I have struggled with blood draws & IVs throughout my life. Both procedures have always been unimaginable & painful for me. I have had to go through numerous methods of being able to have an IV administered, up to & including having an injection of lidocaine specially ordered to numb my arm in order to insert an IV needle. I have been told throughout my life by a variety of medical professionals that it was all in my head & that I was just having a phobic reaction to needles. As an adult, I have been engaged in the practice of psychotherapy for the past 30 years. Not to mention that I have never had any problems with injections. As a mental health professional, I know the difference between a phobic reaction & real pain. This all ended when during the past year when I began seeing a new Urologist Nurse practitioner, & her then nurse, Shelly Johnson.

Both were present during one of my appointments & I offhandedly shared the agony that I go through when having a blood draw when she was ordering testing. Nurse Shelly Johnson was the first medical professional to actually say that she believed me & shared her background with working with cancer patients who needed to be "poked" on a regular basis. She asked if she could try a draw on me. My wife insisted that I allow her to do this, & the NP agreed. Nurse Shelly took one look at my arm & saw immediately what the problem was, I had 3 valves in my vein & others in all of the veins in my arms that would stop a needle, & she had no idea how any blood had ever been drawn from my arm in the past. She observed that it was no wonder I had been in excruciating pain every time a phlebotomist or nurse had drawn blood. It was a mystery why no one had noticed this before. She then asked me for my hand, and I gave it to her while clenching my teeth & my wife gripping me, knowing what would come next. Before I knew it, she was in & had three vials drawn. I had felt nothing for the first time in my life. For me, this was nothing short of a miracle, and meeting Shelly had been one of the luckiest days of my life.

If it had not been for the expertise of nurse Shelly, my condition would have remained unnoticed, and I would have gone on being tortured every time a blood draw was needed. Unless you have this condition yourself, you could never understand the pain and agony that I have endured over the past 68 years of my life. Thank you, Shelly, for making a huge difference in my life. If she receives this award, it would be my honor to be there to support and celebrate her as she has done something for me that no other caregiver could.