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Did I Get HIV from nurse?
I went to see the doctor last week and was asked to give blood. The doctor went through everything and at the end of the visit, they would take the blood. The nurse came in with plain clothes and I could see the butterfly needle laying on top of her tray. It was completely unwrapped with the needle exposed. I am used to nurses unwrapping the needle in front of me, so this was odd. She placed a bottle at the end of the tube and drew my blood. I felt extremely uncomfortable and asked her about the needle. She claimed that she prepared it earlier because I was her last patient.
Since this, I have had constant swelling of lymph nodes im my throat. In addition, I had really bad diarrhea. I also noticed that the nurse had a nasty red cold sore on her top lip.
1. The butterfly needle appeared to be a vacutainer and have a retractable needle, can it be reused?
2. If she used the needle or pricked herself/dropped the needle in blood, can I have HIV?
Since this, I have had constant swelling of lymph nodes im my throat. In addition, I had really bad diarrhea. I also noticed that the nurse had a nasty red cold sore on her top lip.
1. The butterfly needle appeared to be a vacutainer and have a retractable needle, can it be reused?
2. If she used the needle or pricked herself/dropped the needle in blood, can I have HIV?
Thank you for the back-up, Teak.
Nursegirl and I are pretty tired of having our professional and personal ethics called into question so often.
To the OP............at any time during a blood draw, you, as the patient, have the right to stop the procedure at any point and request that a new, syringe be opened in front of you.
There are many new types of needles used in hospitals these days. The old style syringe with a cap that must be removed is slowly becoming obsolete. Most syringes used for blood draws today have a small locking device that with a very quick twist exposes the needle. To the untrained eye, it probably does look like there was never a cap.
The next time you have to have blood drawn, tell the phlebotomist that you'd appreciate if they went slow and explained each step of the process to you.
Your swollen lymph nodes and diarrhea means your body is fighting either a virus or bacterial infection, like a cold or the flu and you did NOT "catch" this during your blood draw. Far and away more likely that YOU passed it on to the person drawing your blood.
Unless your nurse was slobbering all over you with her cold sore, cut her some slack.
Why not, just ONCE, think about those of us drawing blood from people with God knows what racing through their veins, to say nothing about their respiratory tracks when they cough or sneeze practically in our faces. And I would like to request that YOU not touch ME..........I have no idea where YOUR hands have been. Mine have been in gloves.
I apologize, to a small extent, for this post, but many of us who draw blood as a routine part of our jobs really don't appreciate being thought of as some sort of evil monsters.
Nursegirl and I are pretty tired of having our professional and personal ethics called into question so often.
To the OP............at any time during a blood draw, you, as the patient, have the right to stop the procedure at any point and request that a new, syringe be opened in front of you.
There are many new types of needles used in hospitals these days. The old style syringe with a cap that must be removed is slowly becoming obsolete. Most syringes used for blood draws today have a small locking device that with a very quick twist exposes the needle. To the untrained eye, it probably does look like there was never a cap.
The next time you have to have blood drawn, tell the phlebotomist that you'd appreciate if they went slow and explained each step of the process to you.
Your swollen lymph nodes and diarrhea means your body is fighting either a virus or bacterial infection, like a cold or the flu and you did NOT "catch" this during your blood draw. Far and away more likely that YOU passed it on to the person drawing your blood.
Unless your nurse was slobbering all over you with her cold sore, cut her some slack.
Why not, just ONCE, think about those of us drawing blood from people with God knows what racing through their veins, to say nothing about their respiratory tracks when they cough or sneeze practically in our faces. And I would like to request that YOU not touch ME..........I have no idea where YOUR hands have been. Mine have been in gloves.
I apologize, to a small extent, for this post, but many of us who draw blood as a routine part of our jobs really don't appreciate being thought of as some sort of evil monsters.
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