Blood draw and HIV anxiety

[radhika_92]

Hi all,

I’ve gone through some posts here and have seen similar problems as mine. I went to get a routine blood work done two days ago. Everything went well until when I got home that I realized I didn’t see the phlebotomist take out the needle from a package. I usually do make sure this happens but that day I forgot about it. Since then I’ve been losing sleep over blood borne infections such as HIV, HepB, HepC etc. This will continue until I know for sure nothing of this sort happened. I’m a resident of Canada and I’d like to believe that such things would never happen in a first world country.  I even called the clinic to ask if this was a possibility and of course they said no all used needles are disposed off into the sharps container.

I really need some reassurance to calm my nerves.

[Chima7]

If hearing first hand from the actual clinic didn't help you get over this then I don't see how a random message board can help you. If you have such irrational thoughts about HIV then the only person who can help you is a trained therapist. I suggest that instead of wasting your time here you search Google for the nearest therapy that accepts your insurance and make an appointment for first thing on Monday.