Hepatitis Forums

Hepatitis C Prevention, Transmission and Testing => Am I Infected? => Topic started by: Hypoanxious on March 20, 2017, 09:20:13 am

Title: snorting risk
Post by: Hypoanxious on March 20, 2017, 09:20:13 am
needless to say as the title kinda gives it away, but I did something stupid.

I been in a drunken stupor for 6 months since my family fell apart, and was ridiculously hammered Friday night (st patricks day woo hoo!).  drunk enough that I ended up doin a few lines.  I'm sure this is a very non-judgemental place, but just to avoid the drug concern distracting from my actual concern, I will just say that it was only the second time in my life, the first being 20 years ago.  I am now terrified about hep c and its totally a turning point for me.  ive sworn off all drugs including alcohol forever.  been on a juice & veggie diet since that night.  in 10 years if I'm still alive I will be on the cover of mens health, you watch!  haha... anyway....

being completely niaeve to the risks, and too drunk to figure them out on my own, I did a line that a guy with hep c offered me, using a bill he handed me.  I do not recall for sure if he did one immediately before or not, but given the bug can survive 16 hours lets just assume he had used that bill at some point within this window.

relevant or not, here are some details about this particular guy.  he is sick.  he is not one of these guys with no symptoms.  I hadn't seen him in a couple years and first thing I noticed was his weight loss.  another buddy of mine one time tried to clean him up after a fight, and he refused to let him, for fear of transmission.  my friend whos house I was at says the guy doesn't let anyone near him if he is bleeding.  this tells me he is concerned and mindful about NOT spreading it, and from this I like to infer that he would hopefully not be sharing bills if he had a nosebleed. 

I did not notice any blood, but I wasn't really looking for it.  I at no point that day or the next day noticed any blood from my own nose.  I also only put the bill either to my nose or just barely in, but have no idea how he (or most people) do it.

I have some friends (as we all do) who are well versed in the world of drugs n disease, from having lived various lifestyles.  The opinions I get from them range from "lol youre fine" to "tiny risk but there would need to be blood on the bill and a cut in your nose and the blood would have to get rubbed into your cut, I'm sure youre fine", but the internet has convinced me I'm doomed.

government websites in my country (Canada) say this practice is high risk, but American government sites don't even list it as a risk or a reason to get tested.

I AM going to get tested in a few months, and I WILL NOT be doing anything like this again, but I am wondering about some knowledged opinions on the actual risk of my specific mistake.

Also, to test in 3 months would seriously disrupt my life plans, as I was planning to take the summer off and bum around Vancouver island (5000km away).  Testing is free in my province, but I doubt it is out there (for me), as health stuff is provincial here.  So to wait 3 months, then test, then wait a couple weeks for the results, would basically require abandoning my plans.  (as I am also contemplating selling my house here and looking for work out there, which is really more of a spring project than a fall project)

So my questions are:
What is a realistic assessment of my chances?
and, how much should I disrupt my life plans to accommodate the testing timeline?
Title: Re: snorting risk
Post by: lporterrn on March 20, 2017, 02:41:16 pm
Given what you describe, your risk appears to be minimal. Testing in 3 months is a good idea but waiting 6 months to test will cover the exceptions. In the meantime, try to not worry - hep C is curable, and in the scheme of things, not worth the anxiety, in my opinion.