Can someone please appease my paranoia?

[gigglymo]

I was feeding another nurse's baby last night, and didn't check the cap on the bottle before the feed. The cap was on crooked and I spilled (frozen/re-warmed) breast milk on my hand. Now I'm all paranoid about various communicable diseases. Can someone please reassure me?

[TinyHineyRN]

Glad that your paranoia has resolved. But, to keep it in perspective, I'll tell you about my "exposure" this past week:

A couple shifts ago, I was taking care of a teenager with a trach who is vent dependent, yet neuro intact. He unhooked the vent circuit to readjust tubing and I happened to be caught in the line of fire, spraying vent juice al up in my face! Fabulous.

This weekend when I went back to work, dude was on airborne isolation because his BAL grew out what: acid-fast bacilli. And that could be an indication of what, class?? Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Great. So now I, along with a loooong list of other staff, have to wait and see if we get the joy of taking ANTI-TB drugs for a while!

[gigglymo]

First, I want to say that you are my exposure-to-bodily-fluids hero. (Dubious as that sounds... :))

Second, thanks to you, I will now be referring to all fluids as juice. It just makes it sound so much more friendly, ya know?

Third, and most important - I really hope your TB test continues negative! (But good for you for NOT freaking out. I should take a hint. :))

[TinyHineyRN]

I think its one of the joys of Peds to get exposed to as much crap as humanly possible! They like to poop on you, puke on you, cough directly in your face, etc. But, as gross as it can be, I wouldn't trade it for anything!

I think the reason I'm not freaking is because I can't do anything about it! What's done is done and I just have to wait it out and hope the cultures are negative and that he just has an atypical mycobacterium, which is what Infectious Disease thinks. I can barely remember to take the drugs I'm supposed to take, let alone months of TB meds!