i have a needle fear.  and a few days ago i was in my doctors office he runs a private practice in a large us city.   while waiting for him to come into the exam room i noticed a glass jar with  sealed specimen collection tubes and small syringes with needles encased in plastic cases.   i took  one of the them and put it in my jacket pocket. 

i wanted to demystify the needle.  hold it, experiment with it and see what the tip would feel like against my skin so i would know if i ever was stuck with one in the environment. 

about an hour later i got to my office and did fill it with water and shoot the water out, hold it and just again try to face my fear of needles.   i put it away afterwards. 

two days later, yesterday, i pullled it out again to try again.  at one point i had it half filled with water by pulling the plunger and holding it in my hand.    i put the tip of my finger on the needle to see if i could force the plunger by pressing on the needle and i pricked the tip of my finger.  when pressing my finger a small tiny drop of blood came out.  

i am pretty sure the tip of the needle is no risk to me but now i’m scared that it was previously used and somehow i injected a small amount of the water into the tip of my finger?  this morning i cannot see a sore or don’t have any feeling of soreness or pain in my finger.   i can’t really even see a puncture hole.  

i’m not sure what to do and am very scared. 

In addition to having the needles and syringes easily available for use by the doctor or her nurses etc, perhaps the office also internally leave the jars out to make injection equipment available (at no cost) for patients who need them for safe self injection, whether for medications (e.g. insulin) or drugs. You can be certain they had never been used -- indeed probably could not have been used by other persons. You describe a single-use system that self-disables to prevent (or at least discourage) re-use. So you can be sure the one you experimented with was not contaminated with anyone else's blood. To confirm this, why not call the doctor's office and ask about it?

From your description, you did nothing with the needle that could have contaminated it after you received it. There is no possibility you could have acquired a blood borne infection. In addition, with a prick so tiny you can't even see a mark, there would have been no risk even if the needle somehow were contaminated with HIV, hepatitis, or any other infection.

"I'm not sure what to do...."  There is nothing you need to do. "...and am very scared." For no reason at all. You can forget this incident entirely and move on with your life. There is nothing to worry about.

I hope these comments are helpful. Let me know if anything isn't clear.

HHH, MD

you said: You describe a single-use system that self-disables to prevent (or at least discourage) re-use

if someone had used the needle and replaced it and then i took it, that is if the needle was ever used, and if there was hiv blood in the needle or syringe, and since i pricked myself with a tiny amount of blood at the moment of being pricked, or even if i had somehow injected some of the water mixed with whatever remnants might have been in the needle or syringe, into this tiny prick, would this be a zero risk event for hiv?   is there any scenario here where i could have infected myself need prep or testing?

thank you 

That concludes this thread. Do not start another one on this topic; there is no possibility the evaluation and advice you receive would change.. Thank you for your understanding.