Medical Phobias and Access to Mental and Physical Health Care

Has anyone tried Emla (or similar) numbing cream?  To help overcome my needle phobia for the first Covid jab, I tried applying this cream over my previous vaccination mark on my upper left arm.  I followed the instructions and even bought special occlusive transparent plasters to stop the cream spreading.  But either it didn't work or the nurse jabbed me somewhere else as I found the needle intensely painful and the same point continued throbbing at a slightly lower pain level for about an hour. 

This was the first (non-dental) injection I'd had since a tetanus shot 25 years ago.  On that occasion, I didn't feel the needle at all but for a day or two afterwards I felt the constant throbbing pain (like being jabbed hundreds of times) at the exact point of entry - bad enough to keep me awake all night.  I can only assume this is all due to a heightened autistic sensitivity to pain, as most people tell me they never feel a thing when vaccinated, apart from a bit of arm soreness afterwards which doesn't begin to cover what I experience.  And yet I've been accidentally scratched dozens of times when playing with cats over the years and that scarcely bothers me at all, even when they draw blood.  I suppose that's partly because I never know exactly when it will happen.

An hour or two before the Covid jab, I also had to take three Diazepams (15mg) just to get myself to the hub, but even they only calmed me a little (normally 5mg or less tranquilises me and I don't take them often).  Indeed, I found the whole experience so overwhelming - partly due to other sensory overloads (the hub was as noisy as a nightclub) - that on returning home I had a total meltdown, slamming every door, and had to take two more Diazepams followed by a two-hour bath! 

So having found the first time even worse than I expected, my phobia is now doubled for the second dose. 

Has anyone tried Emla (or similar) numbing cream?  To help overcome my needle phobia for the first Covid jab, I tried applying this cream over my previous vaccination mark on my upper left arm.  I followed the instructions and even bought special occlusive transparent plasters to stop the cream spreading.  But either it didn't work or the nurse jabbed me somewhere else as I found the needle intensely painful and the same point continued throbbing at a slightly lower pain level for about an hour. 

This was the first (non-dental) injection I'd had since a tetanus shot 25 years ago.  On that occasion, I didn't feel the needle at all but for a day or two afterwards I felt the constant throbbing pain (like being jabbed hundreds of times) at the exact point of entry - bad enough to keep me awake all night.  I can only assume this is all due to a heightened autistic sensitivity to pain, as most people tell me they never feel a thing when vaccinated, apart from a bit of arm soreness afterwards which doesn't begin to cover what I experience.  And yet I've been accidentally scratched dozens of times when playing with cats over the years and that scarcely bothers me at all, even when they draw blood.  I suppose that's partly because I never know exactly when it will happen.

An hour or two before the Covid jab, I also had to take three Diazepams (15mg) just to get myself to the hub, but even they only calmed me a little (normally 5mg or less tranquilises me and I don't take them often).  Indeed, I found the whole experience so overwhelming - partly due to other sensory overloads (the hub was as noisy as a nightclub) - that on returning home I had a total meltdown, slamming every door, and had to take two more Diazepams followed by a two-hour bath! 

So having found the first time even worse than I expected, my phobia is now doubled for the second dose.