Ongoing Tetanus Worries...

[worry weasel]

Hi everyone.

To start off, I do have anxiety. I worry a lot. Generally, it's health anxiety/hypochondria. I'm always worried about dying. I always think I have something wrong with me and I always think of the worst case possible (for example: recurring headaches = brain tumour, pain in stomach = appendicitis, noticeable pulse = aneurism, etc.).

Here is where the tetanus fear begins:
Around two weeks ago I was building my desk with my brother and boyfriend for my gaming set up. We needed a hammer, and the only hammer we had in the house had a bit of rust on the metal part (where you hit the nail). From my very little knowledge about Tetanus, I believe that you can get it as long as the bacteria gets into an open wound. I have a bad habit of biting the skin around my nails when I feel anxious, so the skin around my nails were a little bitten up. They weren't terribly cut or bleeding, but noticeably chewed on. Back to the story - even touching the hammer grip worried me. I washed my hands and used hand sanitizer about 10 times throughout the whole process of building the desk -- basically any time I touched the hammer. I then accidentally hit my thumb while hammering a nail in and was scared that the rust on the hammer got into the "cut" on my thumb. Of course I washed my hands once again afterwards. I've been worrying and worrying constantly for the past two weeks now. I got my Tetanus booster when I was young, but it's been over 10 years since that. I have a phobia of needles, so I can't bring myself to get the shot. I know this makes me sound like I'm crazy... I'm fully aware that Tetanus is rare nowadays, and many people don't have their shot and have had actual puncture wounds and been fine. I read that Tetanus symptoms can surface from 3-20 days (something like that). It's been a little over two weeks since the "incident". I have had a stiff jaw, a few headaches, tight neck muscles, and back pain ever since then but these are all things I had before this ever happened. The symptoms feel much worse when I actually think about it, leading me to think it's most likely my anxiety causing all of this tension. Whenever I start panicking, there's no way to think clearly.

Can someone please ease my mind about this. I'm too young to be worrying so much. Sorry this post is all over the place, I'm a bit of an anxious mess!

[TattooArtist]

You don't have tetanus.

[HoldingoutforHope]

You don't have tetanus.

The symptoms you are displaying tight muscles, headaches, stiffness, these are all signs of SEVERE anxiety.

[worry weasel]

Hello everyone!

Today someone was coming in our house to pick up something. My dog likes to jump around on people or try to sneak out the door when it's opened, so I had to pick him up and attempt to bring him upstairs into my room for a couple of minutes. In the process, he gave me a good scratch on the leg trying to wiggle out of my arms. I was wearing shorts, so my skin was exposed. The scratch didn't bleed, and it wasn't deep. It did puncture the skin a bit though. I washed it right away, then applied Polysporin and put a bunch of bandaids on. Now... I have read that there is a risk of tetanus through animal scratches because the bacteria could be on their nails from dirt. My tetanus shot is not up to date because I am too scared to go get it. I am 18 and my last shot was due 2 years ago.

Am I at risk? Should I be so worried? My health anxiety has really been getting the best of me lately.
Thank you all.

[nomorepanic]

A tetanus shot lasts over 10 years so you have nothing to worry about.

[Elen]

Hi

This is just a courtesy reply to let you know that your thread was merged with another of your threads.

Please when posting on similar topics add it onto your previous post rather than starting a new one.

It is nothing personal it is just to make it easier for people to follow your story and to give you advice as a whole.

Elen