Living an Urban Legend

Two weeks ago at Starbucks, I had the most random accident occur.  As I was throwing the trash into the dumpster, I felt a little prick on the palm of my hand.  When I looked at the bag to see what got me, I saw a hypodermic needle sticking out of the bag!  What!?!?  So I promptly finished taking out the trash, went back inside my store, and filled out an Incident Report Form.  Macha, who happens to be the best Shift Lead this side of Broad Street, she calmed me down and really helped out.  So I was alright, but really, who does this happen to?  I have never heard of a real person being pricked with a random needle.  My manager, Lissie, has worked for Starbucks for 10 years and she has never seen or heard of this!  Luckily Starbucks is paying for everything since I don't have insurance.  I've head 2 blood tests since then, and started takings Combivir, which has been screwing with my stomach pretty consistently since then.  

Because we don't know who the needle belonged to or what it was for, there was a threat of Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, and HIV.   Apparently, I was supposed to take the needle with me.  I can see how this would make sense, but I was mostly thinking about getting away from that needle.  Now you all know for future reference, and if I run into this situation again, I will be sure to grab it before I run.  They've done tests and I'm practically immune to Hepatitis B.  Which rocks man, becuase that was the biggest threat.  There is only a tiny chance HIV was still living on the needle (if it was ever) and Hepatitis C is very rare, so I'm pretty safe.  There is a chance though.  So I will be getting blood tests done for the next 6 months.  The bitch of it is, I hated needles before this random event.

What a life I lead...