Sharing Needles with a Vacation Friend in Yellowstone as a Child

Family vacations can be a mixed bag, they can be fun, they can be stressful, they can be beautiful, or they can be horrible. In elementary school, I was lucky enough to go on one of these fun vacations to Yellowstone National Park. As a child I made a mistake on this trip and shared a needle with another child. Something you should never do.

Yellowstone National Park

This park is so beautiful! It has so much to offer; landscapes, geysers, buffalo, wolves, hikes, and bears. At the time of writing this, almost 25 years later, I can still remember a lot of this trip.

One day we drove through sulfur canyon and went to the geysers. During this drive my younger brother and I complained about how bad it smelled. We weren’t fans of the smell of sulfur and would not shut up about it. Now I know why there was a strong sulfur smell, but as a kid I was not a fan.

The geysers were so fun to see. We made sure to see Old Faithful, but there are a lot of other geysers to see too. I remember one in particular that kept bubbling and making weird, funny noises. This one was my favorite because of the noises, but I cannot remember what it was called.

Animals – Buffalo

During another one of our drives, we stopped to look at a field full of buffalo. Don’t worry, we weren’t the tourists who got too close to the buffalo, or any animal, to get a picture. We left a good distance between us and if they started to get closer or turn in our general direction, we went back to the car.

Animals – Wolves

At one point during our trip we were in a small tour group led by a park ranger. I thought the park ranger was so cool. She knew so much about the park, nature facts, and all about the animals. I wanted to be her one day.

Part of this tour included a nighttime drive out to try and see the wolves. We were so lucky and with the help of a fancy monocular telescope we got to see wolves track and take down an elk. (I’m not positive it was an elk, but if it wasn’t, it was something similar).

Animals – Bears

There was unexpected traffic one day. I didn’t understand why there were so many cars stopped on a two-lane road in a national park. After at least 20 minutes we noticed everyone was out of their cars and staring off into the tall grasses off the side of the road.

There was a mama grizzly bear and her young cub eating some recently caught prey. It was so close, probably a football field or two’s distance away from the road.

Making Friends on the Tour

The small tour group we were in also had a couple of other families. One of these families had a young girl around my age, and we became vacation friends. We started hanging out during the tours and after we got back from a park adventure.

One of these times the two of us were hanging out by the hotel, I was showing her my finger stick. I explained why I had to do it, and showed her how it works. I asked her if she wanted to check her blood sugar number. She did!

Sharing Needles (don’t do this)

This was the first time that someone other than me was going to check their blood sugar number. It was so fun for me to share this with someone else. I was very proud and pleased with myself and with her.

She checked her number (I’m sure her number was good) and we eventually told our parents about it. Her parents freaked out! I hadn’t changed the needle for a clean one before she pricked her finger. She had used the same needle I had been using for days.

Don’t Share Needles

I’m guessing I was told that sharing needles was a bad thing, but as an elementary school kid, I didn’t think about it. I go into more detail about the dangers of sharing needles in my post Dangers of Sharing Needles (coming next week).

This girl’s parents were both medical doctors, so they knew better than anyone the dangers of sharing needles. They went to my parents and insisted that I go and get blood work done to make sure I didn’t have any blood borne pathogens that I could have passed onto their daughter.

My parents came to ask me if I was okay with doing this. I didn’t have a problem with it and was more than willing to go and get my blood drawn. I think it was because I was so used to getting my blood drawn that it didn’t bother me.

One of my parents, on the other hand, was very angry. This parent didn’t like that they were insinuating that their young daughter could have a bloodborne pathogen. Now that I’m older (and hopefully wiser) I don’t know why my parent got so upset. I think the other girl’s parents responded appropriately to this situation.

Learning More About Not Sharing Needles

The results were in; I didn’t have anything that I could pass along to their daughter. After all of this, I don’t remember any difference in my friendship with this girl. But I think my parents didn’t like her parents too much after.

My parents and the medical professionals who drew my blood cautioned me about the dangers of sharing needles. This is a mistake that I would never make again.

I’ve let others check their blood sugar number over the years. Each time I do, I make sure to change out the needle, so they only use a clean, unused one. I then change it out for another clean, unused one for myself.   

Disclaimer – talk to your doctor if you have any questions about the dangers of sharing needles.