I had taken the day off work because I was half dead. My friend came over, took one look at me, and said, “Hospital. We go now. You have no choice in the matter.” He meant it. My friend once impaled himself by his arm while climbing a rod iron fence and didn’t go to the hospital. I knew he would have dragged me there and so I put my shoes on.
I got there and didn’t even give my name before they took me back. This was a Los Angeles county hospital ER so it was noticeable and urgent enough to bypass the usual 6 hour line.
They took me to a room and my friend came with me. I was lying down and a doctor came in said something about drawing blood it went something like this.
“Your veins in your arms are shot. I’m going to have to draw from your jugular. Bear down.”
“Bear Down? OWWWWWWWW!” I yelled as he plunged a needle into the side of my neck.
“Didn’t get it. Going again. Bear down.”
“The veins in my arm areOOOOOOOWWWWWW!”
“You must be dehydrated. Bear down.”
“Listen, you can get blood from myAAAAAAAAAHHHHOOOWWW!!!”
“Bear down”
“Please, stop. This vein woOOOOOWWWWW!!”
“Bear down”
“I’ll do it! Would you just hand me aMOTHERFUCKINGOOOOWWWWWW!!!”
“Bear down”
“Fuck you and your bear! Stab me one more ti-AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!”
“If you threaten me again I will restrain you. Bear down!”
“What is wrong with you you sadistic fuckEEEEEEEEEYYYYOWWWWW!”
And so on. According to my friend he stabbed me 15 times. While it wasn’t fun being stabbed in the neck repeatedly with a 22 gauge needle, I’ll admit it was kinda funny after the fact.
“Damn dude, I didn’t know you were a vampire. He stabbed you 15 times and not a drop of blood. I can’t believe I left my phone in the car. That would have been 100k hits on YouTube easy. Did you see his badge? I don’t think that was a doctor.”
“He’s a fucking sadist!” I moaned. My friend saw a phlebotomist looking dude in the hall with all his gear.
“My dude!” He called to him. “You draw blood yeah?”
He nodded an came in the room. My friend explained what had happened and that my arms still had veins he could draw from.
“Which one?” He asked and I pointed. 20 seconds later he inserted the butterfly needle as my blood flew through the tubing into the collection vials.
The doctor came in “Hmmmphh.” He grunted angrily when he saw my blood drawing just fine from my arm. If I wasn’t half dead I would have punched that asshole right in the dick.
I got better a few days later and was discharged. Six months after I quit heroin and I’m not going back. That was one of many crappy ways that Heroin negatively affected my body.