Oh Miss Lindkaye, never watch that kind of thing. If you watched a regular dental checkup on someone else, you wouldn't want to go either.
Here's my advice, both as someone who has had them and as a critical care nurse who has watched about a million (I work in a teaching hospital). This looks horrid. But, what you feel when not watching is this. They numb the top part of your skin, which feels like a beesting and burn. They will wait a couple of seconds to let that work, then they will numb deeper layers of the skin and tissue (more like doing the whole track of where the needle will go), so same pinch and burn. Once those are done, what you will feel is sort of like someone pressing on your groin with the back of a spoon-pressure and movement, but not pain. Anesthetics only work on pure pain receptors in your skin, but the sensation of pressure is controlled seperately and does not respond to the numbing. Expect that they will be touching around to feel your bones around the area because that's how they are sure that they are going where they want-the femoral area has "NAVEL" starting from the hip bone to that ligament way at the top of you leg-Nerve, Artery Vein Everything else Ligament. So obviously with all of that important stuff, they can be quite touchy. Don't get a resident-if there seems to be another doctor watching your doctor, just say that you are scared and would prefer an "attending" physician to perform it. You have that right.
So, in summary, pinch/burn, pinch/burn, pressure and movement. The best thing you can do is try to keep as still as possible if you find it really uncomfortable (it usually isn't if people just know what is happening)-move anything else in response to the pinch/burn, like clench your fist, grit your teeth, say bad words, but no moving the legs or your butt.
You'll do great. Knowing what it is like is half of the battle.
Lori Lee