This has already been the worst week of my life and it's only Tuesday. Sunday night I was giving insulin to my patient via a Novolog flex pen. I have the shot in the patient's arm, removed the needle (ya know cuz those flex pen needles need to be unscrewed and discarded) and threw it in sharps...only trouble is the needle actually stuck to my glove and ended up poking me as I was putting her Novolog pen away. So, I quickly re-discarded the needle, removed my gloves, washed the site (it's a tiny pin prick on the upper palm of my hand between my 3rd and 4th fingers), it bled a bit and then I headed down to the ER. While in the ER the doctor and I scrubbed the site again, they took a bunch of blood and started me on PEP for HIV and ordered bloods on my patient. Today I was informed that my patient's initial HIV test was negative but they are doing a viral load to try and rule out the 6 month window period, but then I was told she is both Hepatitis B and C positive. I have been vaccinated for B and my blood work showed that I do form the antibodies so my vaccines are working but of course there's nothing that can be done for Hep C. Now, I have been told that since I was wearing gloves, it was a very tiny needle, it was a sub q injection, and I washed the wound immediately that my chances of seroconverting are slim but I am in a PANIC! Any words of wisdom?
