Tetanus questions and Advice needed

[acuwoman]

Hello, all. My unvaccinated 51/2 yr old son stepped on what looks like a very small fishing hook on my stone driveway last Saturday (7 days ago). He was wearing socks, and I saw it happen. He said ow, then I bent down and pulled this fuzzy hook from him. It didn't feel like it was deeply in, but he had on a sock. I immediately brought him in and washed in the sink with soap and hot water for 5+ min. There was a tiny flap of skin, which led me to believe it just pricked sideways, and not deep, but again, there was a sock on so i didnt have a clear view. I was rubbing with pressure to wash it out, but there was no blood. The rest of the weekend we soaked in peroxide,epsom salts,or hot soapy water several times per day. No sign of infection. By Sunday, I was freaking out so much after reading online,that I took him to the ER. The doc admitted it was minor but since it was outside,there should be TIg and of course,DTap for future. Well, the hospital had none and looked for two days at surrounding hospitals, we did go to our natural minded dr office, and the PA and nurse said it would be fine. I did do the first DTap at that point since I was meaning to do that one anyway. Our doc quickly glanced at it later in the week when my other son had an appt, and said fine without really listening.
So now its been a week,and I'm constantly watching for symotoms. The wound is healed. I know the average incubation period is 8 days, and most cases present within a month (read that somewhere.). Do I have any other options? Do I just watch and wait or still try to track down TIg shot even though its well past 72 hours? I would love any thoughts, I have been worrying nonstop.
Thx!

[emmy526]

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/786414-overview

tetanus  is an illness characterized by an acute onset of hypertonia, painful muscular contractions (usually of the muscles of the jaw and neck), and generalized muscle spasms without other apparent medical causes.

Although records from antiquity (5th century BC) contain descriptions of tetanus, it was Carle and Rattone in 1884 who first produced tetanus in animals. This was accomplished by injecting them with pus from a fatal human tetanus case. During that same year, Nicolaier produced tetanus in animals by injecting them with soil. In 1889, Kitasato isolated the organism from an infected human, showed that it produced disease when injected into animals, and reported that the toxin could be neutralized by specific antibodies. In 1897, Nocard demonstrated the protective effect of passively transferred antitoxin. Passive immunization in humans was used for treatment and prophylaxis during World War I. Tetanus toxoid was developed by Descombey in 1924. It was first widely used during World War II.

Despite widespread immunization of infants and children in the United States since the 1940s, tetanus still occurs in the United States. Currently, tetanus is a severe disease primarily of older adults who are unvaccinated or inadequately vaccinated. Worldwide, most reported cases of tetanus are the neonatal type. The last reported case of neonatal tetanus in the United States was in 1998; this was only the second case since 1989, and neither of the mothers had ever received tetanus vaccinations.

For more information, see Medscape's Vaccine Resource 

[acuwoman]

I

[acuwoman]

Thx for the response. I have read that info. I guess my question is, how long after the cut can the TIg shot be effectively given? and now that we are a week later, it was small and cleaned well, is it best to just move on?
I also did want to mention about our difficultly locating a TIg shot. Not sure if that is common, but might be a factor for those deciding on vaccinating.
Thx again.