Article on recent incident.
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=7b020d08-fd99-4f2d-8860-b43d5f1fc25e
In another followup, would it be easier for somebody to reuse needles if they are for instance... giving somebody a shot opposed to taking blood? I can't recall how the needle worked, if they need to detach something from it in order to take the blood sample out of the needle.
Thank you for your detailed comment, I really appreciate it. All was well for me until I watched a local news broadcast.. and out of coincidence with the situation I am experiencing I suppose.. a hospital a few hours away has been found to be having unsafe practice with needles for several years. They are requiring a bunch of people to go through testing for HIV and hepatitis. Ugh this kind of stuff has me so freaked out!!
Your fear of needles is very common, as I'm sure you know. Aside from some adversion therapy, I suppose some talk therapy could help you out, but I think it would be a waste of money. You said you also have a fear of bloodwork. Most of us with anxiety issues have fears when we go for any kind of test, be it bloodwork or an X-ray or CT......so this is also very common. You said you just had some blood work done and you obviously survived, but now you have a fear that they used a dirty needle. I can assure you that any reputable lab will ALWAYS use a clean needle and if you watched, you would see them open it. Most labs techs, who are highly trained phlebotomists, now make it a point to open the new needle in full view of the patient for just this reason. If you can manage to watch that much of the procedure, do........then, if you need to, look away while the actual draw is being done. That would be a great start in learning to overcome this fear unless you're getting yourself so paranoid that you think they pulled the old "bait and switch" while you weren't looking, threw the new needle away and dug through the sharps container for a used one! THAT kind of thinking WOULD be irrational.
If you have fears about HIV but consider yourself to be at low risk, I think it's time to have a talk with your doctor, a pharmacist, call one of many STD Hotlines or get on the STD Forum here and refresh yourself on safe sex practices. If you are doing everything you can to protect yourself and your partner(s) then relax!
If you open up to the tech who is drawing your blood and tell them you have some anxiety about dirty needles and/or the entire process, they can talk you through each step and you may actually find the entire porcedure far more interesting than frightening! Do you know how phlebotomists become licensed? By lots and lots of schooling and by practicing drawing blood on fellow students, and having fellow students practice on THEM! By the time they graduate, they have had their own blood drawn probably a thousand times! Who better to talk you through it?
Peace
Greenlydia