Negative is Positive!

My doctor called me this week and gave me a clean bill of health.  Whoopee!

Let me backtrack.  Last month, I found out from the health department that the oral surgeon who removed my wisdom teeth was caught reusing needles.  They advised me to get tested for Hep B, Hep C, and HIV.  It was a scary few weeks as I waited to get tested and to get results.

Sadly, not everyone has been as fortunate as me (news story here).  There are a handful of patients who have tested positive for hepatitis or HIV.  This month was scary for me, and I can only imagine the sinking feeling and fear those other patients had to deal with when they received different results.  My heart goes out to them and their loved ones.

Healthcare Changes, Dirty Needles, and Me

Within the past month, I received two important letters in the mail.  

The first was a letter from my insurance company.  It stated that the health care law has some new requirements going into affect at the beginning of August.  They will now be covering all costs for birth control, sterilization, well women visits, tests for gestational diabetes, HIV testing, HPV testing, and more.  

Most of that doesn't effect me personally. We're done having kids, and my husband has already had his vasectomy  Still, it made me feel good to know that other people out there will be better off. I felt good reading the letter, knowing people would get the preventative care they want and need.

Then, last week, I got another letter in the mail. It's very personal, and it's very scary. It came from the Colorado Department of Public Health, and it informed me that I might have been exposed to foreign blood from reused needles back when I had my wisdom teeth removed in 2003 (news story here).  It recommends I get tested the viruses Hep B, Hep C, and HIV.  It also remarked that I am responsible for the cost of testing.