Aa
I need your advice - Thank you for helping me
Good evening everyone!
I will describe every single detail of my story so that you have all the necessary informations to provide me an accurate answer (so this message maybe become a little bit longer, but I will do my best to keep it short and simple):
11 days ago, I felt a stinging pain in my left upper arm and got terrified that I may have been stuck/injected with a syringe full of hiv-positive blood. I know how paranoid this sounds, but I guess that if you are very scared, your brain doesn‘t always work in a logical way.
What speaks clearly against this „injection theory“:
I examined my upper arm very cautiously and wasn‘t able to find an injection mark/needle mark or a bruise (which as far as I know is very likely to occur if you are stuck/injected with brute force through 2 layers of clothes). And there wasn‘t a single drop of blood (neither on the upper arm itself nor on the T-Shirt and the overall that I wore on that day). To be absolutely certain I washed both clothes out with cold water the next morning and there wasn‘t any blood visible. And (probably most important): I don‘t even know if anything even happened and I guess I wouldn‘t overthink it so much if something really happened.
But as I was in panic the evening before, I rushed to the ER of a hospital and was even offered PEP (I suppose the Dr offered it to me only because I was literally over the edge with worry and very insecure and not because it was medically recommended/indicated, a hint of this can even be found on the protocol she gave me afterwards). She gave me one single dose (which I took about 5 and a half to 6 hours after the „exposure“) and then stated that I should overthink the situation and inform the hospital the next day if I want to really do the PEP or if I want to immediately stop it.
As you may can guess: I overthought the situation, talked with my parents and then decided to stop the PEP immediately.
Nevertheless I am currently planning to do a PCR-Test 14 days after the exposure (extra info for you: In my country (I live in Europe) the PCR is considered to deliver a definitive result after this period and officially counts as an exclusion test).
I am mainly doing this because I experienced „symptoms“ 2, 5, 6 and 7 days after the „exposure“. They are all listed down below:
2 days after: night sweat (only one single time, maybe because of the anxiety and stress I guess…)
5 days after: big diarrhea (also only one single time in the afternoon approximately 20 minutes after lunch; had a bit of stomach rumbling until I went to bed, but then it was gone completely)
6 days after: a red hurting „rash“ on the inner palm of my right hand (it disappeared within a few hours, probably caused by the fact that I was working in my garden wearing rubber gloves before during the day)
7 days after: sore throat with a little bit of slime in the throat (I had to cough a few times, but after I could spit out the slime it disappeared within a few hours)
As far as I am informed, it is impossible that these „symptoms“ are related to ARS, mainly because they appeared too early (I read not only on this site that the minimum time it takes is 2 weeks) and that when they EVEN appear come all at once (not one after the other) definitely don‘t disappear within a few hours.
This brings me to my final question:
Can I do the PCR-Test 14 days after my „exposure“ or should I wait until next monday (which would add three extra days on the counter)?
As far as I am informed, taking a PEP-medication only ONE SINGLE TIME (and then stopping it) doesn‘t affect the testing (or more specifically the window period dependent on which test you make).
This was also strengthened by the fact that the hospital wouldn‘t change the testing limits (4 weeks, 3 months and 6 months) if I made them there (for your info: they use the „classic“ 4th gen AG/AB-tests for this but stated that I could of course make a PCR or an AG/AB-test at my family doctor or a private lab if I wanted to; the 6 month mark is only because of the insurance if a health care worker gets stuck with a needle during work). To cite the Dr: „If you only take it (the PEP-pill) once, it doesn‘t matter for the testing/window period.“
Thank you very much in advance for your answers!
I will describe every single detail of my story so that you have all the necessary informations to provide me an accurate answer (so this message maybe become a little bit longer, but I will do my best to keep it short and simple):
11 days ago, I felt a stinging pain in my left upper arm and got terrified that I may have been stuck/injected with a syringe full of hiv-positive blood. I know how paranoid this sounds, but I guess that if you are very scared, your brain doesn‘t always work in a logical way.
What speaks clearly against this „injection theory“:
I examined my upper arm very cautiously and wasn‘t able to find an injection mark/needle mark or a bruise (which as far as I know is very likely to occur if you are stuck/injected with brute force through 2 layers of clothes). And there wasn‘t a single drop of blood (neither on the upper arm itself nor on the T-Shirt and the overall that I wore on that day). To be absolutely certain I washed both clothes out with cold water the next morning and there wasn‘t any blood visible. And (probably most important): I don‘t even know if anything even happened and I guess I wouldn‘t overthink it so much if something really happened.
But as I was in panic the evening before, I rushed to the ER of a hospital and was even offered PEP (I suppose the Dr offered it to me only because I was literally over the edge with worry and very insecure and not because it was medically recommended/indicated, a hint of this can even be found on the protocol she gave me afterwards). She gave me one single dose (which I took about 5 and a half to 6 hours after the „exposure“) and then stated that I should overthink the situation and inform the hospital the next day if I want to really do the PEP or if I want to immediately stop it.
As you may can guess: I overthought the situation, talked with my parents and then decided to stop the PEP immediately.
Nevertheless I am currently planning to do a PCR-Test 14 days after the exposure (extra info for you: In my country (I live in Europe) the PCR is considered to deliver a definitive result after this period and officially counts as an exclusion test).
I am mainly doing this because I experienced „symptoms“ 2, 5, 6 and 7 days after the „exposure“. They are all listed down below:
2 days after: night sweat (only one single time, maybe because of the anxiety and stress I guess…)
5 days after: big diarrhea (also only one single time in the afternoon approximately 20 minutes after lunch; had a bit of stomach rumbling until I went to bed, but then it was gone completely)
6 days after: a red hurting „rash“ on the inner palm of my right hand (it disappeared within a few hours, probably caused by the fact that I was working in my garden wearing rubber gloves before during the day)
7 days after: sore throat with a little bit of slime in the throat (I had to cough a few times, but after I could spit out the slime it disappeared within a few hours)
As far as I am informed, it is impossible that these „symptoms“ are related to ARS, mainly because they appeared too early (I read not only on this site that the minimum time it takes is 2 weeks) and that when they EVEN appear come all at once (not one after the other) definitely don‘t disappear within a few hours.
This brings me to my final question:
Can I do the PCR-Test 14 days after my „exposure“ or should I wait until next monday (which would add three extra days on the counter)?
As far as I am informed, taking a PEP-medication only ONE SINGLE TIME (and then stopping it) doesn‘t affect the testing (or more specifically the window period dependent on which test you make).
This was also strengthened by the fact that the hospital wouldn‘t change the testing limits (4 weeks, 3 months and 6 months) if I made them there (for your info: they use the „classic“ 4th gen AG/AB-tests for this but stated that I could of course make a PCR or an AG/AB-test at my family doctor or a private lab if I wanted to; the 6 month mark is only because of the insurance if a health care worker gets stuck with a needle during work). To cite the Dr: „If you only take it (the PEP-pill) once, it doesn‘t matter for the testing/window period.“
Thank you very much in advance for your answers!
COMMUNITY LEADER
I'm not going to read all of that. It isn't relevant. This is an imaginary event. Unless you sat still and held your arm out, like you do for a blood draw, this didn't happen. The bottom line is you would have absolutely known if someone injected anything into your vein.
1 Comments
Thank you again for your response!
So to sum it up in one sentence: I should get over with this and move on with my life, am I right?
Have a nice evening!
So to sum it up in one sentence: I should get over with this and move on with my life, am I right?
Have a nice evening!
COMMUNITY LEADER
You were NOT stuck with a syringe full of blood. If someone injected blood into you, intravenously, it would take more than a few seconds, you would have to hold still for them to find the vein, and you would absolutely know that it happened, with no doubt whatsoever.
1 Comments
Good evening CurfewX and thank you very much for your quick answer!
And there would‘ve definitely been a more than visible prick mark, a bruise and also blood, right? (As mentioned in my original post, I wasn‘t able to find any of those 3 things and I guess it would require brute force because I was wearing a T-Shirt and an overall, which make 2 layers of clothing in total.)
So you wouldn‘t even recommend me to do a test over this „incident“ and although I experienced „symptoms“ (Note: I have put them within quotation marks consciously because I know that a lot of them can also be caused by stress and/or anxiety)?
Thank you again in advance for responding me to this comment!
And there would‘ve definitely been a more than visible prick mark, a bruise and also blood, right? (As mentioned in my original post, I wasn‘t able to find any of those 3 things and I guess it would require brute force because I was wearing a T-Shirt and an overall, which make 2 layers of clothing in total.)
So you wouldn‘t even recommend me to do a test over this „incident“ and although I experienced „symptoms“ (Note: I have put them within quotation marks consciously because I know that a lot of them can also be caused by stress and/or anxiety)?
Thank you again in advance for responding me to this comment!
hiv docs can't diagnose from symptoms so no one here pays attention to them and you shouldn't either. Where were you that you think you were injected and why didn't you look to confirm?
2 Comments
Good evening AnxiousNoMore and thank you for your reply.
To clarify (I guess that because my initial post is so long it can easily be overseen): I checked my upper arm very cautiously (which is described in the fourth paragraph of the original text). I will copy/cite it right down below so you can reread it and don‘t have to search for it in the original post:
„I examined my upper arm very cautiously and wasn‘t able to find an injection mark/needle mark or a bruise (which as far as I know is very likely to occur if you are stuck/injected with brute force through 2 layers of clothes). And there wasn‘t a single drop of blood (neither on the upper arm itself nor on the T-Shirt and the overall that I wore on that day). To be absolutely certain I washed both clothes out with cold water the next morning and there wasn‘t any blood visible. And (probably most important): I don‘t even know if anything even happened and I guess I wouldn‘t overthink it so much if something really happened.“
I don‘t know if this additional information helps, but: I have had this pain in my upper arm for around 9 more days after the „exposure“. But as mentioned above, I wasn‘t able to find a prick/injection mark or a bruise and didn‘t saw any blood (neither on the arm itself nor on my clothes). I didn‘t saw any other person btw. TLDR: I am afraid that I got stuck/injected without noticing it.
To sum it up: It‘s the „symptoms“ and the fact that I had the pain in my upper arm for over a week after that still terrify/scare me a bit, which is why I want to make a PCR 14 days after this (which happens to be in 3 days). Can I do it or should I wait until next week (because I took PEP one single time)?
As stated in my original post: The Dr only gave me this one single dose of PEP just because I was literally over the edge with worry/panic and not because she thought it was medically necessary.
Thanks again for your answer!
To clarify (I guess that because my initial post is so long it can easily be overseen): I checked my upper arm very cautiously (which is described in the fourth paragraph of the original text). I will copy/cite it right down below so you can reread it and don‘t have to search for it in the original post:
„I examined my upper arm very cautiously and wasn‘t able to find an injection mark/needle mark or a bruise (which as far as I know is very likely to occur if you are stuck/injected with brute force through 2 layers of clothes). And there wasn‘t a single drop of blood (neither on the upper arm itself nor on the T-Shirt and the overall that I wore on that day). To be absolutely certain I washed both clothes out with cold water the next morning and there wasn‘t any blood visible. And (probably most important): I don‘t even know if anything even happened and I guess I wouldn‘t overthink it so much if something really happened.“
I don‘t know if this additional information helps, but: I have had this pain in my upper arm for around 9 more days after the „exposure“. But as mentioned above, I wasn‘t able to find a prick/injection mark or a bruise and didn‘t saw any blood (neither on the arm itself nor on my clothes). I didn‘t saw any other person btw. TLDR: I am afraid that I got stuck/injected without noticing it.
To sum it up: It‘s the „symptoms“ and the fact that I had the pain in my upper arm for over a week after that still terrify/scare me a bit, which is why I want to make a PCR 14 days after this (which happens to be in 3 days). Can I do it or should I wait until next week (because I took PEP one single time)?
As stated in my original post: The Dr only gave me this one single dose of PEP just because I was literally over the edge with worry/panic and not because she thought it was medically necessary.
Thanks again for your answer!
You didn't pay attention to the fact that doctors can't diagnose from symptoms so you've been wasting your time.
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