30 Things #2: Legitimate Fears

Oh, today's list item is a toughy for me!

The topic: Name 3 legitimate fears and how they became fears.

#1.  Needles/Hospitals/Blood
I don't know if it is really a fear, but I could do without these three things in my life.  This phobia is so bad that even when I walk into a hospital for something exciting - babies being born - I get woozy.  The smells throw me over the edge and things start spinning.

I think this fear began when I was about 12 years old.  My grandfather had just had open heart surgery and I was finally able to visit him.  This was when patients were cut from their ankle to their sternum.  The moment I walked in the door, my grandfather's leg was exposed.  The incision was covered with betadine, the smells overwhelmed me and I hit the floor.

Around this same time I also was tested for allergy shots and had to have blood drawn.  I remember feeling fine after and walked to sit in the waiting room to wait on mom.  A nurse walked by and saw me slumping down in my chair and green.  Needless to say, the smelling salts came out.  Ever since, I've passed out at the sight of blood - just ask Cheney how many times I've ended up in the laundry basket, and gotten queasy at the sight of a needle.

#2.  Snakes
I hate them.  I don't know when it started, but I can't even look at them.  My two team teachers had snakes in their rooms and I couldn't stand to watch them.

#3. Caves/Dark Places
I do not like being in underground caves at all.  I think that humans were made to stay on top of the ground. I hate being in dark places.  When I was little we went to The Lost Cave on vacation and I was nervous the entire time.  As a 5th grade teacher we took our kids to Luray Caverns and I hated it the entire time.  Cheney and I went to Stumphouse Mountain Tunnel a few years ago and he turned the flashlight off on me and I was terrified.  I don't think this is relegated just to caves.  I think it has to do with dark spaces.  Cheney and I went to Liard Hot Springs in British Columbia a few years back and it was 2 o'clock in the morning.  We had to hike into the springs in the pitch dark.  This was an area full of bears - in fact, someone had been attacked not to long before by a grizzly.  I was terrified to walk in - crying, holding on to Cheney - he didn't think it was funny.  When we finally arrived at the springs, there was a 90 year old grandmother there too.  I felt foolish.

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