I've done plasma donation numerous times, and I usually pay attention to the stick, yeah. (If only because sometimes they screw it up--which is not easy with the vein in my right arm, properly primed.)
If it helps, though, this is a surgery that has to be done with the patient awake and aware, because you have to focus on a particular spot in order for the surgery to happen. (If you lose focus, the laser stops, so that it doesn't do anything it shouldn't.) I think that I'd want to be awake anyway--given the amount of pain involved, which really isn't much--but by definition, anyone that's gone through the surgery has to be able to cope with this. (They do mildly tranquilize you--half a tablet of Xanax, in my case--but they don't want you to be dopey enough to keep losing the focus.)
I don't think it's really a matter of being brave (or any other definition of "better"); I'm just not so constituted as to be bothered much by this sort of thing. It's not clear how much that has to do with anything conscious on my part. :)
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branchandroot
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Date: 15 January 2005 21:20 (UTC)If it helps, though, this is a surgery that has to be done with the patient awake and aware, because you have to focus on a particular spot in order for the surgery to happen. (If you lose focus, the laser stops, so that it doesn't do anything it shouldn't.) I think that I'd want to be awake anyway--given the amount of pain involved, which really isn't much--but by definition, anyone that's gone through the surgery has to be able to cope with this. (They do mildly tranquilize you--half a tablet of Xanax, in my case--but they don't want you to be dopey enough to keep losing the focus.)
I don't think it's really a matter of being brave (or any other definition of "better"); I'm just not so constituted as to be bothered much by this sort of thing. It's not clear how much that has to do with anything conscious on my part. :)