Long doctor’s appointment with many questions and much prodding and the occasional hitting with a small rubber hammer yesterday followed up by plenty of blood being drawn today (and a jar of urine for good measure) for both mundane and exotic testing. Currently the only proposed diagnosis is that I’m HIV+, which admittedly matches more symptoms than anything else that’s been suggested so far, but at the same time, I would be truly, truly shocked if that were the case, and I expect that it will be discarded when this bloodwork comes back. I am in complete denial that this is possible, and am not worried about it in the least. However, not that I want to be HIV+, but you do reach a point where you just want to be told something definitive, because it feels so pointlessly endless being stuck in a cycle of visiting experts and getting bloodwork and surgeries that never seem to give any answers. But I suppose that even an inconclusive or negative test helps close a door, reducing the possibilities remaining, and brings me one step closer to an answer.
What power art thou, who from below
Hast made me rise unwillingly and slow
From beds of everlasting snow?
See’st thou not how stiff and wondrous old
Far unfit to bear the bitter cold,
I can scarcely move or draw my breath?
Let me, let me freeze again to death.
But anyway… I think I’m going to go obliterate some tin cans with my Desert Eagle. No… not 0.50cal… Just 0.177 — oh, the sacrilege — but still lots of fun. It’s pretty amusing having an airgun that’ll shoot through 5/8″ plywood. The target I was using had a chain on it so you can pull it back up after you knock it over, but I accidentally shot the chain and severed it. Ooops!
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Not to sound weird but they dont wear latex gloves to draw blood like here in America especially when thinking the patient is HIV+
When I researched muscle wasting, this was one of the main things that came up. But honestly, HIV pops up with almost any symptom. No matter what, it isnt at all the death sentence that it was 25+ years ago. Shit!
Aaron, you’d think they’d do it with everyone… as I understand it, one of the rules of bloodborne pathogens is to treat everyone as if they are HIV+ and have Hep.
But like I said, I really really do NOT think I am HIV+
here’s to your health…
… and getting some answers!
Hope everything goes well and you finally get an answer to your illeness get well soon
Shannon, little weird that you were not tested before. Here in Brazil, for any surgery that you must go through one of the first steps is an extensive blood test to know if you carry any bloodborne pathogen, HIV included. To be really honest i don’t think HIV+ is your case!
If I remember right, I was not tested for Hep/HIV when I had my three last surgeries, but I was tested for one before that (in 2003 or 2004)… But I agree, I do not think at all that this is the case.
uhh.. Shannon… you might wanna blur out the address on the paperwork ;o)
My address isn’t a secret… lots of people have been here and you can see the street address on the outside photos I’ve posted. Feel free to mail me something!
About a month ago, I was thrown into something similar. Uncertain diagnosis, but the doctor thought the most likely thing was something very terminal, very quickly (hours, maybe, or less). It took 2 weeks to rule immediately deadly out, and they still don’t know what it is. Definitely not a fun situation to be in, and you’ve been in it now for years.
And while injecting radioactive dye, the tech didn’t wear gloves for me, either. Do they just not care anymore, or have they realized just what a low probability there actually is of contamination?
Shannon, I hope you aren’t HIV+ good luck with your test results.
I draw blood for my living and I wear gloves for all my draws but most of my co worker rip one of the fingers off the gloves to have a better feels of the veins. I am a big fan of being gloves.
Lately, I haven’t come across anybody that wears gloves (for drawing blood). A new trend? A way to get the patient to feel safer and more at home? Granted, too many gloves and masks, and you feel like you have lepracy.
I haven’t asked the nurses about it, but next time I will.
Almost unrelated, but this post got me to order a CD by Klaus Nomi ;-)
You know, I had a strange experience with gloves a few months ago. I was getting an EKG, and while they were putting the electrodes (are they electrodes? maybe, whatever they are, they’re sticky things) on me, the woman didn’t use gloves, which wasn’t strange. But she did end up resting her bare hand on my chest while she was doing something. I found it very strange, partly because usually when a medical professional touches you anywhere but your hands, face, or feet, they wear gloves, and partly because it’s not often that a stranger touches your bare skin, especially skin that is usually covered by clothes.
When I think about it, there’s no need to wear gloves when you’re doing something like that, so I completely understand, but it was still odd.
wow this made me realize the doctors didn’t wear gloves when they injected me with dye either.
good luck with finding an answer to your problems Shannon.
Whenever my doctor(s) take blood, they always try to do it without wearing gloves, but I’ll always tell them to put gloves on.
I dated a piercer and I know if he pierced one person without wearing gloves, it could warrant the shop being closed down and him losing his license. It disgusts me that health professionals are so careless. If anyone sticks me with a needle, I tell them to put gloves on.
Bit of reality… When injecting someone, the person getting the injection isn’t really at much risk, and the person doing the injection also at practically no risk. There’s a bit of blood after the needle comes out, but as long as they don’t come in contact that that, they should be safe.
I wonder if it’s a conscious decision in healthcare to try to appear more personal, more connected to the patient. Skin on skin contact is very reassuring, at a subconscious level. Much more so than latex on skin.
I hope you get much closer to some answers, and most of all, that much closer to an end of the misery you’ve dealt with. Chronic illness is not fun – chronic illness that really could do with a real-life Dr. House is even worse. I fully sympathize with your situation!
WLFDRGN – When I asked a nurse who was trying to start an IV, she mentioned something about the emotional aspect that is involved with skin to skin contact. It was a rather ironic episode, however; as she was debating the merits out loud, and slipping the needle out, my vein blew in a most explosive manner (which I’d warned her about, prior to the procedure – my veins like to do things like that). The result was blood splattering from her hand to elbow, the sheets, and who knows where else, and a stat HIV test (and a side of testing for hepatitis etc.) for me. That was for her peace of mind – in my opinion, a potential high cost to pay for what may or may not have given me a bit more peace of mind, the no gloves thing.
That made me decide that I would stick with my original opinion – it really is better to just don a pair of gloves and be on the safe side. I fully expect tattooists, piercers, and anyone else who may come into contact with my bodily fluids to assume that I’m carrying every blood borne pathogen there is, and I assume the same whether doing a piercing or administering first aid, whatever. HIV is no longer the death sentence that it once was, but unnecessary risk like this just strikes me as foolish.
So in her case, gloves wouldn’t have made any difference, anyway. There would still have been blood on skin contact.
most doctors will not wear gloves, when doing their work.
Nurses on occasion will often wear vinyl gloves, but will wear them longer than they should be.
One thing to remember, and I know Shannon knows this, is that the constant usage of gloves are relatively a new thing within the medical industry.
First protocol of BBP/Infection Control is to wash & dry your hands properly before and after you do something like this.
Than from there you should ideally be wearing Nitrile gloves, as latex is a much more allergic option to wear, for customers/patient.
I really hope you are not HIV+ Shannon. And just like you I’m sure its just another misdiagnosis to go onto the pile.
WLFDRGN – That’s true, mostly; although her hands, which tend to be the more risky area due to common everyday nicks and cuts, would have been covered. The point I was trying to make was that while most people don’t bleed like I do with IVs and blood draws, there’s enough risk that gloves really are a good idea. However, everyone is different, and while I request gloves to be used when it’s me or my kids involved, it’s a decision that for now, is between every patient and the people who wield the needles.
Again, to Shannon – here’s to negative HIV tests, and one more thing ruled out!
I am currently taking a course in parasitology, and while diseases like HIV and Hep are a known concern while handling blood, there are also several fatal parasites that are quite easily passed through minimal contact with blood! There is no valid reason to not wear gloves while drawing blood. I’m disturbed by the picture above.
When do you expect to get results?
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