Needle prick from needle in bottle of water!

[Materialgirl123]

To make a long story short,  I started to drink from a water bottle last night that had a used syringe in it from my son who has hep c.. The needle was in the bottle of water for 10 days as I was saving to prove he was still using drugs. Somehow I forgot about it being hid  in my room and I had 4 water bottles on my dresser as I was cleaning my room and I mindlessly picked that one up to drink and the needle pierced my tongue. I did bleed out quite a bit and I was in shock and just kept swishing mouthwash in my mouth until the bleeding stopped. Today I went to my dr office and the did a baseline bloodwork. To repeat in 3 months. They also said highly unlikely that i will contact hep c. As it was in the water my chances are better that I will not.  It's all I can think about. Any thoughts? I read it can stay alive for 3 weeks in water. Will not even know anything for 3 months...

[flyinlynn]

In a situation where a health care worker has experienced an accidental needle stick involving a patient with known hep c the odds of transmission are about 1.8% so in the situation you have described your odds would be proportionately that much lower.

However even if with the very low odds of getting hep c from this incident there are treatments now available that can cure hep c for the majority of patients. So even if you did ever contract hep c you can be cured with these new meds available now.

Also hep c is a very slowly acting illness taking for most people decades to cause liver damage so hep c is not a medical emergency even waiting a year or 2 would likely have no impact on your health.

I whould not waste any energy dwelling on this event just get tested when your doctor recommends to and move on with your life. Worry never robs today of its sorrows it only saps today of its strength.

Which brings me to a question if your son has hep c has he looked into getting treatment to cure him?

[fretboard]

That's unfortunate, all you can do is go back in 3 months and get tested.  The fact that it was in water may have no bearing, unless it was rinsed out completely before being placed in the water bottle.  If it was rinsed out completely you likely lucked out and wont be infected.  good luck!!