another cocaine ? (you were all so helpful last time)

[beantown33]

Hi Everyone:

You were all very helpful the last time i posted a question...thank you very much.  I have a doctors appointment tomorrow and i'm planning on getting some blood tests done.  At this point, I just want to know but I still am unsure of the risks of contracting HCV through snorting cocaine...I've only used a couple of times but am still extremely nervous.  My questions are:

1) Did any of you ever have prolonged headaches for a whole week after using (it was a decent amount and i am relatively inexperienced)?

2) Can HIV be transmitted through snorting (if so I may get checked for that as well)?

3)Is there a good chance I contracted HCV from snorting and that is why i'm experiencing headaches, sleeplessness, some itching, some tingling etc.?

Thanks so much...I'd be going (even more) crazy if it wasn't for all of your help

3)

[NYgirl]

Hepatitis C Symptoms - Hepatitis C Treatments - Hepatitis C ...Snorting cocaine through the use of a shared straw or bill is a major source of transmittal today, through broken ...  

www.hepatitiscsymptom.com/

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But increasingly it is also being spread by "social" drug use such as snorting cocaine. Straws used to snort cocaine are often passed around and may become ...
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... government statistics suggest that more people are using cocaine (coke, charlie, ... Snorting cocaine can damage the membrane between the nostrils, ...
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Other risk factors include IV drug use, snorting cocaine, needle-stick ... Recent studies have shown that HCV can survive outside the body and still ...




For one. There are LOADS and LOADS of articles - please don't anybody think it's not possible and say to themselves well since it's not possible I might as well.....cause that is the way my brain works once I hear I can't drink I'm thinking.......  ;-)

[NYgirl]

PS The doctors here in New York - perhaps having a bigger base of us druggies to look at - seem to have no problem at all stating that its definitely possible and likely to come from snorting.

Since there is no other way I can have it for this long without it I'd venture to say it's true.

When I think of each person I snorted with and magnify THAT by the number of people THEY snorted with it well just snowballs into what hundreds of thousands of people in a lifetime sharing snot?  LOL.

I was such a smart important person in my 20s my my yes.

But luckily I didn't use IVDs yet because ten of my friends (that I know of) died of HIV in the same two years. When I look at it like that...hep isn't the worst thing.

[HepCBoy]

>Up to 30% of those infected have no known risk factors, no drug use, no tattoo's, etc. so just how did they get it?

UK figures state that of those with Hep C who answered 80% admitted IV drug abuse. A recent Austrailian study put the figure at 90%. Add in roughly 10% [in the UK] via blood transfusions and then known moderate risk areas like tatoos and snorting and you have a small % who claim to have had no risk factors. Add in sex, very low risk but lots of potential exposure, and you can't be that far short 100%.

[NYgirl]

Said
people tend to PROGRESS in their heavy addiction and that generally means from SNORTING to SYRINGES

I would venture that the vast majority of people who took a whiff of blow never went on to to be IVDUs.




As you can see I said heavily addicted - not just someone who used a few times in their teens or twenties.  I'm talking addict and here in New York well maybe I see it different but most of the people who had a heavy habit "graduated"...to syringes.  

But irregardless it's very easy and sensible to get it this way if you want it...just go out and snort with as many people as possible till you are lucky enough to run into one person who doesn't know they are infected!  ;-)

[wMich]

A friend was a non-using dental tech in the service in Europe and contracted HCV from a patient. My quiet regular-Joe buddy got HCV one of the two times in his life he used (and shared) a needle. I was an IV drug using musician and addict for many years and more than likely got HCV from needle sharing.

The soldier/dental tech is one of the "innocents" that contracted HCV through no fault of his own, my quiet buddy made a bad choice, and I was outright f**ing reckless years ago. We are three very different HCV+ people who share a very common thread. Infected blood got into our bloodstreams. There seems to be enough shame and burden associated with having HCV that dwelling on how/where/why/when I got it is wasted energy, unless it leads to preventing future transmission.

HCV is described as being primarily a blood-borne pathogen. From what I've read the jury is still out regarding the serum levels of HCV in other bodily fluids and the real transmission rates associated with exposure to those. Though I don't think I got HCV from sharing coke straws myself, it seems possible that some people have. Given the bloody noses that can be part of heavy intra-nasal use and the immuno-supressed bodies of heavy users, it makes sense. The sheer numbers and close proximity of tiny blood vessels in the nasal area makes it an easy entry point for anything you might up there (i.e. cocaine, a tiny bit of HCV in a bloody straw or absorbent rolled-up dollar bill). Bloodborne doesn't necessarily mean needle. Yeah, beantown. If you have doubts, get tested for HIV too.   - Lee

[cajunlady]

I need to schedule appointments right now for my kids.  This scares the holy cr*p out of me.  But, what do you do let there teeth rott, or go purchase your own dental equiptment and take it with you on dentist appointments, just so you can feel safe about doing dental work.  That could get expensive.  I hate this catch 22 on the dental.

Thanks for the web site of info; I will now look that up.

cajun