I got stuck by some drug addict's needle in the woods

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’m in the woods playing paintball with my husband yesterday (in the town my in- law’s live), and I’m sitting on the ground while he goes to hide. I start to get up, and I feel a poke on my finger, and I look down.

Syringe and needle. Great. And I’m bleeding, too.

So we hightail it back to DH’s grandmother’s house, pack, put the syringe in a bag and grab our kid and get outta there. There’s no need to go to the hospital there; the ones where we live (an hour and a half away) are much better.

Long story short, we see the doc (all of the ER people were just wonderful to me), and he just happened to do his residency with HIV stuff. “I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it,” he tells me, “but we’re gonna put you on these meds for a month anyway.” I’m told that HIV can only live outside the body for a little while, and judging from the dirt on the syringe, there’s no telling how long it was in the woods. Hepatitis B is a bigger concern, as it can live for up to 2 weeks, but even those chances are very, very slim.

I’m at peace; I know I’ll be fine. And I’m thankful. What if my child had been with us, and it had been her? There were kids playing near where I was poked, what if it had been one of them? It could have been my husband. Or maybe I could have sat on the needle and thus had to show my butt to the ER people last night :wink: Many people wouldn’t have even had access to the medications I’m going to have to take for the next month. I have a new sympathy for those who have to take them every single day. And I’ve been shown once again who my real friends are: friends are people you can call late at night, and instead of going back to sleep, they pray. I am beyond blessed.

This whole thing has reminded me about how interconnected our lives are, though. Every decision we make has the potential to affect others, no matter how mundane the decision is.

Someone out there decided to introduce the needle’s owner to drugs. (My grandmother in law thinks it was a diabetic’s needle, but there is no way an insulin dependent diabetic would be stupid enough to do something like that.)

They got addicted, and one day decided to shoot up in the woods and carelessly throw the needle on the ground, where anyone could be poked by it.

I get poked, and now my insurance company is paying for a month’s worth of meds that cost about $1700, not to mention the ER visit and the follow-up I have to have with some infectious disease doctor.

And the needle’s owner could be shooting up right now as I write this, with no clue as to the risk they exposed an innocent person (really, a whole family) to. I would be angry, but I guess the grace of God is on me not to be. How low can you get, where you are so ravaged by addiction that you honestly don’t care who you kill, as long as you get what you want? There’s nothing normal about selfishness like that, and it’s only because of God’s mercy that I’ve never gone near the stuff. I could have been the drug addict just as easily as anyone else.

So there’s my Sunday, in a nutshell.

2

You’d be surprised. My ex would put his sharps in an old soda can then would throw the can out in the regular garbage when it got full. I came within seconds of swallowing lancets because I wasn’t familiar with his disposal system. (I was drinking soda while reading in bed and picked his can up instead of mine.) A quick trip to the pharmacy later and he had a shiny red sharps container and disposal instructions.

That said, perhaps the syringe was in a bag or case intended for later disposal and slipped out somehow.

Not that I’m saying that’s what happened. I’m just saying that it is possible for diabetics to lose sharps accidentally.

Robin

3

I agree. The simple thing would be to have the syringe tested. There must be some residue. If the area you were at is a drug hang-out, the police would probably want to know that. Also, they might want to do a more thorough clean-up if it is a drug area.

4

Incidently, I was stuck by my VET while he was giving my cat a rabies shot :eek: ! Everyone said not to worry, because they don’t use live virus, but then recently I heard that they found some live virus in a batch of vaccines. Nice going, doc.

5

The simple thing would be to have the syringe tested.

I asked about this. I can’t remember if they said they couldn’t test it, or if they said they weren’t going to bother with it. It was really late and I was sleepy.

6

Remember … no deals for the drug addict! Hang him! Or her!

7

Snooooopy I take it you don’t watch much Law & Order?

8

Whaddaya mean? I’m a big fan of all three series. I was just riffing on your sig line.

9

Scary. I work in healthcare and use needles all the time, but it would never cross my mind to worry about it in the woods like that. Even though it’s unlikely that there was any surviving virus on the needle, I’m glad that you were able to get prophylactic treatment just to be safe. I hope that all goes well for you.

Most drug addicts don’t seem to be concerned about much of anything besides getting their next fix. It would not surprise me if the person who tossed that needle didn’t care about what consequences it had even if they had a way to know what they did. :frowning:

10

I’ve lost a needle more than once. Sometimes they just seem to magically disappear. Insulin needles are very short and thin, they can only penetrate just under the skin. Mine say “USE ONCE AND DESTROY USE U-100 INSULIN ONLY” on the barrel of the syringe.

It’s still possible that a diabetic is infected with HIV, hepatitus in all of its wonderful flavors, or something new and unclassified. So the OP’s actions and treatments are a good idea.

11

That’s horrible, Abbie, I really hope that everything works out well for you.
You seem to be taking it really well, and the care you’re getting is really good.

I’m sending good thoughts to reduce those tiny chances even more.

12

Stuck myself with one when I was about 5 ('76), in our apartment parking lot, and never told anybody. It worked out.

Granted, that was before AIDS, but I’m sure my mom would have freaked.

13

How horrible! Glad to hear you’re ok.

14

<conspiracy>Or worse, something new and classified top-secret!</conspiracy>

15

All the best to you, Abbie. I’m sorry for your scare and all the trouble.

I agree with lavenderviolet. I’m going with intentional disposal in the woods VS accidental loss.

My EX called me Monday and told me that she found a syringe in her back yard while she was mowing the grass on Sunday afternoon. Her yard backs up to a moderately busy residential street and is near a park and canal where a lot of transients hang out. She didn’t get stuck but was still a bit freaked that some moron would toss his used rig over the wall.

16

The only thing that is bugging me now is how TIRED I am. The doc at the ER warned me that this may happen. All I want to do is lay around the house. I haven’t been to school in 2 days.

1100 bucks for TWO medications. What on earth do people who actually have HIV do? I imagine they’re forced to quit their jobs so they can get a medical card, because I sure can’t see an insurance company being happy to pay for this stuff every single month. And I imagine they’re too damn tired to work to begin with.

I don’t care that lots of people get HIV because they do stupid stuff, I feel sorry for them. This sucks. I don’t even HAVE it and I’m worn out. I can’t imagine how (physically) bad people must feel who do have it and are on these meds.

17

And now for even weirder news …

I had an appointment with the Infectious Disease guy today and he took me off all the meds!

First off, he said the ER made some serious boo-boos. I should have never been put on one of the meds I was taking because it wasn’t necessary and has a potential for liver damage. They didn’t do a pregnancy test and a CBC before they put me on them and the doc told me today that the meds are going to do me more harm than good considering the almost nonexistent chance of something turning up. He said all he would have done is wash his hands and get a tetanus shot and that the ER did some serious overkill.

I’m not one of these patients that always takes the doc’s word as gospel truth, but I’m following his advice to discontinue the meds. I’d just as soon not do damage to my liver for the sake of a fraction of a percent’s chance of something going wrong. I feel confident that the needle was too old to have HIV on it, considering it had been pouring down rain most of the week in the town I was in and the amount of dirt on/in the syringe.

They are going to immunize me for hepatitis B, though.

So now I’m stuck with nearly a month’s worth of meds and I’m looking to get rid of them. I put in a call to the AIDS Task Force and I’m hoping they’ll be able to take them and hook someone up who needs them. It’d make me sick to just throw them away.

18

A serious junkie would not give a monkeys about leaving his/her works lying about after use. I have had some experience in this area and have seen some truly squalid sights. One junkie I knew lived in a room with literally thousands of old needles littering the floor, another lived in similar conditions and had accidentally injected a dog hair into his foot after it got in the end of his works causing a revolting abscess, I have seen places behind playgrounds with hundreds of used works littering the floor basically the list goes on and on… The problem is, if you care so little about your own well being how can you possibly care about other peoples?

19

You are my hero.