My finger got stabbed by a drug users needle

"Shamoononon drives like a farmer" (shamoononon) 03/12/2019 at 01:32 • Filed to: NOT CAR RELATED

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I guess they call it a hypodermic needle? I was by the beach playing Pokemon with my dog, he picked something up and my immediate reaction was to yank  it out of his mouth - and it went up my finger nail and caused quite a bit of bleeding.

I was just going to go home and call it a day but was told by my insurance company to go to the ER. Ok, so, I’m pretty sure the drug user was still there. Infact, when I went by to pick up the needle before going to the ER some homeless dude helped me find it and said ‘Yeah, I think I know who this is and he’s a scum bag’.

Now they have me on all sorts of HIV medication and the dreams and fevers are ugly.

Are the chances really that big that they have to pump my liver full of stuff?

JMKarstetter > Shamoononon drives like a farmer 03/12/2019 at 02:08

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Please keep taking them, not worth the risk.

NotUnlessRoundIsFunny > Shamoononon drives like a farmer 03/12/2019 at 02:12

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Damn, I’m sorry this happened and am sending you good thoughts. Good on you for taking it seriously and getting good care.

Future Heap Owner > Shamoononon drives like a farmer 03/12/2019 at 02:15

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Holy crap! Good looking out for Jackson , but I’m sorry this happened to you. What a terrible ending to a nice walk at the beach.

I have no idea what the chances are that they have to do anything more than give you lots of meds, but like JMKarstetter says, definitely keep doing whatever the doctor s tell you to. I hope weird dreams and fevers are the worst thing that happens because of this.

NKato > Shamoononon drives like a farmer 03/12/2019 at 02:17

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Suggestion: train your dog to drop whatever is in its mouth on command. 

pip bip - choose Corrour > Shamoononon drives like a farmer 03/12/2019 at 03:18

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follow doctors orders to the letter

facw > Shamoononon drives like a farmer 03/12/2019 at 07:04

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Wow. Hopefully all the precaution isn’t necessary, but going to the ER was the right thing to do. Follow their instructions, if you did pick up something nasty, now is the time to beat it, before it reproduces much.

shop-teacher > Shamoononon drives like a farmer 03/12/2019 at 07:19

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Holy hell!!! I have no idea what you're in store for, but I will echo everyone else in saying do whatever the doc says to the letter.

TheRealBicycleBuck > Shamoononon drives like a farmer 03/12/2019 at 07:50

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Copious bleeding is a good thing. Hopefully it helped to flush out anything that may have gotten into the wound. Stay on the meds just in case. HIV isn’t th e only concern here.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > Shamoononon drives like a farmer 03/12/2019 at 08:22

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Thats crazy!!! I hope you’re okay. I’d echo everyone else here and say follow doctors orders. Not to freak you out but who knows what this guy had. 

66P1800inpieces > Shamoononon drives like a farmer 03/12/2019 at 08:34

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I think you made the right precautionary moves. Was it near the waterline?  Hopefully the homeless guy you saw was wrong and it was sitting on the beach for a while.  UV rays kill an salt water can kill a lot of bad stuff. 

dumpsterfire! > Shamoononon drives like a farmer 03/12/2019 at 08:52

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the statistic out in healthcare is that a HIV dirty needle stick has about a 1 in 300 chance of infecting the recipient. the hepatitis viruses are significantly more virulent.

Tapas > Shamoononon drives like a farmer 03/12/2019 at 09:01

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:(

Svend > Shamoononon drives like a farmer 03/12/2019 at 09:14

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Yes. Unfortunately it is serious and necessary.

You’ll be, as you stated, put on a barrage of drugs and tests will done and bloods taken. It used to be three to six months for an all clear, but I haven’t worked in the ambulance service for a few years now so things may of been sped up a little.

Fingers crossed everything is grand. 

Hamtractor > Shamoononon drives like a farmer 03/12/2019 at 10:32

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Been there, done that. Got stuck back when I was a firefighter/paramedic. The prophylactic cocktail they give you to try to ward off hepatitis and HIV is brutal but totally necessary. I was sick basically the whole time I was taking that crap, but the alternative was much worse.  Needless to say, I chose to forgo being intimate with my wife for six months, and wore a condom for another six just to be sure.  It was a miserable experience.  Good luck brother...

Shamoononon drives like a farmer > NKato 03/12/2019 at 10:47

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He knows ‘Leave it’.  It was a knee jerk reaction on my part to yank what was in his mouth.  

t0ast > Shamoononon drives like a farmer 03/12/2019 at 10:52

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As someone who’s close with someone who is HIV+, I gotta echo what others have said. You absolutely want to do everything in your power to mitigate that risk, so stick with the doctor’s recommendations and prescriptions. Shitty though the preventative drugs may be, they beat the hell out of having to take others that aren’t that much different (said person had to spend over a year rotating through several options to find one that didn’t cause depression, jaundice, hallucinations, whole-body, rashes, and/or other awful side effects ) and are outrageously expensive (~$1000/mo if you’re lucky) for the rest of your life.