Health anxiety - have gotten into a panic - Covid19 year

[helphealthanxiety]

Stupid me . Doing covid19 lateral flow test thing and managed to somehow squirt the developer fluid thing - god knows how I did it - was trying to get the lid off the test bottle and managed to squirt it in my face .

I’ve washed my face and my hands but I’ve got OCD, health anxiety and I’ve gotten into a blind panic by googling - which says that the fluid stuff they give for viral swabs confisns stuff that’s highly poisonous and even minute amounts can kill you very quickly .

I’m 90% convinced this is anxiety and OCD kicking in but not sure, I don’t want to ring 111 and embarrass myself with a stupid question .

If it was you would you ring/seek help or leave it? I can’t find a definite answer anywhere online .

If it contained enough poison to kill you then they wouldn't hand out test kits containing ten vials of the stuff to every Tom, Dick, and Harry who wants one - including Year 7's who, let's face it, would dare each other to drink it.

You will be fine. Call by all means but only to put your mind at rest.

I have a thing about raw chicken. I went to give a chicken breast a good smell once and somehow managed to face plant it. Full on lip smacked it. Not really relatable but thought I would share.

Listen - I work in a laboratory.

It is extraction solution and contains, in basic terms, salt and washing up liquid.

The washing up liquid breaks your cells open and the salt gets the DNA out of the swab sample.

It is not something you'd want to drink! But squirting it on yourself is completely harmless.

Please don't worry one more minute about it.

I understand the worry, and how they worry can get away from you and spiral.

But - idiotic teens are doing these tests twice per week in their millions - if this was really as lethal as you have read one of them would be dead by now, surely?

Thank you, I don’t think I swallowed any - don’t know - if I did it would only be a minute amount I suppose . I haven’t had anxiety like this in years, I used to be funny about using eg weed killer and stuff - it seems silly to get in such a panic but kept seeing online how dangerous it is . NHS websites for staff say swallowing it doesn’t appear to be harmful so will try to believe that . I don’t even know who I’d phone tbh .

It wouldn't harm you if you did swallow it, just taste vile.

It isn't a solution used to preserve viral swabs (like if they were sent from a GP to lab in the post/by courier) it is simply a solution to get the DNA/proteins out of the swab sample.

If anything in the pack was remotely harmful it would be all over the instruction leaflet. Please don't stress anymore. Honestly.