I arrived at the emergency room. I didn’t think that I needed to go, but my mom thought otherwise. As I walked in, I smelled the antiseptic killing all of the germs. The lights reflected off the white tile that made me want to squint. A nurse led me to a plain and simple room with just a bed and TV. As they pulled the dark curtain shut, I was cut off from everything that was going on in the hospital. As I waited, I wondered what was going to happen. What happened was much worse than anything I could have ever imagined.
…

It was a warm October day. The sun was slowly making its way into my bedroom when I woke up. At first it felt like a normal day. As I actually woke up and focused in I felt like I was in a field of poison ivy. I looked down and I saw the red bumps and rashes all over my little body. It was hives. This had happened before, and I didn’t think anything of it. I told my mom and she sighed. She told me I couldn’t go to school and went to call my second grade teacher. She brought me Motrin and asked if I was all right. I told her that I felt itchy and she said the Motrin would help. Usually when I got hives, they would only last for a day or so, but the next day they were still there and getting worse. My mom looked worried, and later I said my chest was tight. She told me to get to the car and that she was going to take me to the hospital.
…

After the nurse led me to my room, I lay in the bed, waiting for something to happen. After about a half hour, a doctor came in and asked my mom and me a few questions.
“hello, I am your doctor today and I just have to ask you and your mom a few questions.”
“Sounds great,” my mom said.
“So have you ever got hives before?” asked the doctor.
“ I usually get them at this time of year,” I said.
“ Ok and have they ever been this bad?” he asked me.
“ Well I’ve never had to go to the hospital before,” I said.
The questions went on and on until he said he had all the information that he needed said a nurse would come in and take care of me. My mom said they were just going to give me more medicine.

After a few minutes, a nurse came in with what looked like a medal pole with a bag filled with water that had a tube running from it. I had seen something like this on TV and remembered that it would always be connected to the person. The nurse sat next to me and asked how I was. I told her I was just itchy. I wondered why she was asking me if I was feeling ok when she saw all the red bumps over my body. I

She asked me to hold out my arm and I looked at my mom. The nurse said she was going to give me an IV and that she had to poke my arm with a little needle to get the fluid into my body. I had been scared of needles all my life and as I looked at my mom she said that it wouldn’t hurt at all and would be over quick. I believed her… a huge mistake.

The nurse told me to hold my breath and I did. I thought that I wouldn’t even feel it because that was what my mom said. I felt a jab in my arm and tears came to my eyes, then another and another jab into my arm. Finally the nurse taped the tube to my arm. And I let my breath go. I began to cry, partly because of the pain and partly because my mom had said I wouldn’t even feel it. Eventually the pain subsided and I calmed down.

My mom looked at me and apologized for what had happened. She told me that the nurse was unable to find my vein and had missed it seven times before finally getting it. I was very upset and my eyes were still watery.
Nothing happened for a few hours and all I did was watch TV and talk to my mom. Occasionally, a doctor or nurse would come in to check. We waited for hours until that they finally said we could go. As we left the hospital in the dark night I thought how badly it was in there and how much the IV hurt. I had been scared of needles and that experience only made my fear grow. That fear stayed with me for many years. I am still nervous about shots but am more comfortable than I was. I haven’t had another IV since then and I don’t know how I am going to react. My mom remembers that night as vividly as I and tells me how sorry she felt for me. That night had a very big impact on my life. Since then, I have hated hospitals. I did learn that sometimes you have to go through some pain before you get better, and that life isn’t always a piece of cake.