The blood sugar check/no pain enigma

I checked L’s sugar for him today and I asked him straight out…”Did that hurt?”

“Nope,” he said.

“No?” I said.

“Nope,” he said again.

Wait a minute…STOP THE BLOG!

(Long, dramatic, thoughtful pause…)

It has to hurt, right?

A little bit? Right?

It hurts me just pullin’ the trigger. It has to hurt him! I mean I just shunked a needle into his finger and drew blood. It HAS to hurt.

Then…no more than 10 minutes later, I see J checking his sugar…ON. HIS. THUMB!

Rewind the tape! When J was younger, and I did most the checking, the thumb was OFF LIMITS! It was a HUGE deal. No thumb poking…EVER!

And here he was right in front of me testing his thumb like it was the most normal thing in the world.

“What are you doing?! I thought there was no trespassing on the thumb!”

“That was when I was little.”

“Since when are you not little anymore?”

“I’m 13, it doesn’t bother me at all anymore.”

“Seriously J, I thought your thumb hurt more?”

“Turns out it doesn’t.” And he walks away as my jaw falls open, practically unhinged, like a recently abandoned swing set.

So then I decide to do more research…I turn to B…my hypochondriac.

“B, did that just hurt when you checked your sugar?”

“No, why?”

“Because it had to hurt.”

“Maybe a little…I don’t really remember. It is like a speck. Who remembers a speck?“

I’m gobsmacked.

So as I’m trying to wrap my head around this I decide to check my sugar.

Son of a gun! It REALLY hurt!

I have seen my boys wince before. I know there is pain involved, but when you do something 10,000+ times…I guess your brain acclimates to it all...?...

Maybe my type 1 friends can shed some light on this.

I asked J how he thought it was. How come it doesn't hurt? He said, “I’m awesome. That is the only answer.”

I’m going to stop wracking my brain over this one and go with that.

My boys are just awesome.