...cream before inserting a painful IV? I've had this done before and it was like night and day as far as not being in pain vs being in excrutiating pain for this extremely painful procedure. (A stick of Lidocaine doesn't hurt at all, and takes away the pain from having a huge needle w/a tube attached shoved into the top of your hand and have it rooted around to find a vein, alot more tolerating and almost pain free.)
I took my girlfriend for a hospital procedure and the nurses at Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater FL acted like it was a major drama to do this. They refused to get any lidocaine or EMLA cream which freaked out my friend and when they put the IV in her hand she screamed bloody murder and almost fainted from the pain.

You would have thought that we demanded that she be rolled in on a gold bed with satin sheets and filet mignon afterwards...I was appalled by this rude, rotten and uncaring behavior and reported the whole incident to the CEO of the hospital. What happened to patient comfort and care?