R E G U L A R J O E Y

[troggs]

I read here on the fourum that you work with hiv so i wanted to ask your opinion regarding my exposure  RJ. Please tell me what you have noticed in regards to exposure/window period envolving possible co-infections-hep c in paticular if you could i'd greatly appreciate this.

Exposure-needle stick (by iv drug user-likley positive w/hiv & hep-c,ect)

-Tested hiv neg @ 30 day and again neg @  12 weeks.
Would you consider my test to be conclusive based on your experience or would think my status likley to change if i've experienced what i think may have been ARS?

[troggs]

I told you i was dosing, when i woke she was bent over in the seat next to me, i thought she was tying up her shoe or something. Some passengers told me that she was odd moving around and nodding off a lot. This guy said people noticed her appearance -disheveled, ect, and moved to the outside seats to avoid her sitting next to them, my seat was open so she sat next to me, nodding off bent over. The stick was in my lower shin near the lower part almost down by my foot.I woke up and she sat upright shortly afterwards, she looked @ me some and said you look like "you take good care of yourself"I was a bit puzzled by that but still did'nt think anything right away. I felt a little wetness, raised my left pant leg up and i did notice a tiny blood bubble formed that looked fresh. She handed me several alchohol swab packets right away, just like that when she saw me looking at, it i opened it and used it to wipe away the bubble and clean off the area around it. I did'nt  automatically think i had been stuck because i had been riding my bike and get scrapped up a lot. It was a passenger who said that she was acting a lilttle odd and asked me what happened. He's the one who said maybe she stuck you with something, some other people that were present  listening said the same thing man...i was the one who was skeptical because i did'nt really think that was were it was from. I got scared and that's when i told the operator about it he radioed until the police that work within the train station, they stopped and questioned her, asked her  about the stick, she denied it happened but agreed to let them search her, she admitted she had needles on her person and they found she had three syringes on her person. They took her into custody for further questioning and charged her with posession, agrivated  assault, ect..tell it to them, why would they arrest her?. They said it looked like a needle stick and they know a tract mark when they see one.

[Pecha1230]

So you fell asleep on a train and some homeless person got on and stabbed you in the leg. Wow, that really sucks. But on the bright side your tests are conclusive man. Go out and celebrate the fact that you already tested negative at 12 weeks. Here in Arizona where i live they go by 8 weeks as beiung conlusive for all risk. I didnt believe it either when i first heard it and i dont come on this site and preach it either but it was told to me by a testing counselor. regardless of that, you are negative and you should feel good about it. its time to move on and forget about that horrible day. Trust me.

[troggs]

Are you kidding man? Did you read this persons background? How would i know if she did'nt just shoot up before she got on the train man?  Teak she could have pricked herself before sticking me as well, you don't know...A homeless, Hiv negative iv drug user? Okay, that's the highest risk out there without a doubt besides unprotected anal sex with a hiv (+) person..and i do know that i was stuck, that's a fact , the area i was infected the next day as i've said I had to go to the hospital to get treatment for it. I was given antibiotics and a tetanus shot by the DR. I wish i had been given pep @ this time. Teak in your own words "i don't even know how i got hiv, wether it was occupational or through sex." How can you then just dismiss my risk which is very real.

[Pecha1230]

yeah bro i agree with Lizzie Lou, if you didnt feel the pain of the needle poke then where did you know where to look? also, No one has ever been identified as being positive from a needle poke OUTSIDE of a healthcare setting. Regardless of what you might think, a needle poke is not HIgh risk. it is in fact Low risk and your test prooves it. A needle poke risk is calculated at about 0.03% risk. Thats less than a 1% chance of becoming infected with HIV from a needle poke and that leaves a little more than 99% chance that you will be fine, Thus the test results from your 12 weeks test. But i have to ask you, How did this whole situation occur. I thought that i read somewhere that you were like half asleep and some homeless person just came up to you and stabbed you or something or what happened. Please explain i am curious to know.

[LIZZIE LOU]

wow...you told me (and maybe others) something that i didnt know.  YOU ARE NOT EVEN POSITIVE THAT YOU WERE STUCK BY A NEEDLE.  you didnt feel anything...there was no blood.  how do you know the "little mark" you saw was made from a needle?  if you didnt feel it, then how did you know where to look?   this is news to me...unbelievable.  

[Teak]

Getting poked with a needle doesn't make it a high risk. It's only high risk when you have been poked by a recently use needle by a known HIV positive person that does IV drugs, of which you don't know and you don't know if the needle was even used for IV drugs. If you were even stuck by a needle.