Yesterday was an awesome day of operating, but it ended with a big scare…A NEEDLE STICK. To be honest, I was more annoyed and embarrassed than anything, but technically a needle stick is a pretty big incident. I’m not even sure exactly how it happened; I was closing up a patient’s skin with 2-0 Vicryl, and perhaps I didn’t stay cognizant of where the suture was when I had grabbed the thread to tie a knot, but I felt the prick and immediately checked my gloves. At first I thought it didn’t go through my second glove, but when I peeled back all the layers to look at my finger, there was a very superficial prick with a drop of blood. I had to scrub out, and they called the nurse manager for the hospital. She came down with a load of papers that literally looked like I was signing up for a mortgage. Once I finished that, I had to get my blood drawn and the patient had to get his blood drawn. Of course, it was just my luck that the patient was a minor, so her parents had to sign a consent for a blood draw. Once that was done, then they sent it off to the lab to test for HIV, Hepatitis B, and Hepatitis C. To be honest, I wasn’t scared because the patient didn’t look like she was one to get much action, but these days you never know, so I did want to hear the results back. The HIV came back in 10 minutes as negative, but the Hep B and Hep C take 1 week to come back. The fact that this happened on my away rotation was my biggest concern since I was supposed to be impressing these guys, not making a fool of myself. But the attending told me not to worry about it…that everyone gets stuck by a needle at some point, and that its no big deal. I did make sure that I sutured up the next patient to reassure myself that I could suture without jamming the needle in my finger, but overall I am pretty hypervigilant now when I suture.
Otherwise, I am really enjoying my rotation here. I feel like I am getting to know everyone pretty well, and the attendings are starting to know my name. I am on Sports right now, so schedule isn’t q2 call anymore, but I still plan to go in each morning at 5 am to round on patients. By doing this I would be doing more than is required of me, which is exactly what residents tend to notice. Hopefully my body can keep up with this type of schedule.
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