Aa
sitting, waiting, scared.
Before I being I would like to thank you for your time in reading the following. Several weeks ago,( It will be 3 weeks tomorrow), I found myself wanting to have my ears repeirced, I went to a local head shop and bought a sealed 12gauge needle, some alcahol and some iodine swabs...I couldn't do this myself so I went to a friends home to have her do it for me. I pulled a chair to the side of her dining room table and laid out the sealed needle, a plate with alcahol poured about a quarter inch deep...I swabbed my ears with iodine, removed the needle from the sealed pack and placed it in the alcahol plate and let it soak for about 5 minutes. In order to place the earings in my ear the needle passes through the back of the lobe and exits through the front being pulled all the way through. On the exit the needle cuts the finger of the woman helping me out...I swab my ears with an alcahol wipe and place another layer of iodine on them, I also use hydrogen peroxide. If you've made it this far please stay with me for another moment...Two days later much to my disgust I am told by mutual friends that the person who performed this procedure with me has HEPC and in the past has shot-up and has also possibly been exposed to HIV/AIDS. As you can imagine I am very stressed out about this entire situation...my ear seemed to have alot of blood on it and from having them peirced previously I feel as though the majority of the blood was probably hers ( the cut on her finger was a little over an inch long)... I have an appt at the local health department tomorrow and i'm hoping that Im just overeacting. Lately I have been feeling tired, vomiting, and have been having muscle cramps.....and a low fever...So lets say that i've been exposed to HEPC what are some of the treatments ? and if detected early do I have a chance to purge it from my system entirely ??? Also, am i going to early to have the testing done? Thank you so much for your time !!! any goodhearted advice would be greatly appreciated. TJ
yes, you probably went too early. If you have a garden variety flu, then none of your current symptoms have to do with hcv.
if the person that has hcv actually bled into you, it may be a while before the reading would be accurate. Tests are highly sensitive, but a few virons do not solicit an immediate response in every immune system....once they start replicating in ernest the immune system will mount a response, and then you would test positvie for antibodies, but hcv isn't as fast as say a cold...you get a cold, and boom you get a full immune resonse in days...not always true with hcv.
People that got contaminated blood often got a full acute reaction because the blood they got had millions of virons in it...but people with a drop of blood from a small exposure often had no acute phase, that's why they could carry this for years and not know they had it.
let me type 2 dots right now .. see them?
you can line up 25,000 to 30,000 virons between those 2 dots....if you got a couple virons, your body may have recognized them and they are gone already...if they replicate, and survive, eventually enough antibody will produce a positive on your test...but a minut amount of antibody could be missed...and, even if you did get a positive antiB test, it would not prove you have the virus, only that you HAD the virus and mounted an immune response...to know if you have active virus you would still then have to do the PCR test, otherwise you would be treating for something you might not even have.
if the person that has hcv actually bled into you, it may be a while before the reading would be accurate. Tests are highly sensitive, but a few virons do not solicit an immediate response in every immune system....once they start replicating in ernest the immune system will mount a response, and then you would test positvie for antibodies, but hcv isn't as fast as say a cold...you get a cold, and boom you get a full immune resonse in days...not always true with hcv.
People that got contaminated blood often got a full acute reaction because the blood they got had millions of virons in it...but people with a drop of blood from a small exposure often had no acute phase, that's why they could carry this for years and not know they had it.
let me type 2 dots right now .. see them?
you can line up 25,000 to 30,000 virons between those 2 dots....if you got a couple virons, your body may have recognized them and they are gone already...if they replicate, and survive, eventually enough antibody will produce a positive on your test...but a minut amount of antibody could be missed...and, even if you did get a positive antiB test, it would not prove you have the virus, only that you HAD the virus and mounted an immune response...to know if you have active virus you would still then have to do the PCR test, otherwise you would be treating for something you might not even have.
I understand what your saying; and I have had a talk with her about the entire situation yet she denies everything. However I know that she use to and still does on occasion use drugs...just trying to be safe as all...I believe that I have every reason to be worried about being infected with the potentially deadly diseases...
I think you would have known if your good friend was an Aids / HepC patient druggie right? They didn't say she was a sex fiend as well? Seems like rumors to me but either way the chances are almost impossible but it could happen.
Glad you got tested for peace of mind. As for your friend, maybe you could have a talk with her and let her know what people are saying.........it just sounds rather rough to me as people with hepc/aids have feelings too and I'd hate to be gossiped about this way - whether it was true or not!!!!!!!!!!!!
Glad you got tested for peace of mind. As for your friend, maybe you could have a talk with her and let her know what people are saying.........it just sounds rather rough to me as people with hepc/aids have feelings too and I'd hate to be gossiped about this way - whether it was true or not!!!!!!!!!!!!
thank you for your answers, there all very informative. I went to the health department this last monday to have a full std screening, and the test for HEPC, Its been 3 weeks since the exposure....hope I didn't go to soon...
i could be wrong, but my opinion is that you will not be infected, it could all just be hear-say about this person having HCV, go and ask her in private, ask her to be honest, tell her your sick and ill from worrying, I dont know how she could have got a 1 inch gash from a needle like that? - it would pierce at a 'point' (a pin hole) , if it were dragged along her skin on its way out its very unlikley its going to gouge it - i think most the blood would have been your own and she probably hasnt got hep-c and some sick friends are winding you up and its working and even if she did the chances of infection are very low given the scenario - after needle comes through the front of the ear the supposed 'hepper' pin pricks her finger, immediate response is to pull back...it would take a few seconds for any blood to seep through by which time she would be going to clean it, yeah it is possible the tip of the needle may have gathered some blood during piercing but we cant be sure of that and theres also the the fact that the tip of the needle (if infected) has to mix with your blood and that blood has to go back into your system and after the needle came out you cleaned it a lot
the symptoms you decribe are almost for certain from worry and anxiety, you have convinced yourself that you have already got it and are on here looking for treatments its the WORRY thats got you sick....
unfortunately you have to wait a while to let infection take hold to ensure the test is true, too soon and it might turn up negative - the first test is NOT a HCV+ test its an Anti-body test which means you have been exposed to HCV at some point but doesn not mean you still have it, a further test has to be done after that one, 1 in 5 people clear the infection naturally so even if you have got it theres a chance you fight it off naturally
there are different Genotypes (strains of virus) that determine treatment success rates
Genotype 1+4 = 50% and 2+3 = 80%
Try not too worry, while the chances are low you have HCV still get tested in about 2 months (which will be Anti-Body test) and in meantime confront this person who done this 'procedure'
best of luck
the symptoms you decribe are almost for certain from worry and anxiety, you have convinced yourself that you have already got it and are on here looking for treatments its the WORRY thats got you sick....
unfortunately you have to wait a while to let infection take hold to ensure the test is true, too soon and it might turn up negative - the first test is NOT a HCV+ test its an Anti-body test which means you have been exposed to HCV at some point but doesn not mean you still have it, a further test has to be done after that one, 1 in 5 people clear the infection naturally so even if you have got it theres a chance you fight it off naturally
there are different Genotypes (strains of virus) that determine treatment success rates
Genotype 1+4 = 50% and 2+3 = 80%
Try not too worry, while the chances are low you have HCV still get tested in about 2 months (which will be Anti-Body test) and in meantime confront this person who done this 'procedure'
best of luck
i dont think you have much risk from what you describe but you should get tested anyway. follow the advice from merrybe but also get tested for HIV,hep A & B.
Try and relax ,you will be ok
Try and relax ,you will be ok
it's not likely you are reacting to an hcv infection, this virus takes weeks, and sometimes months for what you describe as symptoms. There has been a bad flu going around, you probably have that.
I would just try to not freak, and go get tested for hcv...wait until at least 90 days after exposure...sooner will leave you wondering...you could get a false negative, and false positives are also common. If you do test positve for the antibody, you will need a further RNA_PCR test to determine if you have active virus, or have cleared the virus on your own.
It's not easy to wait, and worry could also be causing the symptoms you describe, but the best advise is to not get tatoos or piercings, and to be patient for now, since there is little else you can do. You could test now...but if you do, you will still be wondering if the early test did not detect something...so waiting a little while yet makes sense.
I'm not sure if the wait times are different now than they were...but many docs only use a test that detect >47....or 47 virons per ml of blood...this is not as accurate as the tests given a couple years ago which were >10....but they are cheaper to run which is why they are in more common use lately...however that means waiting a little longer may give you a more accurate read ...it will give the virus time to build to detectable levels if it is there....that last thing the insurances want to do is test test and retest...and in some countries only one test is allowed, in which case you really want it to be correct.
Muscle cramps are usually a sign of dehydration or electrolyte imbalance not of acute hcv infection. Try not to worry prematurely. If you end up having it, you'll have plenty of time to figure out what to do and treat the disease, it has a 30-40 year progression, and treatments are getting better all the time.
Do you have any yellowing of your skin or eyeballs?
I would just try to not freak, and go get tested for hcv...wait until at least 90 days after exposure...sooner will leave you wondering...you could get a false negative, and false positives are also common. If you do test positve for the antibody, you will need a further RNA_PCR test to determine if you have active virus, or have cleared the virus on your own.
It's not easy to wait, and worry could also be causing the symptoms you describe, but the best advise is to not get tatoos or piercings, and to be patient for now, since there is little else you can do. You could test now...but if you do, you will still be wondering if the early test did not detect something...so waiting a little while yet makes sense.
I'm not sure if the wait times are different now than they were...but many docs only use a test that detect >47....or 47 virons per ml of blood...this is not as accurate as the tests given a couple years ago which were >10....but they are cheaper to run which is why they are in more common use lately...however that means waiting a little longer may give you a more accurate read ...it will give the virus time to build to detectable levels if it is there....that last thing the insurances want to do is test test and retest...and in some countries only one test is allowed, in which case you really want it to be correct.
Muscle cramps are usually a sign of dehydration or electrolyte imbalance not of acute hcv infection. Try not to worry prematurely. If you end up having it, you'll have plenty of time to figure out what to do and treat the disease, it has a 30-40 year progression, and treatments are getting better all the time.
Do you have any yellowing of your skin or eyeballs?
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