Buckeye Surgeon recalls a time when he was stuck by a needle, and talks about the emotional turmoil that accompanies it:

Rarely do we visit those dark places of the soul where our ultimate weaknesses are exposed. Rarely do we acknowledge our ineluctable mortality. It’s too much. It throws us off our fragile equilibrium. There’s too much to do in the here and now. But the time will come for all of us. The day of reckoning is unavoidable. Whether it’s lump in the breast or a heart attack at age 47 or a sudden stroke or a car that runs a red light. Eventually, there’s a needle stick that gets us all. And I think it hurts, initially, no matter how old you are when it happens.

Despite the very small chance of HIV transmission from a needle stick, it does little to lesson to worry.