Posted on 11/01/2007 1:24:28 AM PDT by 60Gunner
Okay, my friends. For the last week or so, the media have gotten Americans all worked up into a froth about this "deadly new bacteria" called MRSA. My ER is now inundated with frantic phone calls from people who have no idea what they are looking at, or what the disease really is.
One charming woman (who clearly smoked wayyyyyyyy too much) called amid the throes of a panic attack because she found a pimple and was convinced beyond all attempts to reason with her that she was "gonna die of Melissa."
"Ah, you mean MRSA." I corrected the hyperventilating woman on the phone.
"What's that?" she asked with a voice that reminded me of Bosley from Charlie's Angels.
"Never mind," I sighed, rubbing my eyes.
Well, after a full rotation of heartwarming phone conversations such as that one, and a waiting room filled with wild-eyed impressionable souls, I have had just about a dang nuff of this.
I get tired of the media feeding crap to the public about infectious diseases. This case is no different. ("But that perky anchorwoman wouldn't BS me about something that involves my well-being, would she? After all, she furrowed her brow when she said it. Furrowed! Her! Brow! And with all that Botox on board, that takes some effort, Spanky!")
Oh, of course that cute little newsbabe wouldn't BS you. She cares about you. Kum-bah-frigging-yah. Please clean up before you leave.
Well, here is the real scoop, Alley Oop.
I am an Emergency Department nurse, and I have encountered patients with MRSA a gajillion times. (By "encountered" I mean, "assisted in cutting open and draining their wounds, packed their wounds, and changed their wound dressings." And by "gajillion," I mean "gajillion.") I have- gasp!- touched a person who has MRSA. And wouldn't you know- I never got it. And I don't pass it on to other patients, either.
(Gosh! How can this be? He touches the leper and he does not become unclean! What manner of man is this!?)
Look, folks. It is really very simple. I know how to protect myself from MRSA, and I know how to protect my patients from it. And because I understand MRSA, I don't get freaked out when I see an ingrown hair on my arm. I will tell you why. And when you read this, you will become just as confident as I am, because you will know the truth.
Are you ready? Here we go.
1. Wash your hands with soap and WARM water.
Any soap will do. It doesn't have to be Hibiclens(TM), or any other ludicrously expensive antimicrobial soap for that matter. Just plain old soap and water. ANY old soap is "antibacterial" when used correctly; All you have to do is make LOTS of suds. Its the suds that make a soap antibacterial. "Really?" you ask. "How so?" you ask. Well, settle down and I will tell you: Suds form micelles around dirt and bacteria and lift them from the skin's surface to be rinsed away to the black hell from whence they came.
Don't use hot water, because hot water dissolves the natural oils on your hand that keep your skin from drying out and cracking. (Cracks are openings deep into the skin. Openings deep into the skin invite bacteria.) Don't use cold water, either, because cold water will not produce decent suds, and it will not rinse all the soap away from your skin, so your skin will dry and crack. (Again, cracked skin says, "Hey bacteria! Par-tay over here!") So remember: not too hot, not too cold, but just right.
Wash- and rinse- AND dry- under those pretty rings on your fingers. Rings hide light- that means darkness. Moisture hides under rings- that means bacteria. Darkness + bacteria= EEEWWW.
And come on, folks. REALLY wash your hands. For fifteen seconds. None of that "happy birthday" song crap (which I can sing in five seconds). Sing your ABCs; THAT's a fifteen-second song. Fifteen seconds should also cover roughly two limericks, if that's more your style. That includes slurring of speech secondary to alcohol consumption.
Dry your hands completely, including under those stylish rings. Water = bacteria. If you don't dry, you just defeated the purpose of step 1.
And don't you DARE just splash your hands in the water and then shake them off! If you do that, you are the one spreading this crap around. Stop it! Bacteria L-O-V-E-S moisture. And where you just had your hands- bacteria loves that place too. So when you exit the bathroom and go smoke that cigarette and eat your sushi, guess what else you're putting in your mouth- or into the mouth of that hottie/stud of yours when you try to be cute and feed him/her an hoeurs-d'oeuvres?
Nothing says "I love you" like a mouthful of Enterococcus faecalis.
2. Use enough alcohol-based hand sanitizer to cover ALL of your hands, including under the nails. With Brylcreme, a little dab'll do ya. With hand sanitizer, you need enough to wash EVERY FILTHY BIT of your hands for the same length of time as demonstrated in part 1, above.
3. Take a shower. I mean on a daily basis. Good personal hygiene is your friend. Remember those micelles? They do the same thing wherever you create them.
4. Cover your boo-boo. Even if you don't have MRSA, if you rub that boo-boo over someone who has it or something upon which MRSA rests, guess what? You get MRSA! See how this works?
5. Don't touch someone else's boo-boo. Wherever it is. Draw your own picture. Leave me out of it.
6. Don't touch any bandages that cover someone else's boo-boo. That's self-explanatory.
7. Don't share your towels, razors, or anything that touches your or someone else's boo-boo. Yes, that means you married/joint domicile people, too. Think about where that towel/razor/dressing has been. Can somebody give me a BLEEEEEEYAAHHHHHH!?
Furthermore, you should be a helluva lot more scared of Hepatitis C (which is viable on a dry surface for MONTHS) than MRSA (which is viable on a dry surface for about one hour).
If you want a version of the game that tells you the same thing but spares you the rapier-like wit, go to The Official Center For Disease Control MRSA Website and fall asleep in the middle of it.
And one last thing: MRSA has been around for years. And that cute little news-floozy is just playing you for ratings.
Don't thank me. I'm here to help, and I'm in a giving mood. No charge for that.
ER Nursing/Mainstream Media BS PING!
Thank you! I can’t wait to give this to my mom. She’s 81 years old and has been in a tizzy about this for weeks.
And how does one avoid respiratory MRSA? Do we wear a mask everywhere we go? I’m a transplant patient and have no immune system. My mother lived in a nursing home and I had to practically wear an all over suit. Respiratory MRSA is very dangerous if you get it and it’s not that easy to avoid.
Thanks for the info.
I do have a question - Apparently at least a couple of kids died of it - It is a tragedy when a kid dies of it.
Is this something that happens all the time but dsoesn’t really make the news, or something relatively new? Why is this MRSA “suddenly” in the news?
BTW... thanks.
Not that serious? I’m still getting over it, (and pray that I do) and believe me - it is nothing to joke about. It IS life-threatening.
In fact, my doctor told me that MRSA is bordering on being an epidemic.
If the articles about the ‘super-bug’ irritate you, may I suggest you just don’t read them? You’ll have better mental health if you aren’t stressed.
Please don’t ridicule or sell something short that you have no knowledge about. Thanks.
bkmrk
In your case, YES.
Respiratory MRSA is very dangerous if you get it and it’s not that easy to avoid.
Oh, yes it is. Don't let someone hack in your face. The fact that you have a compromised immune system should automatically prompt you to wear a mask if you even suspect that someone has a head cold, much less MRSA.
As a transplant patient, you have to be that much more vigilant because you are on immunosuppressant drugs. MRSA is harder to get than tuberculosis. If it was easier to get, we'd be putting MRSA patients in negative-pressure rooms and wearing space suits to take care of them.
Look. You don't have an easy road. I won't pretend to understand what you're going through. I have not been there. And as God is my witness, I would not DARE patronize you or downplay your condition.
In your case, you have to go above and beyond the expected levels of precaution in order to preserve your health and life. In this case, what you have to do is follow contact AND respiratory precautions (gown and glove plus mask) to avoid MRSA. Wash up before and after you enter the room. If you even suspect that someone has a respiratory bug, wear a mask or insist that they do so.
Again, I do not mean to make your situation seem less life-altering than it is for you. Anyone who undergoes a transplant must endure a life-long trial. If I have made that seem trivial, please accept my most sincere and humble apology.
Thanks, 60 Gunner!
Believe what you want to. I urge that.
Last year it was the bird flu. Two years ago it was supposed to be the worst flu season in decades. Two years before that it was the flesh eating virus.
It’s ratings.
These people blow things all out of proportion, people panic and by the next year when no massive epidemic has materialized, no millions have died, they find a new plague that is going to kill us all and start all over again.
Nobody said MRSA wasn’t serious. What I inferred was that it is very unlikely there is going to be a massive MRSA outbreak in the U.S.
Why is it that folks fall for this stuff every year, nothing happens and the next year they fall for it all over again under a different name? Sooner or later you’d think they’d figure it out.
Remember 1988, when they predicted that 75% of the nation would have AIDS by the early 1990s and many people fell for it? AIDS was serious too. Was the threat to people who followed safe guidelines serious? Absolutely not! And that’s where we find outselves today with MRSA.
You’ll hear about some isolated cases and by next year it will have been forgotten about, as some other ‘gonna kill us all’ boggie man comes along.
I’m sorry you came down with MSRA. For you and others who have contracted it, it is serious. To the public at large, it simply isn’t.
But by following basic precautions, you can avoid that unpleasantness. Sure, MRSA is dangerous as hell. But following basic steps will keep you much safer than entertaining fear ever could.
So you disagree with my basic premise in 12?
My friend, it's a tragedy when ANYONE dies of it. I have seen people die from it, and it's a helluva bad way to go.
Is this something that happens all the time but dsoesn’t really make the news, or something relatively new? Why is this MRSA “suddenly” in the news?
MRSA has been around for years. I see at least one case per week. Common talk is that most people have MRSA somewhere in ther bodies (nose or skin). As I said above- if you practice simple diligent hygiene, you can sleep soundly.
MRSA is an opportunist- like the IRA. It only has to be lucky once; You have to be lucky always. If you are diligent to keep yourself clean, you are far more likely to be trouble-free.
Mate, a print-off-and-keeper.
I had a knee op that went bung back in 2001. When I was hospitalized with an infected surgical incision three weeks after the op, the nurse showed me a great diagram on “how to wash hands...”
I had six months of self-treatment, changing dressings at home &tc so they wanted me to know how to keep things clean.
Try as I might, I have looked for that diagram everywhere, so I could teach my kids with it. In retrospect, I should have asked for a photocopy of the jolly thing.
(Do you have a copy you could post up?)
Nevertheless the lesson went like this:
1) Under warm water and using soap, wring palms five times: first right-over-left, then five times left-over-right;
2) grasp left thumb, use fingers to scrub right-hand edge, five times. Do same with right thumb and left-hand edge.
3) make a fist with right hand, scrub in palm of left hand from finger-nails-thru-to-back-knuckles, five times. Repeat with other hand.
4) Make opposite fists, grasp fingers and scrub nails against palms of hands.
5) Use palm of left hand to scrub from back-of-fingers to well-up wrists of right hand. Do same opposite side.
6) Shake hands into sink, turn off taps with elbows, dry hands thoroughly and use a tissue to let yourself out of the washroom.
The process takes at least 15 seconds, probably more. It’s easier to explain by picture...
I respectfully disagree on a couple of points. First, MRSA is HERE. It's been here for years. Second, MRSA is a flat out NASTY bug. You don't want it, trust me. It CAN kill you.
But as I said, it is also easily avoided by following basic precautions. It is not he next great plague. It's nasty, and a pain in the ass. But you can avoid it without having to go to extremes.
A HUGE majority of the word's communicable diseases can be prevented from transmission just by WASHING YOUR FRIGGING HANDS.
WARM water.
Soap.
Wet hands thoroughly.
Make THICK FOAM over BOTH hands from wrists to fingertips on BOTH hands and UNDER rings.
Sing your ABCs while making thick foam as described above.
RINSE from wrists to fingertips.
Dry hands COMPLETELY, including UNDER RINGS.
Viola.. You have successfully prevented the transmission of most of the world's communicable diseases. Your certificate is in the mail.
I think you misunderstood my comments. I don’t think we disagree at all.
It is here. We agree.
It is nasty. We agree.
It is not the next plague. We agree. And that was my point.
If you come down with it, it is indeed nasty.
Should the public at large be in a state of constant fear that they are going to come down with it? No.
As you have stated very clearly, good hygene will take care of the problem most of the time.
If the media wants to provide some tips along the lines of what you have I’m all for it. If they want to panic the public as most of them are doing right now, I object.
And that’s basicly all I’m trying to get across.
You take care. Thanks again for the public service announcement. It’s a good effort.
God bless you and keep you!
/Gunner
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