All my childhood memories of injections came back. Who can forget lining up in primary school with about 40 other kids? Suddenly, your name is called, you're being plonked down, the Nurse is taking a running leap and the injection soars into the air (much like a javelin) and lands, needle deep, in your arm.

Or at least that's what it felt like. The thing with being vaccinated en masse is that the prevailing atmosphere of fear (screaming girls throwing themselves against the wall, hysterical children at the door) tends to make you more sensitive to any kind of pain you might experience. So whilst injections themselves aren't that painful, the buildup was traumatising and scarring and enough to put me off needles for the rest of my life.

Anyway, I sat down for Injection Number One and I felt a little pinch as the Nurse squeezed my arm fat (plenty of that to go around) and poof! It was over. I asked, stunned, "Is that it?". And in one small prick all horrors of injections past disappeared.

One disgusting, bitter shot of polio (possibly the piss of Satan) and another injection later, I was fine and ready to go. The nurse warned of some soreness in the arm for the next few days but nothing major.

How wrong can you be! It feels like someone has been punching my arm repeatedly and it's gone dead. I'm only typing this with the aid of a pile of cushions supporting the dead weight of this useless limb.

So today I have learned that a) doctors lie b) injections themselves don't hurt and c) when in doubt do NOT poke your injection entry point to see if it still hurts.