Suture scissor injury

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Feb 10, 2015

We can't give medical advice here; for that, you should contact your primary care provider. However, risk of blood-borne disease is proportionate to the amount of blood transmitted, e.g., a deep stab from a gory liver biopsy needle carries a greater risk than a skin prick from a 27ga subq needle.

If your primary care provider thinks you should be concerned, s/he will make further recommendations for monitoring. You should report it to your employee health, too.

macawake, MSN · Feb 10, 2015

OP, you've posted about similar concerns in both September and December 2014.

I don't know if you have been in contact with your healthcare provider about the anxiety you seem to have about catching a disease from a patient?

As GrnTea wrote, we can't give medical advice but since this seems to be a recurring fear of yours I think that you might need help solving this issue. Nursing's certainly hard enough without adding this kind of stress/worry into the mix.

Best wishes to you OP!

ka2rn · Feb 10, 2015

I was already being texted from the hep c possible stick. I get my follow up testing next month so I will know then. I am just scared and I don't want to admit I probably have ocd. I don't want to die from a blood borne disease. I have a husband and 2 young children

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Feb 10, 2015

I was already being texted from the hep c possible stick. I get my follow up testing next month so I will know then. I am just scared and I don't want to admit I probably have ocd. I don't want to die from a blood borne disease. I have a husband and 2 young children

:: drily :: Dear heart, nobody wants to die of a blood-borne disease. Glad we got that out of the way.

Knowing that, I will make a nursing recommendation: Identify a good counselor that practices cognitive-behavioral therapy. You can thank me later., and if you do CBT, I believe you will. And your husband can thank me too. :)

ka2rn · Feb 10, 2015

Thank you this is embarrassing. Im supposed to be strong

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Feb 10, 2015

Oh, you don't need to feel embarrassed. We all have our weak spots. If we're smart, though, we try to use them as signposts for the road to growth.

Though I'm not sure, personally, that I'll ever really grow to like octopus sushi. Fish-flavored bubblegum just doesn't work for me. :)

ka2rn · Feb 11, 2015

what's an easy way to get help without people thinking your crazy? I am scared to admit it but i went through PPD after my first baby and my gyno was just like if you threaten to kill yourself they'll send you to a mental hospital. I was never at that point...:/

CrunchRN, ADN, RN · Feb 11, 2015

Go through your employers EAP program.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Feb 11, 2015

what's an easy way to get help without people thinking your crazy? I am scared to admit it but i went through PPD after my first baby and my gyno was just like if you threaten to kill yourself they'll send you to a mental hospital. I was never at that point...:/

Look at it this way. If you had a patient with a phobia or an OCD pattern or post-partum depression or something that was causing distress and hampering daily function, would you hesitate more than a Noo Yawk minute to recommend counseling? Of course you wouldn't. Why? Because people are entitled to get care that makes them feel better, whether it's a sore throat or a sore feeling. You are included in "people."

There are therapists, counselors, psychologists, and psychiatrists (all different, BTW) because (news flash!) people need them. There are many, many, many people on AN who have gotten counseling for greater or lesser problems. I'm among them; I saw a PhD psychologist for situational anxiety and depression for about 18 months around the time my first marriage was breaking up. At the time I had two very small kids; she told me when she discharged me from care that when she first met me she considered admitting me. "Mmmm, that bad, huh?" I said. "Yup," she said. "Nurses are the worst. They never seek the care they need until late." She did not admit me because I had two small kids and she very carefully (so carefully that I didn't even notice it until months later) evaluated me to be sure I wouldn't harm myself or them. I was grateful for that.

Then she told me I was very brave and strong and I should be proud of myself for the very hard work I did. Frosting on the cake. This woman really did save my life, not from death, but from a kind of internal death. Therapy made it possible to be the (allegedly) wonderful person my second husband fell in love with almost thirty years ago, and for me to still know how to be happy.

Think of counseling in the medical model, briefly. (For extra credit, think of how the nursing process could be applied to this concept.) When I started, I was in deep doo-doo (hurt bad), and saw her twice a week for about 8 weeks. (ICU, or at least acute med) Then I went to weekly (stepdown/rehab) for a good while, and started learning how to recognize my symptoms and how to do my own first aid (OT, self-care teaching). I also learned how to recognize the difference between a minor "injury" or "flareup" and how to manage it myself (like physical therapy), and how to recognize the need to stop by and see the therapist for a brief eval and tune-up by a pro.

Not sure why you think you're worried about people thinking you're crazy. You're not crazy, you're just ... hurt. Would you worry about seeing the ortho because he might think you had arthritis?

I would no more avoid counseling if I needed it than I would avoid seeing an orthopedist for my arthritic knee. Well, OK, I've been putting off the knee. But when it gets bad enough that it's hampering my ability to do what I need or want to do in my daily life, I'll be there.

Oh, and BTW: Your gyno was a jerk.

ka2rn · Feb 12, 2015

Thank you for sharing GrnTea! Very inspiring!

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Apr 9, 2015

So... what happened?