fluid contact

[ask12]

The nurse who put in my Eye drops and stuck the fluorescein stick in my eyes~~ licked her finger/touched her mouth right before she started doing all of that, and before I could stop her to say wash your hands please! Ugh, can I get a virus or something in the eyes or eyelids this way?~~like any stds or other types of infections?

Also, in the 1st room i was in, there were some big red blotches on the arm chair that were red, but she switched my room right away when i told her, then she disappeared and came into the room i was in. hope she washed her hands! (this was before the 2nd room where she started doing everything)

I don't know what I can do now to prevent any type of possible infections from those 2 incidents? How would I know if something did happen? Should I take any preventative meds or drops that are anti-viral or anti-biotic? i have some at home for preventive/in case of in contact stuff. i have a low immune system.

should i bother calling the dr office and telling another nurse or something what happened? i fear that they will treat me poorly or think i'm nuts since there's no way i can show proof of the unsanitary conditions at this time.

Thanks you in advance for your help.

[mkh9]

HSV keratitis in the eye would be extremely unlikely in this case. If you did get it most of the time it resolves on its own. But if you have any eye problems see a doctor. I don't think you will. I doubt you got infected since she probably didn't touch the blood. If you doctor will give you the shot you could get one just in case. It increases your risk temporarily for a blood clot. some people can be allergic to the shot. See the link below for information on it.

http://www.drugs.com/cdi/immune-globulin-human.html

Alternatively, you could get tested in about 8-12 weeks.


mkh9

[ask12]

and what about the mouth contact? a little part of her lip looked red,
could she cause ocular hsv or something? would taking anti-virals help?

the other nurse did say the blood was dry, and i asked her if my nurse touched it or if it was on the door knob and she said no. so i dunno if i should ask for a gamma gloubin shot? aren't there side effects to that?

thank you :)

[mkh9]

Well, it is good you washed your hands just in case. If she didn't wash her hands and got blood on them (I doubt very much because I don't think she would want to get exposed to something either) then you could get a gamma globulin shot. It would help boost your immunity against hepatitis C. But it won't help against HIV. But you don't have to worry about HIV because it dies right away after it dries in air. Hepatitis stays in blood a long time. So it is something to think about. I doubt you got exposed to anything. But if you really feel you did you can ask your new doctor for a shot and see if they will give it to you. You have to do it right away though.
mkh9

[ask12]

sorry for the re-post, there isn't an edit or delete button.

thank you so much for your help :) yes it was scary and gross.
i was the one that saw the blood actually. i touched the other part of the chair since i was trying to sit down. i washed my hands as soon as i got in the 2nd room.

the nurse disappeared for a while and came back. i really hope she did not come into contact w any blood. i did not see her wash her hands in front of me :( and then she touched her mouth. if the blood somehow did touch my eye, would there be anything i could take or vaccine booster? or anything to fight against the mouth/saliva contact? part of her lip looked red.

[ask12]

thank you so much for your help :) yes it was scary and gross.
i was the one that saw the blood actually. i touched the other part of the chair since i was trying to sit down. i washed my hands as soon as i got in the 2nd room.

the nurse disappeared for a while and came back. i really hope she did not come into contact w any blood. i did not see her wash her hands in front of me :( and then she touched her mouth. if the blood somehow did touch my eye, would there be anything i could take or vaccine booster? or anything to fight against the mouth/saliva contact?

[ask12]

thank you so much for your help :) yes it was scary and gross.
i was the one that saw the blood actually. i touched the other part of the chair since i was trying to sit down. i washed my hands as soon as i got in the 2nd room.

the nurse disappeared for a while and came back. i really hope she did not come into contact w any blood. i did not see her wash her hands in front of me :( and then she touched her mouth. if the blood somehow did touch my eye, would there be anything i could take or vaccine booster? or anything to fight against the mouth contact?

[mkh9]

Well, I would go elsewhere and have your chart sent to another doctor.

I don't think you will get anything from this exposure. It sounds  like the nurse walked in saw that the chair was bloody and walked out. So I think you are okay.

Pretty gross. But I think you are in the clear at this point. I don't think there is anything you can do to prevent anything. I don't think you will get anything from this. So, just don't go back. Sorry you went through this.

I have heard of this happening to other people. Basically, the room didn't get cleaned that they were going to put you in and they turned around and took you to another room.
mkh9

[ask12]

i talked to the other (nice) nurse and she said there was blood on the arm chair.

she said she didn't know who my nurse was. i told her what happened with the mouth touching thing.
should i get the name of my nurse and ask her or the nice nurse if she had a mouth sore or was sick or something?

who knows if my nurse did touch the bloody arm chair? ugh i am very uncomfortable. i definitely wanna request a copy of my chart, as i do not wanna go back there.

i wanna know if there is anything i can do at this point to prevent possible infection?? thank you

[mkh9]

"gummy" eye is basically when you get stuff in the corner of your eye. It usually causes your eye to sort of stick together.  Some peoples eyes can get so swollen they can't open them. But that is a bad infection. You would have had symptoms by now. If not by tomorrow. It has been quite a while.

I personally would go to another doctor after experiencing discomfort from that facility.

Sometimes doctors wash their hands outside the door but I don't like it because the door handle can be contaminated. You can always ask them to wash their hands and say it as I would more comfortable if you washed your hands in front of me. They may think you are paranoid though.  But you do have the right.  But if they use a alcohol sanitizer inside the room that is usually good enough for most things. Unless they are going to "touch your eye" or do surgery or work on a wound etc.

I wouldn't go back to that nurse but if you got her name you can report her to the nursing supervisor or in a survey or whomever you feel you would like to. Or you don't have to use her name and just write to the head of the section or in a survey or whatever, and say that you saw that the staff didn't wash their hands and the areas you were in looked unsanitary. This made you feel uncomfortable and that you felt possibly that you may have been infected by the unclean practice. You will not be using their facility again because of this. But it is up to you to decide what you want to do. You also may not want to use your name in case of law suit. I would be careful if you go public with this to say in "my opinion " or not use your name. But they can track your email.  People are law suit crazy these days.  I don't think you can fight this kind of think yourself. There are no damages. You just want to help fix the problem or don't go back.

mkh9

[ask12]

thank you so much! just so i know, what is a gummy eye? do u mean if something happened~i'd already have eye symptoms or elsewhere?

my eyes feel off all the time, even now. so hard to tell what's going on.
if i did get bad symptoms, should i go back there and tell them? or just go somewhere new where they don't do things like that.

should i tell the other nurse at the place i went to about the chair and the mouth nurse? also the doctor didn't clean his hands when he came in the room like he usually does and his hands smelled like smoke. this whole thing has concerned me a lot.

thank you for help :)

[ask12]

thank you so much! just so i know, what is a gummy eye? do u mean if something happened~i'd already have eye symptoms or elsewhere?

my eyes feel off all the time, even now. so hard to tell what's going on.
if i did get bad symptoms, should i go back there and tell them? or just go somewhere new where they don't do things like that.

should i tell the other nurse at the place i went to about the chair and the mouth nurse? also the doctor didn't clean his hands when he came in the room like he usually does and his hands smelled like smoke. this whole thing has concerned me a lot.

thank you for help :)

[mkh9]

Although it sounds gross I wouldn't worry about it. You have lysozyme in your tears that kills most things off. It isn't likely that her activity would cause you to get an infection. I don't know about what was on the chair. But you would have already gotten something by now. It has been 14 hours since you wrote me and I think you would have already had symptoms of a viral and most bacterial infections by now. If you do develop any pain, swelling, and gummy eye then I would go to the doctor. But I think you are probably clear.
mkh9