HUGE E.Coli fears, symptoms, anxiety or infection? HELP. I REALLY need advice. :'(

[made0fscars]

Okay so this is going to sound gross but on Sunday night two of my fingers accidental came into contact with my own faeces when wiping.. I am so embarrassed as I am usually so hygienic and stuff.. I know that there are a lot of dangerous bacteria in human faeces.. such as E.Coli.. I have NOT stopped reading and searching on Google for the past 48 hours all about symptoms of it and horror stories because I can't restrain myself. OF COURSE after it happened I washed my hands repeatedly with antibacterial soap, then used antibacterial wipes on the area it touched. I proceeded after this to use alcohol based (carex) hand sanitizer on the area also.

I am very concerned, the incubation period for an infection is anything from 2 to 10 days.. It's been 2 days so far and I'm not coping very well. I know that E.Coli infections are usually from outbreaks in areas from undercooked meat and stuff but it still says it can be passed from human to human contact so I assume if I touched surfaces in my room and touched my face/nose/eyes/perhaps mouth although I tried not to touch my mouth, but it's likely I did at some point.

My stomach already feels uneasy and I've had cramps today, not severe but it could be the start? But then again it could be my anxiety and stress over it? I'm terrified cause this type of poisoning can actually cause kidney failure and stuff, along with bloody diarrhoea, nausea/vomiting etc. I REALLY don't think I could cope with that being as health anxious as I am.

I don't want to suffer in silence, my mum disregards this fear and thinks it's irrational, but I was hoping for advice, what do you guys think????

[Fishmanpa]

"HELP. I REALLY need advice."

You mean this is the first time in your life you got poo on your hands? Good Lord! What are you gonna do when you have kids? How about waking up and finding out your child has taken off his diaper and done a rather creative poo mural on the wall next to his crib.... not to mention the poo stains on his face and just about every other area on his body and every reachable surface.... And lets not even start on puke ~lol~

Being that you probably washed the skin off your hands, you have absolutely nothing to worry about!

Positive thoughts and poo threads ;)

[RoseEve]

Oh my goodness I agree with Fishmanpa I get poo on my hands from my kids daily. Not to mention I often get my own when I wipe. My daughter once reached down in her diaper and put her finger in her mouth. Gross I know. My son just recently had a poo poo party where he took off his diaper and tracked poo all in his room. I was drawing him a bath when I hear him giggling in his room I went in there to see poop on the floor and there he is bend over wiping his poo filled butt all over his white walls. What a scene! Anyway I hope you found humor in my stories and you can relax because anyone who has small children touch fesces on a daily basis.

[Tanner40]

Enjoy your day. Forget about having poo on your hands, and for heavens sake, stop googling. What are you doing for your health anxiety? That is the real question.

[Leslie735]

I can guarantee you will be just fine. You washed your hands thoroughly afterward which is plenty. I can promise you that was not the first time you've gotten poo on your hands before. Human fecal matter is in more places than you may think. Googling is a dangerous thing, I know first hand! :hugs: You can relax you are not going to have any ill effects from getting your own poo on your hands, you washed and sanitized, your going to be just fine.

[Althea]

Okay, think this through for a moment--you're afraid that you'll get E. coli from yourself, even though you currently don't have E. coli?

If you don't already have it, you can't give it to yourself.

[wins829]

Your fine. One time my son took off his diaper. Play his poop all over himself. I give him 3 baths finally the smell is gone. He is fine. So i don't think anything will happen to you.