Blood Draw Anxiety. Please just tell me I'm being ridiculous.

[lana8900]

Labcorp worker put gloves on, touched computer and armrest then took blood. Used gauze placed on the arm rest to stop my bleeding. Took my butterfly needle out too soon so the tube was still filled with my blood. She carefully handled it and placed the needle part into the sharps container and inserted the vial again to suck all the blood out of the tube then disposed of it the rest of the way. Then touched more stuff, picking needle cap and rubber band from the tourniquet out of the plastic container they put blood filled vials in, labeled my vials, then grabbed new gauze and placed it on my still slightly bleeding arm and taped it.

My concern is possible contamination of the gauze, because she wore one pair of gloves from start to finish, from her touching stuff and having the initial one on the arm rest. As well as her possibly touching the sharps container or maybe some of the tubing was pulled out of the sharps container and then she touched it, basically touching the inside of the sharps container. I'm just freaked out. My county has a very high population of drug addicts so I'm positive someone with HIV and or Hep C was most definitely getting their blood drawn in the same chair I was with the same arm rest and the same sharps container. Any risk? 

[lana8900]

The reason I'm looking for advice and opinions is because I do have contamination OCD and was taken off my medication because I'm pregnant. So I have no idea if there was an actual risk that warrants testing or if it's just my OCD making me obsess over something that a person without OCD wouldn't even  think twice about.

[lporterrn]

Not the best technique, but I see no risk.

[lana8900]

Ugh, I just replay everything in my head. So no risk? I of course worry about small amounts of blood being on surfaces and being transferred to the gauze that was put on my needle stick that was still bleeding.

[andrew j]

... You poor thing!

... How AWFUL for you!!

Carefully reading your detailed account, it sounds as if it would be very unlikely anything could have got in (as Lucinda says - and she's a nurse) ...

... Any blood would either having been flowing out - or crusting on the surface - [rather than moving inwards] - and the gauze should have had some sort of ameliorating effect?

That's how my mind works, anyway.

I've been through something similar [in a context of bacterial infection].

It's appalling, isn't it?

[KimInTheForest]

I too would go with Lucinda's advice on this. But I do agree that practices at hospitals are far from sanitary, and it is disturbing as a patient to witness that. Just last week, I was in our local hospital at the cast clinic to have the plaster cast removed from my broken ankle. It included gauze with my dried blood on it from the surgical incision. It was tossed into an open waste-basket on top of other medical waste. And then a few minutes later, the nurse was pawing through all this medical waste to reclaim some guy's discarded plaster cast for his arm. He needed his cast put back on for a few more days. He also had a visible surgical incision that was healing. So his cut-off plaster cast, lying at the bottom, was retrieved beneath all the other medical waste and taped back onto his arm. I was disgusted.

kim

[winkawak]

Can someone explain why she dont need to be worried? If the nurse had blood on her gloves from touching those object and then touched the gauze or her wound while applying wouldnt it cause transmission? I had a similar situation today with blood donation.

[Lynn K]

If there was blood with hep c it has to enter the blood stream of an uninfected person. Blood outside the body cannot infect you. The virus must enter your body not just lay on the surface.

Only a very small percentage of people in the US have hep c so you are talking about very small odds of very small odds.

[winkawak]

needle puncture site is a active bleeding wound, if gauze was contaminated wouldnt it considered blood to blood mixing and allowing of transmission

[Lynn K]

The blood from a needle stick is moving to the outside of your body. The virus has to be forced inside your body to mix with your blood stream. The virus cannot swim inside your body especially against the tide of your blood flowing out.

[winkawak]

I find it hard to believe or reasonable that possible contaminated blood touching open bleeding wound(needle puncture site to blood stream) wont cause transmission. Even though wound is pushing some blood out of needle puncture site its still risky having contaminated gauze thats pressing against a bleeding wound.

[Lynn K]

Well I don't have any more ways to say you experienced no risk here. I guess if you have to believe you experienced a risk here then get testing if only to prove to yourself you don't have hep c.

I can only say the same thing to you so many times.

Hep c cannot enter the body in this way there is no evidence this is a means of transmission. 

Believe whatever you wish but in my opinion this was not a risk.

Discuss your concerns with your doctor.

[lana8900]

Just popped back in to say, winkawak, that I'm no longer concerned about my 'exposure' because I trust the medical professionals that post as well as the people who have Hep C that reply to my concerns.

I have OCD so my fears are almost always irrational. I always need reassurance but I feel better after a few days especially after posting here and being told what I already know, that you can't contract anything that way.

So just take what the say as the truth. They have way more experience and know what they are talking about.

And I wanted to thank everyone that responded to me and helped me feel better! I honestly forgot that I posted this until I was notified of more replies.