My First Used Needle Stick
In the 6 years I have been a nurse, I have never poked myself with a used needle.
Of course when I move to another country, in my first two weeks of work, I do it.
I had just given a patient an injection. I thought I had closed the cap on the needle but caps here are a little different here and it didn’t close. I was reaching to put it in the sharps container and I felt a giant poke on my first finger.
My first thoughts:
“Okay I’m wearing gloves, maybe it didn’t break the skin?”
I take off my gloves and sure enough my finger is bleeding.
My next thoughts, “oh geez what do I do now?”
I text another travel nurse and I text my husband. They both encourage me to go to the charge nurse. Hesitant because I don’t know their process here, I go to the charge nurse.
She sends me to the ER where I wait an hour and a half to get my blood drawn.
Thoughts going through my head: “Does the patient have AIDS? Hepatitis? Or some other blood borne disease?”
The ER nurse takes my history. “Breast cancer? Wow you’re so young.”
“Yes,“ I think to myself... “I survived breast cancer and now I’m going to end up with a blood borne illness.”
Not wanting to sound pitiful I just smiled and said yes In 2017...
She then moves on to the needle stick and explains the blood work is going to take a week or longer because blood work has to be sent off island.
Needless to say, through this whole process, I felt anxious.
I headed back to work after getting my blood drawn and my coworkers reassure me it will be okay. Still feeling anxious, my 12 hours is up and my husband picks me up at work.
“Luke what if I catch something?”
Luke rubs my leg and says:
“Remember, God controls the germs.”
A restless night of sleep and then came midweek bible class and we were were discussing 1 Peter 5 “cast all your cares upon him” and Philippians 4: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
I told our new friends at church what happened, one of the men said, “Megan this is perfect application for you this week!”
Oh man, perfect application? Yes... but so much easier said than done.
“Be anxious for nothing?”
Even when you have the potential to catch a blood borne disease?
Yes.
“Be anxious for nothing?”
Even when your blood work is going to take over a week and then you have to go back in 3 months and then again in 6 months? Ugh.
God says, “yes. Be anxious for nothing.”
So Here are my thoughts about this week:
I will strive to be anxious for nothing, but it will have to something that happens daily. I’ll have to die to my anxieties daily, because it’s not just a one and some type of feeling. It takes work, like anything in life. It takes quoted scripture and reassurance from my sweet husband and friends.
And here is another thought: God controls the germs and if I catch an illness, I can get treatment. It might be life long treatment, but I am blessed with the ability to move home and do that. Not everyone has that ability. And so I’ll use that knowledge to keep working confidently. To keep on nursing in an unsure area.
Being anxious for nothing sometimes means admitting our anxieties out loud so God can get to work. Imagine if I left these anxieties unspoken and tried to conquer them myself?? No way!
So if anything, I hope this encourages you to lean on others during your anxieties, and hold on to Gods word, remembering that conquering anxiety is going to be a daily process.
It is difficult, but not impossible. 💜 Be anxious for nothing.