Stupid mad cow fears.

[Walking Circles]

So this is kind of dumb and convoluted.

I let my mother test my blood sugar tonight. She used a meter that she got from her ex-husband. He was in the Air-Force and stationed in the UK during the mad cow outbreak. I have read that people can carry it for decades before symptoms manifest. Now I'm worried that some left over bit of blood or something from him could have come in to contact with the needle used and ended up in my finger when it was pricked.

Now the needles come with a plastic tab over the point that must be broken away to be used. My mom swears up and down that she has bought new test strips and needles on several occasions (she isn't diabetic but was pre-diabetic for a while so did some monitoring) and nothing but the meter and the case came from her ex.

Am I way out here on this one? I feel like the answer is a resounding yes but it helps me to put it in writing and have other opinions.

 

[bigjetplane6]

To the average person? You are way out there,
To the fellow HA person? You are being reasonable and my self would be thinking about the same.
But as the outsider; all is ok!

 

[Walking Circles]

To the average person? You are way out there,
To the fellow HA person? You are being reasonable and my self would be thinking about the same.
But as the outsider; all is ok!

Lol, it's nice to talk to people that get it!

 

[Worriedmama]

I was born in Europe in ‘86 and cannot donate blood due to the risk of mad cow disease. I do not have mad cow disease. It is very very rare and I don’t think it would stick around on the device, I would think it needs a live host. I will not Google that because if I Google mad cow disease, I will probably think I have it!

 

[Walking Circles]

Well guys I thought I'd necro this thread because the same thing happened again. I used another one of those testing lancets from my ex step dad who was stationed in the UK in the 80's. It was unopened, the plastic tip was still on the needle. What is the chance that some stray material could have been on there and transferred to me?

 

[Cuchculan]

I think if there was any chances of such a thing happening a lot more people, especially in the UK, would have mad cows. If we look at the UK today, heck, you would be lucky to find one case at the moment. I am in Ireland and I remember that time. We done good here in Ireland keeping mad cows out of Ireland. Because of livestock movement between both countries. We banned all such things until it was all over with. That is really going back years and it would be a very big push for what you are fearing to actually happening.