A little worried

[philly012]

I am a 38 year old male. I do drink socially but have never gotten drunk to the point of blackout since I was about 21. I do drink occasional but never move than 4 beers in a day so drinking is not the problem. At this particular party the host kept feeding my whiskey shots and Mad Elf beers so I did blackout towards the end of the night. So here is my question as I was leaving the party my wife said I feel in a bush (I live in the northeast so the bushes are dead for the winter) so that may explain the small scrapes and cut on my hand. When we arrived home my wife let me sleep in the car as I was passed out. My question is what if a crazy person came around and poke me with a needle or something like that ? I did not notice anything that looked like a needle prick or anything on my body but I can't be sure based on the small cuts and scrapes. What should I look for in regards to a needle stick?

Do I need testing or should chalk this up to loss to the mad elves and whiskey shots ?

[CurfewX]

The idea that people are running around with syringes full of HIV-infected blood, looking for people to inject, is far-fetched and is the stuff of urban legends.  If an untrained person had injected you with blood, you would know.  It would hurt, and it would be obvious.

However, no one here can tell you what happened.  If you're concerned, test.

[philly012]

Correct , based on how I woke up I am assuming I just opened the car door and threw up and just laid back to sleep. Nothing looked suspicious with my clothing or anything when I woke up etc... I guess the  issue is I don't know what happened which is driving me nuts. I am due for a physical in April so perhaps will just have them test when they draw blood anyway. Do you think I should buy and oraqucik at 6 weeks for piece of mind then follow up with blood test or am i wasting my $45 ????...thx

[CurfewX]

I think it's a waste of a perfectly good test, but admittedly I don't have a lot of patience for questions that involve a one in a billion chance of even having the event happen - being stabbed with a needle by some random, vicious stranger, who for some reason, that does not benefit him in any way, wants you to have HIV so much that he co-opted the help of a phlebotomist to draw blood and give it to him for that sole purpose.  The choice is entirely up to you, in the end.

[AnxiousNoMore]

You might be better off spending the money on a therapist to help you accept the realities and likelihoods that Curfew mentioned. There are many diseases so just picking HIV for your syringe loaded disease attacker isn't rational.

Life is full of tiny risks that we have to ignore - such as the possibility that a thumbtack injury can form a clot that goes to your brain and kills you --  which actually does happen a lot more often than disease spreading syringe attackers.

[philly012]

That was a great answer :-) will just wait till I go for a physical in April. My wife will attest that performing any sexual act in my condition that night would be lower than a one and a billion chance ;-)

[AnxiousNoMore]

You were worried about a syringe, now you are worried that you had sex when you fell into the bush for a minute with your wife walking beside you?

[philly012]

?.... it was sarcasm meaning that when I was asleep in the car that anything could have happened when we know nothing did expect me sleeping and throwing up.