Freaking out over needle stick

[CrazyCatLadyRN, BSN, RN]

I work in a very busy trauma center and had a needle stick Monday morning at work. I walked into a patient's room and noticed a butterfly needle sitting on the bedside table with no vacutainer attached and thought it was odd since I remember throwing everything away after drawing his blood. Put on gloves and picked up the set and in the process somehow felt a small prick on the back of my hand between my thumb and my index finger . immediately I took of my gloves and noticed a tiny drop of blood. It appeared that the opposite end of the set where the adapter needle for the blood tube grazed my hand. Immediately I irrigated my hand in the sink and washes with soap and water. Went to go talk to the charge nurse and got distracted by a new patient who was very upset. After this, I totally lost my train of thought and forgot to report the incident until 2 days later when I was at home. I immediately freaked out because i know the patient is HIV positive. tHe next night at work I notified my anm and charge nurse and spoke with 2 of our ER drs. Both of them said to not worry since the chance of conversion is so low at 0.3 % with such a superficial injury. And that meds really might now be needed. I still went to employee health office this morning once they opened Though and she did all the testing for HIV and hep and all the needed paperwork. She convinced me it would be worth it to start the meds for more piece of mind and to follow up with infectious disease. Has anyone on here had a similar situation and started PEP later than 48 hours? I'm beating myself up so bad about this, its killing me!

[Pat_Pat RN]

I've had sticks, but no one every came back positive for anything. That would be scary.

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

It's wise to be prudent, but just remember that your risk is really REALLY low. Good luck.

[CrazyCatLadyRN, BSN, RN]

Just thought that I would come back and update, since it has been a few months. I know after I first got my needlestick and even now, seeing posts where people came back with updates later on made me feel a lot better...

I'm at almost the 4 month mark after my needles stick. I did the month of antivirals (which weren't too bad) and have had up to the 3 month testing for HIV and Hep C. It was negative!! Unless you have had a needle stick yourself, you cannot begin to understand the relief of getting a negative 3 month test. At my facility they test for HIV/hep c upon initial exposure, then again at 6 weeks for just HIV and then at 3 monthjs for both, 6 months, and 1 year. .They don't test for hep c at 6 weeks because it takes longer than that to show up. My hospital pays for you to be followed by an infectious disesase doctor who manages your antiviral therapy. She drew a cbc and CMP every other week during the meds. I really did feel a whole lot better after talking to her. She said that in her 15 years of practice, she has never had a HCP seroconvert from an HIV +needle.

Another huge thing during this whole process has been that my husband and I were trying to get pregnant when I got stuck. So of course we stopped and have been taking the necessary precautions since then. It really has been completely heartbreaking. Wanting something so bad, and not being able to have it, because of something that you did. My job recommends abstaining from becoming pregnant for 1 year after an exposure. My infectious disease doctor told me that this is a very outdated number though. She said that with 4th generation HIV testing most people would test + after 6 weeks, since these test for the antigen rather than the antibody, which would take much longer to show up. She said that in order to be extra safe, waiting 6 months before trying to conceive again would be safe.

This whole thing has really impacted my whole life since it happened. Not at day goes by that I do not think about it. As a nurse in the ER, or even a nurse in general I find myself thinking about things some much differently now. Your whole life can change in an instance from 1 thing that you do at work. NEVER sacrifice your safety, it just isn't worth it.

I hope someone going through this same thing gets some sort of comfort from reading my post. I know I personally spent days on the internet looking for anything to make myself feel better,

Has anyone else been trying to get pregnant when a needle stick occurred? How long did you wait to try and get pregnant again?

xoxo