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Risk?
I have two different occasions that have been in the back of my mind for the past 14 months. I can forget all about it for awhile and then I just starting thinking about it again for no reason.
I was working in the lab of a hospital and processing specimens in the chemistry department. I wasn't wearing gloves, stupid I know, but I took the top of a specimen and there was a clot stuck to the cap that I couldn't see. When I popped the top off, a small amount (I'd say 2mls tops) got onto both of my arms. I immediately put the specimen down and went over to the sink. I poured a bleach and water solution over the blood and then washed all the way up to my elbows with soap and hot water. I didn't have any cuts at the time, so I know this is probably a very low to no risk exposure but I just cant shake the fact that I got someone else's blood on me. The patient whose blood I got on my was an 80 year old nursing home patient from a local nursing home, also probably very low to no risk but still unknown. I think the thing that bothers me is that I bite my fingernails so they are usually pretty short. Is there anyway that HIV can be transmitted around the fingernails or stay on the hands?
And the other occasion...I transferred to the ICU of the same hospital. I was taking out an IV on
76 year old women. As I was taking the IV out the clamp on the "pigtail" as we call it got caught on her ID band. The cannula flipped upward and I felt something hit my face. I went to the bathroom and I had 2 small spots of pinkish fluid next to my nose. I know that nothing got in my mouth or in my nose, and I'm fairly certain nothin got in my eyes because I don't think I even blinked. I have read that HIV is sensitive to temp change and I'm almost positive the nurse had recently flushed the IV with saline because the spots looked watery, not really even like blood but I know that had to be some in there. I know this is also probably another low to no risk exposure but again, it's still someone else blood on my body. Do I even need to be worried about something like this?
Thanks so much!
I was working in the lab of a hospital and processing specimens in the chemistry department. I wasn't wearing gloves, stupid I know, but I took the top of a specimen and there was a clot stuck to the cap that I couldn't see. When I popped the top off, a small amount (I'd say 2mls tops) got onto both of my arms. I immediately put the specimen down and went over to the sink. I poured a bleach and water solution over the blood and then washed all the way up to my elbows with soap and hot water. I didn't have any cuts at the time, so I know this is probably a very low to no risk exposure but I just cant shake the fact that I got someone else's blood on me. The patient whose blood I got on my was an 80 year old nursing home patient from a local nursing home, also probably very low to no risk but still unknown. I think the thing that bothers me is that I bite my fingernails so they are usually pretty short. Is there anyway that HIV can be transmitted around the fingernails or stay on the hands?
And the other occasion...I transferred to the ICU of the same hospital. I was taking out an IV on
76 year old women. As I was taking the IV out the clamp on the "pigtail" as we call it got caught on her ID band. The cannula flipped upward and I felt something hit my face. I went to the bathroom and I had 2 small spots of pinkish fluid next to my nose. I know that nothing got in my mouth or in my nose, and I'm fairly certain nothin got in my eyes because I don't think I even blinked. I have read that HIV is sensitive to temp change and I'm almost positive the nurse had recently flushed the IV with saline because the spots looked watery, not really even like blood but I know that had to be some in there. I know this is also probably another low to no risk exposure but again, it's still someone else blood on my body. Do I even need to be worried about something like this?
Thanks so much!
Thank you! Maybe I just needed to hear it from someone else. I've searched the Internet over the past several months and have read over and over again how it's actually not transmitted very easily because its a fragile virus but I just couldn't shake the "what if?" ...thanks again!
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