Worried about CJD/Prions after an Eye Exam

[Strelets]

A few days ago I had an eye exam and they used a tonometer on me to touch my eyes. I don't know if they used the disposable tips or not, and I'll call ASAP on Monday (tomorrow) to ask to be safe, but I've spent the past day or so freaking out because apparently CJD can be transferred through the eye?

I've spent the past month-month and a half freaking out about this or that concern from gastric cancer to a brain tumor to rabies, ALS, and now this, but with this now I'm actually freaking out because I feel like I might've actually been exposed to something and I'm really, really scared.

I'm gonna talk to my doctor and therapist about it too, but I don't know what else to say other than "please help me."

I'm 21, male, just to clarify.

 

[Phillies Phan]

Are you aware how rare that condition is? Do you also think a professional optometrist or ophthalmologist is so sloppy that they would use unsterile equipment? When something is a million to one shot, you’ve just got to let it go!

 

[Strelets]

Are you aware how rare that condition is? Do you also think a professional optometrist or ophthalmologist is so sloppy that they would use unsterile equipment? When something is a million to one shot, you’ve just got to let it go!

I know how rare it is, but the panic part of my lizard brain makes it hard to deal with. I've dealt with a lot of different fears over the past month or so and I'm tired but it's really hard for me to calm down unless I get confirmation that I'm fine.

I'll still call on Monday but I really hope they use the disposable tips.

 

[Iugrad91]

That’s a huge stretch to think a doctor would be that incompetent to use equipment that wasn’t sterilized. Can you accept you have anxiety over this and trust that the doctor isn’t incompetent and let this go? You are seeking reassurance which will give you a temporary feeling of satisfaction until you latch onto the next worry.

 

[Strelets]

That’s a huge stretch to think a doctor would be that incompetent to use equipment that wasn’t sterilized. Can you accept you have anxiety over this and trust that the doctor isn’t incompetent and let this go? You are seeking reassurance which will give you a temporary feeling of satisfaction until you latch onto the next worry.

Prions are really, really hard to sterilize, though. That's why there's fear.

 

[Iugrad91]

And you know this how? Do you think the optometrist is spreading CJD to all his patients? It is very rare to begin with and if spreading it this way was an issue it wouldn’t be so rare, would it. Like most things we have to take a leap of faith that the 0.0001% chance of it happening is so small it’s not worth worrying about.

 

[MATD]

And as mentioned in the comments, you will just go onto something new. “It’s Only Anxiety” by Carl James / Hope and Help For Your Nerves by Dr Claire Weekes.

 

[Jonathan123]

I know how rare it is, but the panic part of my lizard brain makes it hard to deal with. I've dealt with a lot of different fears over the past month or so and I'm tired but it's really hard for me to calm down unless I get confirmation that I'm fine.

I'll still call on Monday but I really hope they use the disposable tips.

And will you believe them when they tell you it's all fine? In anxiety we doubt so much, and take a lot of convincing that something we fear is untrue. You mention your 'lizard brain'. There is a lot of truth in that. Caveman had so much to fear that he must have been in a constant state of alertness. We still possess that part of the brain, and the fight/flight mechanism has been handed down. But there is no big hairy Mammoth out there or a Sabre Toothed Tiger. We have substituted those for more modern fears, like illness. But we can no longer fight or flee. So the anxiety turns inward and becomes the monster caveman feared.

 

[Strelets]

And you know this how? Do you think the optometrist is spreading CJD to all his patients? It is very rare to begin with and if spreading it this way was an issue it wouldn’t be so rare, would it. Like most things we have to take a leap of faith that the 0.0001% chance of it happening is so small it’s not worth worrying about.

I don't know, I guess that's why I'm worried. The lifetime chances of getting prion diseases are somewhere around 1 in 5,000 to 1 in 1 million, but it's...I don't really know to be honest.

It's just terror. I don't know if I've been exposed or not. The uncertainty is what's scary. I just want the optometrist to say that they use disposable tips because then they would've been used on nobody else. It's hard for me to cry, but I can kinda feel the tears welling up because of the fear.

And will you believe them when they tell you it's all fine? In anxiety we doubt so much, and take a lot of convincing that something we fear is untrue. You mention your 'lizard brain'. There is a lot of truth in that. Caveman had so much to fear that he must have been in a constant state of alertness. We still possess that part of the brain, and the fight/flight mechanism has been handed down. But there is no big hairy Mammoth out there or a Sabre Toothed Tiger. We have substituted those for more modern fears, like illness. But we can no longer fight or flee. So the anxiety turns inward and becomes the monster caveman feared.

I probably will. I had worries about cancer earlier twice in the past month and seeing my doctor was enough to put those fears to rest for the most part. I'm worried about deviating to another anxiety, like ALS or cancer or something, but I'm just really scared that they didn't use disposable tonometer tips.

 

[Iugrad91]

We have to live with lots of uncertainty in our lives. It’s part of being human. Acceptance that we can’t control everything is the first step toward healing. Why are you so focused on that one procedure? There are thousands of things we do every day that come with very small risks (this one is minuscule IMO). I’m not trying to add to your worry, but get you to see that if we really tried to control every little part of our life we will make ourselves crazy. The key is acceptance.

 

[MATD]

We take more risk every day just by getting into a car.

 

[Strelets]

We have to live with lots of uncertainty in our lives. It’s part of being human. Acceptance that we can’t control everything is the first step toward healing. Why are you so focused on that one procedure? There are thousands of things we do every day that come with very small risks (this one is minuscule IMO). I’m not trying to add to your worry, but get you to see that if we really tried to control every little part of our life we will make ourselves crazy. The key is acceptance.

I know that we can't realistically control everything. I think it's just scary because I don't know if I've actually been exposed to something or not.

Having to wait a few days to even ask too isn't fun.

We take more risk every day just by getting into a car.

man if only lizard brain could understand that

 

[Iugrad91]

That’s where acceptance comes in. The chances you were exposed are practically zero. The reason you keep going to the doc is reassurance. It doesn’t work. You keep wanting more. Can you break that cycle and let this go without calling the doc?

 

[Jonathan123]

We have to live with lots of uncertainty in our lives. It’s part of being human. Acceptance that we can’t control everything is the first step toward healing. Why are you so focused on that one procedure? There are thousands of things we do every day that come with very small risks (this one is minuscule IMO). I’m not trying to add to your worry, but get you to see that if we really tried to control every little part of our life we will make ourselves crazy. The key is acceptance.

How absolutely true. Scott Peck, the American psychiatrist began his book by saying ' What makes you think life will be easy'. One of the big problems today is that kids are brought up and shielded from all the nastiness in the world. 'If it's not fun don't do it'. They should be exposed to what's going on in a responsible and caring way. If a friend dies then that should be explained, not covered up or not talked about. I mean kids of an age where they will understand.
We just don't know from one moment to the next what will happen. So living in the now is so important. This is not being gloomy but a fact. Acceptance of this fact, and getting on with our lives can take a lot of anxiety away.

 

[Strelets]

they don't use the disposable tips

 

[Gooze17]

they don't use the disposable tips

Wouldn’t that mean there would be an outbreak of some sort in your area? It’s such a rare thing that any diagnosis of it would be news worthy. And if a optometrist was where it started it absolutely would be publicly known and probably shut down until they could confirm one way or another.

 

[Iugrad91]

So how are you going to work on accepting the unknown and move forward past this fear?

 

[Strelets]

So how are you going to work on accepting the unknown and move forward past this fear?

They do disinfect it, but prions are really hard to kill. They said that the chances of me getting something like a prion disease in general were infinitesimal, but the lizard brain with the hypochondria and OCD makes it really, really hard to believe that I haven't been exposed to something. I'm gonna talk to my therapist and maybe my PCP about it. I asked another person who works in eye stuff and they said the same thing, that the chances are basically zero, but I'm still really scared.

 

[Strelets]

I'm going to talk with my therapist later today, but as of now I'm having a very hard time trying to tell myself that all of the anxiety symptoms and somatic symptoms are actually anxiety. I'm worried that if I wasn't exposed to something on the 22nd, that what I'm feeling is somehow vCJD and that I might've ate something in the past or been exposed another way.