SERIOUS QUESTION: HIV (Cracked Phone)
My Email:
Wed, Sep 23, 2020, 6:39 PM
I dropped my phone where a lot of people walk at the beach, it cracked, when I picked it up I gave myself a splinter from the glass, it was a small cut but I started to bleed. Do I have to worry about HIV or anything like that? It's unpleasant but I shouldn't catastrophize.
Dr. Garrett Reply:
Wed, Sep 23, 2020, 7:08 PM
HIV does not survive in beach sand. It needs to be inside a human body to survive. Think of the virus as being like a fish that cannot survive out of water. HIV cannot survive on beach sand. It is transmitted one human body to the next.
My Email:
Wed, Sep 23, 2020, 8:47 PM
It was actually dropped either on cement or grass, but I guess it's the same point... right?
HIV
My Email:
Thu, May 6, 2021, 7:52 PM
I had a freshly open cut on my hand this morning and touched the door at Starbucks, coffee cup, and pastry bag... is that anything to worry about? Obviously, my fear is HIV.
Dr. Garrett Reply:
Thu, May 6, 2021, 9:56 PM
You have nothing to fear from HIV but, as we have discussed, the way your mind creates out of proportion fears and neighborhood monsters and killers should be a source of worry.
Prank Gone Wrong
My Email:
Tue, Aug 3, 2021, 9:43 PM
If it was a prank gone wrong, I want to pretend I'm not soul-crushingly hurt, but I am.
Let's talk this out and resolve this sooner rather than later because I do want to be your friend. I wish it never happened and I know you feel the same way - but it happened. Tragic and sad!
Dr. Garrett Reply:
Wed, Aug 4, 2021, 5:37 AM
Andrew-There was no prank gone wrong. The "prank" feeling you have is one version of your "there is something going on beneath surface appearances." Your relationship with Kelly has been and continues to be loving.
I Look Crazy, My Torturers Don't
My Email:
Wed, Sep 8, 2021, 4:26 PM
Sadly, from the years of unimaginable pain and suffering I lived through I appear "unwell"... While my torturers are in families, work jobs, went on beautiful vacations, don't appear "crazy." They look like lucid upstanding citizens, while I look mentally ill and not credible.
Dr. Garrett Reply:
Wed, Sep 8, 2021, 5:01 PM
I could see you on Friday at 11:15, if that fits.
My Email:
Wed, Sep 8, 2021, 5:03 PM
Actually, I'm meeting Kelly in NYC on Friday. Can't. Sorry.
Contamination Risk? HIV?
My Email:
Tue, Nov 30, 2021, 5:43 PM
I'm a 34-year-old male, From Long Island, NY. 5'8 - 180 lbs.
I struggle with severe mental health challenges, have OCD, germophobia. I ask questions like this all the time like a broken record, but today's episode was especially bad.
I went through the pharmacy drive-thru to pick up my medication and I accidentally scratched my finger on the door that receives the medication. Seriously. I cut my finger. Everybody touches it. It's unpleasant. Let It go. HIV is very improbable. Just clean it when I get home.
I guess it's possible an HIV-positive person just scratched themselves right before I scratched myself there too, but the chances are very slim. People get cuts from gross places. Try not to worry. Don't obsess. Don't let it ruin my day. Let It go.
Is there any contamination risk here?
Dr. Garrett Reply:
Tue, Nov 30, 2021, 6:53 PM
No risk. Any virus would have long since died on the inert materials of the door, outside a human body.
Does this email confirm that you are worrying about HIV rather than researching how much money you can make with losing Medicare/Medicaid?
My Email:
Tue, Nov 30, 2021, 7:38 PM
Thanks for calming me down about HIV.
I googled it, but it was my mother telling me I'd lose SNAP Foodstamps. She doesn't want me doing that until I get a more consistent income. It would be a shame to throw that money in the trash, though. It's half my monthly disability.
Now my mother is telling me I can only see you twice a month, not bi-weekly. Thankfully, I might go under my stepdad's insurance at the start of the new year. If that happens, I can afford to see you every week again
Dr. Garrett Reply:
Tue, Nov 30, 2021, 8:31 PM
OK we will see how the insurance evolves.
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