Pathology - Am I infected with something after visiting clinic?

Author

Am I infected with something after visiting clinic?

Rolf Willow

2004-10-29, 7:08 am

Hi,

I wondered if I could get anyone's advice. Really what I am looking
for is common sense, because I know that I lack judgement when it
comes to health.

I thought it best to post here as my query relates to a number of
blood-borne diseases.

I went to the clinic and got the whole battery of tests, including 3
blood samples for Hep B, C and HIV. I thought it best to be
responsible and get tested, but also I am a bit anxious when it comes
to my health, so even though I have always had protected sex, I wanted
to be sure I was OK.

Anyway, I get my penis checked out (incidentally the nurse requests
each person to roll back and put forth their foreskin themselves),
back to waiting room then urine test and urethra swab and wash hands,
then back to waiting room and blood test to take the three samples.

After the blood test I'm back in the waiting room, waiting for the
outcome of the non-blood tests. I check out the band-aid/plaster on
top of the needle wound in my arm, there seems to be a little pool of
blood under the band-aid/plaster so I press it lightly with my finger
to make sure it is attached to the skin properly, and blood oozes out
of the air holes in the band-aid/plaster and onto my finger.

OK, now my mind is going crazy, I'm wondering, did I accidentally
infect myself somehow with remnants of viruses that I might have come
into contact with in the clinic from the door handles that were shared
by all the people getting tested at the clinic (remember that people
had to roll back foreskins).

So many things going through my mind, did I just give myself Hep B, C
or HIV - will I have to get tested again....I even tried to calculate
the odds and came out with a figure of 125,000 to 1!! As you can see I
am quite an anxious person - I think for my own piece of mind, I will
get retested again: either 3 or 6 (?) months for the standard HIV test
(difficult to obtain DNA test here), or however long for the Hepatitis
tests (I will have to look into this).

Anyway, do you think I am being really stupid? Is this crazy what I am
talking, lacking common sense? Perhaps I am going way over the top -
after all, 125,000 to 1 is better chances than crossing the roads for
one's entire lifetime.

I will probably get tested again to get piece of mind but any advice
from you would be appreciated because I respect opinion here.

Thanks

rolf

Robert

2004-10-29, 7:16 pm

You have a life long problem. You will continue to have sex and be fearful
of the consequences. You will extrapolate every possibility to the nth
degree.
You start out by queries on "blood borne diseases" and then talk about
touching foreskins. I do not know how the blood was taken to leave blood
soaking a Band-Aid. Most of the time there is very little blood. It is
routine that pressure be applied to the puncture site and that is usually
done with gauze followed by tape over that or the gauze can be removed and a
Band-Aid then applied.
People using their fingers to roll back foreskins does not cause bleeding.
HIV is very fragile and does not live long outside the body. Concentrated
cultures have been known to survive for a week out in the open but those are
not clinical specimens.
Hepatitis virus is more stable out of the human body but there is no mention
that you touched the wound itself introducing anything, but only squeezing
blood OUT and not IN.
You need to review the epidemiological findings involving HIV and hepatitis
viruses.
Don't be a nut case and start talking about mosquito transmission of HIV or
toilet seat transmission.

"Rolf Willow" <rolf_willow@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:7b69aec.0410290255.67ae8e06@posting.google.com...
> Hi,
>
> I wondered if I could get anyone's advice. Really what I am looking
> for is common sense, because I know that I lack judgement when it
> comes to health.
>
> I thought it best to post here as my query relates to a number of
> blood-borne diseases.
>
> I went to the clinic and got the whole battery of tests, including 3
> blood samples for Hep B, C and HIV. I thought it best to be
> responsible and get tested, but also I am a bit anxious when it comes
> to my health, so even though I have always had protected sex, I wanted
> to be sure I was OK.
>
> Anyway, I get my penis checked out (incidentally the nurse requests
> each person to roll back and put forth their foreskin themselves),
> back to waiting room then urine test and urethra swab and wash hands,
> then back to waiting room and blood test to take the three samples.
>
> After the blood test I'm back in the waiting room, waiting for the
> outcome of the non-blood tests. I check out the band-aid/plaster on
> top of the needle wound in my arm, there seems to be a little pool of
> blood under the band-aid/plaster so I press it lightly with my finger
> to make sure it is attached to the skin properly, and blood oozes out
> of the air holes in the band-aid/plaster and onto my finger.
>
> OK, now my mind is going crazy, I'm wondering, did I accidentally
> infect myself somehow with remnants of viruses that I might have come
> into contact with in the clinic from the door handles that were shared
> by all the people getting tested at the clinic (remember that people
> had to roll back foreskins).
>
> So many things going through my mind, did I just give myself Hep B, C
> or HIV - will I have to get tested again....I even tried to calculate
> the odds and came out with a figure of 125,000 to 1!! As you can see I
> am quite an anxious person - I think for my own piece of mind, I will
> get retested again: either 3 or 6 (?) months for the standard HIV test
> (difficult to obtain DNA test here), or however long for the Hepatitis
> tests (I will have to look into this).
>
> Anyway, do you think I am being really stupid? Is this crazy what I am
> talking, lacking common sense? Perhaps I am going way over the top -
> after all, 125,000 to 1 is better chances than crossing the roads for
> one's entire lifetime.
>
> I will probably get tested again to get piece of mind but any advice
> from you would be appreciated because I respect opinion here.
>
> Thanks
>
> rolf