Please don't abuse antibiotics - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 12:00:44 am
content: what's this got to do with electronics ? well it prevented me for enjoying my hobby ( and work) for at least 8 weeks now.Mid december i got a tiny little scrape from a shower door handle on my back ( the door grazed me while closing ) . There was no blood so i thought i was fine. By the evening i had a red , warm, patch that was swollen about an inch diameter. the next morning it was the size of my hand , sore, and swollen.I went to urgent care where they had to cut it open and clean it out. I basically had a 13 centimeter long abcess in my skin that was filled with MRSA bacteria (they cultured them and confirmed it was MRSA) This is a superbacteria where we have lost all but one antibiotic and are on the verge of losing the last defense as well. (the antibiotic needs to be injected in large doses to be effective, some people need 24 intravenous drip of this stuff and it is nasty antibiotics in terms of side effects )MRSA kills ! if it defeats your immune system and gets into your bloodstream you can die in a manner of hours.It took 16 days for the wound to heal. twice a day the wound needed cleaning , flushing it out with 50/50 hydrogen peroxide / isobetadine mix (hurts like hell) , packing with sterile material.We got MRSA because people abuse antibiotics and or do not use them correctly.- We either take antibiotics when not needed ( anything viral is useless taking antibiotics. but people still insist they need antibiotics)- We do not complete the prescribed cycle. IF you are prescribed 10 days , DO NOT stop after 7 just because you feel fine and you dread the side effect ( some antibiotics cause gastrointestinal problems like.. you know .. having to use the porcelain throne very frequently)the problem stopping early is that you have not eradicated all of the bacteria. the survivors have now proven to be more resistent to the antibiotics and there is the risk these now get out and start breeding elsewhere...10 years ago MRSA was a rare occurence. one or two a month in a hospital. Now we are up to 2 or 3 a day !So iwas 'cured' between xmas and new year. yay ! January 3 : boom I get the flu. ok. fine 4 days and fever is gone. Day five : 104F ( 41C) fever ! that ain't normal..Back to urgent care. After snot sample analysis, two x-rays, blood tests , blood oximetry and an ultrasound of my heart : H1N1 that evolved into double pneumonia.I got this because my immune system was overloaded and recovering from the MRSA. result : quarantined for 18 days !H1N1 induced pneumonia is very contageous. 5 minutes in a room with 10 people and half of them will be infected.take 3 steps and you keel over, totally out of breath. i had one lung half full of fluid the other 1/3 full of gunk...meanwhile my battery of soldering irons is screaming 'make something' (and my car is screaming 'drive me')My last x-ray was yesterday and finally came back -clean- no residual damage (pneumonia can permanently damage lungs. very bad for scuba divers like me)So , if you want to enjoy your hobbies for a long time : don't get sick and if you do use only antibiotics when they work and are necessary and use the prescribed amount completely. Do not stop early !

author: IanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 12:07:05 am
content: Well, that sounds awful. I'm glad you are better now.

author: dr.diesel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 12:08:03 am
content: Take good care, mybestwishes, thanks for sharing.

author: wilheldp
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 12:16:26 am
content: I don't take drugs for anything unless absolutely necessary. That stands in stark contrast to people that are looking for a pill to fix every little thing. The worst example other than antibiotics is Ritalin and Adderall for kids that are nothing more than hyper or disinterested. That used to be fixed with a spanking, now it's fixed with drugs.

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 12:24:18 am
content: Yeah, i don't think engineers are the kind of people that need to be told off for misusing antibiotics.They tent to be smart enough to know about the antibiotic resistance problem already.It's more the general public that need to understand.

author: David_AVD
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 12:32:33 am
content: Someone I know got a scratch on her foot while stepping in/out of the shower. She didn't follow the doctor's advice about the infection and treatments and ended up the the foot being amputated.Continued issues and defiance of the doctors saw the leg amputated above the knee some time later. Now she's got issues with the other leg where they took skin to graft onto the first stump. At this rate she will be a double amputee soon.

author: jaxbird
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 12:48:12 am
content: Good to hear you are doing better, hope you'll be fully rid of it soon.I wouldn't blame antibiotic resistant bacteria on the regular folks. It's really the doctors prescribing it way too often who are the culprits, together with industries like the meat industry adding antibiotics as part of regular feeding as a preventive measure.It's an ongoing battle of finding new types of antibiotics to battle the resistant strains, unfortunately the resistant bacteria are winning because of the widespread use.

author: Marco
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 01:06:26 am
content: Humans could stop taking antibiotics altogether at this point and it wouldn't matter for the spread of resistance, once those genes are in the pool they're never going away and resistance can be regained in a couple of generations. We're basically fucked ...We should have had an international agreement to restrict sales of last line of defence antiobiotics decades ago and made veterinary use an international crime against humanity, instead politicians sold us (and their children) out to farma and agriculture.

author: apelly
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 01:09:20 am
content: Glad to hear you're back on your feet and OK.

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 01:10:54 am
content: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MRSA#People_in_contact_with_live_food-producing_animalsQuoteIn summary, boycott factory farming and you'll reduce the risk of getting antibiotic resistant bacteria.

author: manticore00
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 01:52:22 am
content: Glad you're feeling better. My wife picked up a MRSA infection on her elbow from the gym a few months ago and overnight it went from what looked like a simple pimple to a huge red and angry splotch from her elbow to her wrist. Fortunately she responded well to the antibiotics but it scared the heck out of both of us.

author: Stonent
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 02:31:28 am
content: I was out for a week before Christmas of 2012 with Pneumonia. I had gotten a light case of the flu around the last week of November and then was fine, then mid December got it again with extremely painful coughing. The final straw was when I could hardly walk across a parking lot without wanting to faint and went to the hospital and they said I had to stay.No fun.

author: MatCat
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 02:33:58 am
content: Really sucky! I got Swine flu a few years ago and it was a month of hell, closest I ever felt I was to death (even more so then one time in my life someone pointed a gun at me), so I know how that feels! Glad your feeling better!

author: strangelovemd12
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 03:09:42 am
content: I wouldn't have known about this had people not been wishing you well in the IRC channel. (That post worked, I've cleared out of General Chat!)Thanks for the words on taking the full antibiotics course, it's a huge problem in modern medicine! As usual your post surpasses the average in quality.

author: Tinkerer
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 04:29:53 am
content: This is why when you get a scratch, you should wash it well. Who am I kiddin, I dont do that. hahaI dont get sick often(maybe I got sick like 2 years ago?) Had a dry skin split on my finger which I think may have gotten infected. Dont know, took a heck of a long week or two to heal all the way. All I did was make sure it was clean. Ended up hurting a bit and red but its healed now. Let me tell ya, lack of moisture is no help in healing.

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 05:03:03 am
content: if you get a simple scratch that is NOT bleeding : DANGER . that's when that stuff burrows in. if it is bleeding your white bloodcells will react. if it's not bleeding the bacteria can burrow until it's too late. Always have a bottle of Betadine ready ( that brown stuff they use in hospitals) That kills anything. The other thing is clorhexidine soap. ( that is what surgeons scrub with before operating)MRSA is a real pest. Hospital bacteria , "flesh eating bacteria" are all strains of S. Aureus. MRSA = Methicillin Resistant Staphilococcus Aureus50% of the worlds population carries it in their nose. It doesn't do anything there. it is just present in your mucus where it breeds.Get it in a wound …MRSA loves warm , damp environments like locker rooms of pools and gyms, showers etc.It is now to the point that, when you need to undergo surgery they test you if you are carrying MRSA in your nose. if present you get an ointment to eradicate it and they shoot you up with Rocephin ( which is the only remaining drug that can kill MRSA ) before surgery.

author: scientist
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 05:31:27 am
content: The problem is usually misuse of oral antibiotics, not topical antibiotic -- the cream you put on cuts isn't as much of an issue as long as you dispose of it properly and don't eat it. The oral antibiotics spread throughout the body, which is a problem.Hope you get rid of that junk soon and hopefully we can evolve resistance to MRSA within a few decades.

author: cybermaus
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 06:47:11 am
content: Quote from: wilheldp on February 08, 2014, 12:16:26 amWhich possibly means you may be among the group to more readily abandon the treatment because you feel fine?I somewhat agree with your sentiment, but on the rare occasion you do start a treatment, then also do finish it.

author: VK5RC
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 09:35:39 am
content: free-electron; wishing you a speedy and complete recovery.One of the problems with electronics is the tendency to spend a lot of time sitting down, this is not good for our waist lines, BP and glucose control i.e. diabetes,(this also increases risk of infection)I would echo the previous comments of trying to- avoid lot fed meats (animal antibiotic use far out weighs human use)- complete antibiotic course if you can (if bad diarrhoea - contact the treating doctor)- get a GOOD family doctor, and stick with him/her, if you change too often they are back to square one- eat food (not chemicals), mostly plants and not too much- take exercise regularly not too seriouslyRob. MB BS FRACP

author: hans
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 10:00:01 am
content: Hope you're getting better FE, being sick sucks,feelingsick sucks even more.I've been out of the running since half November due to a (planned however) osteotomy femur. Basically they break your bone to put it in the correct position and fasten it. They turned my knee/feet 20degrees inward (done on each side now), which is the maximum before nerve pain becomes a problem, the surgeon told.3 months later, still working on walking, so I am more or less limited to a living area that doesn't involve daily stairs... However, this is my 2nd time, and it's going aboutas expected...As I said; I didn't feel sick for about a week or 3 after all the medication worn off and the (Tramadol) painkillers had stopped. So in a way, it's not as bad as feeling constantly sick because of a bacteria or virus. I still hate getting colds now.., although my leg can't take >40kg and it can hurt like ****..Before the surgery they were also talking about this bacteria. 5 days beforehand I had to use this "bacteria inferno" showering stuff, and also some nasal ointment to have these little fuckers killed. They said they don't even do screening on this, everyone needs to do it.After surgery everyone gets like a couple (up to 4 for some) bags of antibiotics next to regular sugar/salt water infusion. They probably give so much because any bacteria that manifests itself inside the wound near a plate or artificial replacement joint can create their own little bacteria cave there with little resistance of the body.They are very paranoid about any tiny wound before & after surgery, especially around the "target zone".My dentists wants to know for the upcoming 10 years or so, that I have got a metal plate inserted. If he needs to do any "serious" work, he probably needs to prescribe extra antibiotics.Besides; I've been told/read that lots of animals we eat (like chicken) are fed antibiotics to "survive". In the end they are crammed in an area in which chickens are barely able to move. So they grow and inherently a couple die. Each day "workers" have the ritual of "picking up dead chickens" until they are fed enough to sell (in like 6 weeks I believe).I am not certain how much of these antibiotics affect us, but I have a suspicion it's probably not very good for us.

author: JuKu
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 10:02:50 am
content: A couple of years back I had a real accident. Wouldn't been a big deal except for the infection. Two months later the doctor said "If this drug doesn't work, we have only one option left". I knew what he meant.Bacteria are becoming a serious issue again.

author: cyr
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 10:21:17 am
content: Evolution is a bitch.We are extremely lucky to live in a time where we have access to antibiotics, vaccines and so many types of effective treatments.It's a scary thought that we may be losing one of our advantages.

author: G7PSK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 10:58:12 am
content: Glad to hear you are on the mend Free Electron.It is not just the overuse of antibiotics that is a concern but also overuse of antibacterials and antivirus cleaners in the home and elsewhere, all being heavily pushed to the users by the likes of Unilever etc.You do not even need these exotic cleaners in the home as ordinary soap and bleach will take care of most of the germs. There are already in the UK bacteria that have developed some resistance to these antibacterial cleaners but are still killed by soap due to having their waxy outer dissolved by the soap something no life form can withstand the same goes for bleach no bug is going to withstand it and develop resistance.

author: steve30
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 11:12:53 am
content: Glad you are betterI often wonder why people take antibiotics for trivial illnesses. I've lost count of the number of times people have told me I should go to the doctor to get some antibiotics. Although I'm on free prescriptions at the moment, I wasn't for the last two years, and couldn't have afforded to buy unnecessary medications, as I already spent enough money on my long term medications.

author: babysitter
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 12:12:03 pm
content: Real soldering freaks cook their wounds with the ironHot ironing wounds is a viable path to clean out, the famous french microbiologist Louis Pasteur was inspired to use vaccination against rabies after he experienced people from his home village got their biting wounds burned out.If you ever need a form of ghetto treatment for biting wounds and have your soldering iron with you...MRSA is a real problem in germany too, very bad managed by hospitals who spread them themselves by leaving out even simple hygienic measures like washing hands of their personal. In germany there are estimated 40k Deaths per year due to hospital-aquired infections, most of them believed to be MRSA.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 01:42:41 pm
content: Woah, that's serious stuff. Glad it turned out ok.I've had anti-biotics I think once in my life, for a badly infected eye, maybe 18 years ago or so.I pretty much avoid drugs for most things if at all possible. If the doctor prescribes something (rare) I always ask "do Ireallyneed it?"

author: grumpydoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 01:57:05 pm
content: Oh dear some of this thread has gotten a little tabloid.For a start I'm sorry to hear that free_electron has been unwell - serious bacterial infections or influenza are no joke and I wish him a speedy recovery.However MRSA is not a "flesh eating superbug", nor - usually - is there only one antibiotic which will treat it.Staph. Aureus (so called because of the golden colour of its colonies in culture) is a very widespread organism - often found as acommensalon skin and, yes, commonly in the nose.Originally most S. Aureus was penicillin sensitive but started to acquire genes for beta-lactamase. So, penicillins were developed which were resistant to this attack including meticillin (which is no longer used clinically) and flucloxacillin amongst others.Bacteria then acquired resistance to these new antibiotics and were thus identified as "Meticillin Resistant S Aureus"BUT the genes which conferred resistance werealwaysaround, however, until we applied a selective pressure by changing the environment were not as commonly found (this is evolution in action folks). Similarly if we banned all antibiotics we'd remove the selection advantage and chances are we see a significant reduction in the percentage of resistant organisms, perhaps even back to pre-antibiotic levels.MRSA is no more of a threat to a healthy person than "plain old" S. Aureus. That's not to say that S. Aureus can't be a nasty little bug - it's one of the organisms which can causeNecrotising fasciitiswhich is a spectacularly gruesome infection to have and frequently fatal but thankfully rather rare.It's also not true that MRSA has only one antibiotic that will be effective - itisresistant to most beta-lactam antibiotics but usually remains sensitive to olther antibiotics such as macrolodes, quinolones, clindamycin, linezolid and the intravenous antibiotics vancomycin and teicoplanin.Rather more of a worry is the emergence of vancomycin resistant strains but even in the US these are still rare (for now).Any deep wound especially an abscess will need packing as FE describes - the problem is that skin heals rather more quickly than the tissues underneath and if you let it will heal over leaving a cavity which will just get infected again. Healing this way is, indeed, a slow process.It is true that for most planned admissions to hospital you will be tested for MRSA colonisation and given antibacterial washes and creams to get rid of it. If we can avoid infections with difficult to treat bugs it's a good idea to do that. Especially orthopaedic procedures because one place you really don't want any form of infection is in a newly placed artificial joint as it's very difficult to get antibiotics into any infection there.It's also not really true that "a simple scratch that is not bleeding" is more dangerous than one which bleeds. A deep puncture is more of a problem and thatisless likely to bleed much but for the most part our immune systems have had several million years of evolution to get this right. If a simple scratch was all it took we'd never have made it out of the trees, much less out of Africa.MRSA is alsonotpresent in 50% of people's noses. Overall colonisation rates for S. Aureus are perhaps 25-30% of which 1-3% will be MRSA. It is higher [edit - whoops meant to finish this sentence] in healthcare professionals.So what is true/what can you do?Well, misuse of antibiotics is the cause of much resistance but veterinary prescribing and use in animal husbandry are much bigger problems than medical use.MRSA is a problem but so is any S. Aureus infection. For the moment, is usually treatableIf your doctor says "it's likely to be viral, you don't need antibiotics" respect that.Finish courses of antibiotics completely.When you buy meat try to research whether the animals were routinely given antibiotics to enhance their growth.

author: madires
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 02:38:49 pm
content: Quote from: babysitter on February 08, 2014, 12:12:03 pmSome hospitals are sloppy on hygienics but most are ok because they're reliable if anything bad happens to the patients caused by sloppy hygienics (punishable offence). Some hospitals even perform MRSA screening. If a new patient has MRSA he'll be isolated and treated for MRSA. AFAIK all hospitals in the Netherlands perform MRSA screening.

author: grumpydoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 03:02:29 pm
content: QuoteAll hospitals in the UK screen planned admissions and all have targets set to reduce the rate of MRSA infections.

author: marshallh
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 03:53:09 pm
content: After you take antibiotics, you've killed off almost all the normal bacteria living in your digestive system.Imbalances like this will cause an out of control growth... Yeast infections are not just something women have to deal with, anybody can have an internal overgrowth. It's not fatal but can seriously slow recovery and strain your body.Getting on a good probiotic is the way to keep the balance. Many people do get candida a while after getting wiped out with antibiotics.

author: JoeO
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 04:55:01 pm
content: And guess what one of the treatments for a low "Good" bacterial count is.Are you ready for this, fecal transplant, usually from a close relative or a twin.

author: smashedProton
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 05:38:37 pm
content: Quote from: wilheldp on February 08, 2014, 12:16:26 amplease don't hit your children....

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 07:14:25 pm
content: Quote from: hans on February 08, 2014, 10:00:01 amthat is S. aureus they are worried about (Ziekenhuisbakterie). If you were to get that in an open surgery wound it would mean amputation.More and more hospitals do this treatment before major planned surgery because they are worried about that stuff

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 07:22:35 pm
content: Quote from: grumpydoc on February 08, 2014, 01:57:05 pmi said it is a superbug. It can turn into necrotising fascitis (which is what people call 'flesh-eating bacteria).Other side effects is it can damage liver and kidneys. if it gets in the bloodstream you will do sepsis , if it reaches the brain it kills.They gave me Rocephin intramuscular. If it did not react they would have switched to vancomycin which is a 24 hour drip.Quoteeven 1/4 of the population carrying s.aureus ....QuoteThat is the key !. Antibiotics dont work on viruses. they are useless.Quotethat is key number 2

author: Dataforensics
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 07:35:13 pm
content: All hospitals in the UK screen planned admissions and all have targets set to reduce the rate of MRSA infections.Just wondering how long these tests take, last two times I had planned operations, one in June 2012 and the other 4 months ago, I did not notice any tests.Just undressed and straight into surgery, although they may have done it while I was under anesthetic.Tony

author: mtdoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 07:38:34 pm
content: Thanks to grumpydoc to injecting some reality into this topic. Watching this topic for me must be what is's like for an EE watching a bunch of medical professionals discuss how their computers work.....Usually, I am treating at least 1 person a week with a MRSA infection either in my clinic or more seriously ill patients in the hospital.A few points:Sensitivity to antibiotics varies regionally. In the US and specifically, here in the Pacific NW, MRSA is generally only sensitive to Vancomycin (IV) and Trimethoprin/Sulfamethoxazole (Bactrim or Septra) and probably Linezolid (though not usually tested for this). Some is sensitive to Clindamycin -in vitro- but not clincally.MRSA likes to form skin abscessses (pus pockets) and the key to treating MRSA skin infections is opening them up and draining them - then packing them and allowing them to continue to drain and heal (slowly) from the inside out (as grumpydoc alluded to). If caught early - studies have shown that simply doing this will usually resolve the infection - though in practice we usually put people on oral Bactrim as well. It's only in severe cases or in those allergic to sulfa drugs that IV vancomycin is used for MRSA skin infections.Yes - MRSA can cause pneumonia, sepsis and other more serious systemic infections but that is much less common and usually only occurs in those with comprimised immune systems or whose skin infection has been ignored and allowed to progress without treatment for quite a while.As far as antibiotic resistance in general - yes it's the use of antibiotics on livestock in factory farming that is the biggest culprit.Yes doctors have played a role but with greater awareness of the problem this has been less of an issue.Patients continue to make the problem worse as others have said - both by sometimes demanding antibiotics for viral infections and by not taking antibiotics as prescribed.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 07:48:21 pm
content: Quote from: mtdoc on February 08, 2014, 07:38:34 pmThat's one of the reasons I stopped eating meat 25 years ago! but seriously in the last 14 years of employment I've been off sick probably a week; does that mean i'm unbreakable? :-)

author: Towger
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 07:49:04 pm
content: Take care of your self Vincent. A friend of mine from work died from MRSA. He got it in his lungs during what started as a 'simple hospital checkup'. He was the sort of person who never missed a days work in 40 years, put it slowly took its toll on his health.He went through all the antibiotics, drips monitored in intensive care etc. One session cost Eur 20k for a course, I would hate to see the costs in the states...

author: grumpydoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 08:17:19 pm
content: QuoteNecrotising fascitis is pretty rare, in fact hen's teeth rare and usually the result of infection with several bacterial species, not just S Aureus.QuoteYes, severe sepsis (withanyorganism) can lead to liver and kidney failure. S aureus meningitis would, indeed, be very nasty but it's not a common causative bacteria for meningitis.QuoteWhat an odd way of administering Vancomycin. 500mg 6 hourly or 1g 12hourly as a 60 minute infusion is usual (actually I've never seen the 6 hourly schedule used in the UK) and I'm pretty certain that it's the same in the 'States

author: kg4arn
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 08:22:13 pm
content: Quote from: grumpydoc on February 08, 2014, 08:17:19 pmIt is the same here in the USA

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 09:42:15 pm
content: Looks like we have compulsory screening at our childrens hospital, but only for patients who will stay for >72 hours.http://www.chw.edu.au/about/policies/pdf/2008-8118.pdf>5 days at regular hospitals it seems:http://www0.health.nsw.gov.au/policies/pd/2007/pdf/PD2007_084.pdf

author: G7PSK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 10:22:07 pm
content: Quote from: Dataforensics on February 08, 2014, 07:35:13 pmJust wondering how long these tests take, last two times I had planned operations, one in June 2012 and the other 4 months ago, I did not notice any tests.Just undressed and straight into surgery, although they may have done it while I was under anesthetic.TonyI had an operation to remove my right kidney due to cancer in 2009. I had an MRSA test it was done 2 weeks before I went in for the operation. According to the sheets I was given at the time if I tested positive I would have to shower 2 time a day for 7 days with hibiscrub and stuff my nose with an ointment and change into either new clothes or ones that had been boil washed, along with bed cloths that had the same treatment then I would have to be retested and whether I then tested clear or not I would have to be in an isolation ward after the op. Luckily I tested negative the first time around.

author: wilheldp
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2014, 11:54:53 pm
content: Quote from: smashedProton on February 08, 2014, 05:38:37 pm#1: I don't have children, so not an issue.#2: I was spanked regularly when I was a kid. I was never once beaten or abused. I can't remember a single time where the spanking was worse than the worry about getting spanked. You don't have to beat the shit out of a kid to discipline them, but if they find out that their actions have no consequences, then there is not way to discipline them.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2014, 01:38:04 am
content: Quote from: smashedProton on February 08, 2014, 05:38:37 pmDon't be so politically correct. Sometimes kids just need a wack on their ass when they are out of control. It's a myth to think you can actually reason with a 4 to 10 year old. That just turns into blackmailing them with candy and you losing any respect they have for you. Kids are continuously testing their parents in a search for boundaries. Give 'm a wack when they overstep their boundaries excessively. You will help them become a better person.About MRSA: I'm wondering how you could get such an infection from scraping a shower door. When I have an infection on the outside of my body I use a mild soda solution (slightly soapy feeling) to bath in (not caustic soda!). Works like magic. Many years ago my wife had a very bad infection with high fever for which antibiotics didn't help. Bathing the infected body part in soda for 20 minutes three times a day got rid of her infection in 4 days. The fever got lower after one day of 'soda treatment'. I always have soda at hand just in case.

author: babysitter
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2014, 08:47:41 am
content: Ah, Sepsis (also quite a killer but often not taken noctice by outsiders because caused by something bad already which is considered the reason) and children wacking (regional and religious different views on it), topics for different threadsAlso - does someone have really electronics-nerdish approaches on diseases and disease management ? Burning out wounds with soldering irons, thermal imager instead of standard thermometer for fever, selfmade medical devices ?

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2014, 10:40:39 am
content: I'm glad you're better now free electron.Quote from: babysitter on February 09, 2014, 08:47:41 amYes, I used a soldering iron to remove a wart which wasn't responding to the standard salicylic acid preparation I got from the pharmacy. It hurt like hell but the wart fell off after a few days and didn't come back.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2014, 11:50:16 am
content: Quote from: babysitter on February 09, 2014, 08:47:41 amTwo years ago I build a device to measure/monitor wounds for a customer. Does that count?

author: cimmo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2014, 01:00:28 pm
content: Does cutting off a skin tag on one's face with a pair of wire cutters count?Not a mark to be seen now!

author: steve30
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2014, 01:08:59 pm
content: Quote from: Dataforensics on February 08, 2014, 07:35:13 pmI had a surgery in 2012 (septoplasty) and they did the tests a couple of weeks earlier. They never did tell me whether I had any nasties or not, but I assume they would have postponed it if I had. The test was done by a swab up my nose, and one down my private area. They gave me some anti bacterial soap to use for a week or so before the surgery.

author: steve30
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2014, 01:12:07 pm
content: Quote from: cimmo on February 09, 2014, 01:00:28 pmI often use side cutters to cut/pull bits of skin and hair etc. I also used to use pliers to remove big blobs of sticky mucus from my throat. Much more comfortable than leaving it there.

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2014, 01:44:34 pm
content: Quote from: G7PSK on February 08, 2014, 10:22:07 pmHibiscrub is that chlorexidine (i may be spelling it wrong) they gave me a bottle of it as well to shower with. That nose ointment is bacitracin. I got that as well.

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2014, 01:52:56 pm
content: Quote from: nctnico on February 09, 2014, 01:38:04 amThis was in a gym. I go swimming every morning trying to lose the 'spare tire'. This is one of these. 24 hour places. The shower area is perpetually wet and warm. An ideal breeding ground for this stuff.I war reachin i to the shower stall taking my glasses while the door closed. The handle bumped at that spot. These are stupied l shaped pieces of metal with reasonably sharp corners.This happend in the morning. In the evening that spot was warm and slightly swollen. It had a red area of about an inch around it. By the next morning the red area was the size of my hand.One of the doctors (this is a hospital i went to) had had a mrsa i fection on her leg and had 'experimented' since she had to clean out her wound. That 50/50 mixture of peroxide and betadyne stings like hell. Same when they shove the packing material in.So she flushed the wound first with xylocaine. Take a syringe, fill with xylocaine, pop the needle off and simply drip that in. It numbs it enough that you dont feel the sting.They cant inject be ause that would mean they poke another hole in the skin which could possibly become another point of infection.For 9 days stuff kept coming out of that wound. Then it finally stopped. They had to squeeze it to make sure no pockets remained.

author: Dataforensics
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 09, 2014, 02:30:21 pm
content: Quote from: steve30 on February 09, 2014, 01:08:59 pmGuess I was not tested on either visit then, some hospitals must be avoiding the requirements.Tony

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2014, 02:45:00 pm
content: Quote from: free_electron on February 09, 2014, 01:52:56 pmAnother reason to skip the gym and just work out at home.An idea for an open hardware project is a high powered UV flashlight for disinfecting high risk areas. One that nicely doubles as an EPROM eraser for those still using them.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2014, 02:53:12 pm
content: @free_electron: I hope you informed the swimming pool! They should take more care about cleaning the place!Once in a while I visit a poultry slaughterhouse. When the work day is over they clean the entire factory with high pressure water & desinfectant. Everything gets hosed down so only IP69 rated equipment lasts for a while. They should do something similar in the shower area of the pool you are visiting. Changing rooms of swimming pools are an excellent place to catch an infection (toe nail infections are infamous)

author: steve30
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2014, 06:13:29 pm
content: Quote from: Dataforensics on February 09, 2014, 02:30:21 pmI don't think its standard practise across the country. I think some hospitals will differ based on how big a problem they have, or something along those lines.

author: Fsck
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2014, 06:26:23 pm
content: an addition to the antibiotic problem is the use of weak antibiotic and antimicrobials in soaps, now surfaces and coatings..makes stuff resistant to the "weak" anti(biotics/microbials) we(the doctors) normally use, which aren't too dangerous to humans and forcing them use stronger and stronger drugs.

author: c4757p
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2014, 06:49:04 pm
content: Quote from: Fsck on February 09, 2014, 06:26:23 pmButgerms! Eew! I could catch HIV and cancer from my keyboard if someone sneezes on it!

author: manticore00
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2014, 08:13:42 pm
content: Quote from: Hero999 on February 09, 2014, 07:17:45 pmBest of luck to you Hero999. I've got an appointment with a psychiatrist this coming week to discuss exactly the same thing.

author: mcinque
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 09, 2014, 09:29:30 pm
content: I wish the best luck to all those here or not, who are sick or suffer of any kind of disease.

author: G7PSK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2014, 10:06:47 pm
content: Ahh! bacitracin, in the mid 70's I had a small haulage company up until 1980 when I went back into engineering, One contract I had was to transport Zinc bacitracin, by the ton, it came in 25 Kg paper sacks on pallets 1 ton per pallet, it was such a fine powder that it would leak out where the tops of the bags were stitched. I would take it from a company called Trowe nutrition which later became part of BP to pig farms around the country, very often I would have to handball the load off at the delivery destination by the time I had shifted 3 or 4 tons of the stuff I would be yellow from head to foot, and presumably bug free.

author: hamster_nz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2014, 10:07:15 pm
content: Best of luck... hope you get back to 100% quickly.I've got an (unopened) course of anti-bs I received for a nail-bed infection I got on a finger after gardening.The standard course of action is toa) keep the skin soft with soaks every three hoursb) let it drain - if it doesn't drain naturally then it sometimes needs assistance. I assisted it with a my nice sharp SMD tweezers (see it is Electronics related!).In the end no antibs were needed. The doctor freely admitted that the script was a "cover his arse manouver" on his part. If he have said 'treat it properly and 95% of the time it will resolve itself' and it didn't then he wouldn't have a lot of expaining to do, so he gave me a script just in case.However, you might also want to take comfort in that having a fever every now and then isn't a bad thing. I have been reading in The New Secientist and other magazines that it has been shown that such events can have an effect against the development of cancer - it seems to hit the 'turbo' button on the immune system.

author: GeoffS
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 10, 2014, 12:07:31 am
content: Some off topic posts (not about antibiotics) have been removed.

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 10, 2014, 05:23:34 am
content: The FDA isn't helping despite the very clear dangers.http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/01/28/3212621/fda-allowed-high-risk-antibiotics/

author: cybermaus
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 10, 2014, 07:11:26 am
content: Quote from: G7PSK on February 09, 2014, 10:06:47 pmAnd see here a probably much bigger cause to the problem.Yes, we need to finish our treatments. Yes, we should not over-medicate ourselves. Yes hospitals should have proper procedures.But one wonders if it helps if the stuff is a standard food additive for the meat industry, regardless whether any cattle is ill, just to make sure they will not become so and thus bit into profit. Despite all the worry in recent years about resistance, feeding antibiotic to cattle is still normal practice.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 10, 2014, 01:19:26 pm
content: IMHO a lot of these 'problems' are also caused by the large amount of people living close together. A decease can spread easely and virusses & bacteria have a lot of testing ground to get stronger against immune systems. It is an ongoing race.

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 10, 2014, 02:45:15 pm
content: Quote from: cybermaus on February 10, 2014, 07:11:26 amBoycott factory farming and raise awareness. It's easier than you think.

author: scientist
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 10, 2014, 05:51:26 pm
content: In the end, McDonalds will always be millions of times more influential than you, and the change the meat industry feels from you will be hardly a 0.001% loss in profits. They couldn't care less.Also, GeoffS, if those posts were here why were they removed? Why not just construct a viable argument for why they shouldn't be here, instead of deleting them outright? Seems pretty childish to me.

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 10, 2014, 10:22:41 pm
content: Quote from: scientist on February 10, 2014, 05:51:26 pmIt definitely reduces your exposure to antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Also, it's not just one person doing it and buying organic supports some of the competition.In the same way, whether or not you needlessly leave your car idling when parked has next to no effect on global energy use and oil company profits. Does that make it right to just leave your car idling in the parking lot?

author: CaptnYellowShirt
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2014, 05:50:34 am
content: Quote from: scientist on February 10, 2014, 05:51:26 pmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi

author: cybermaus
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 10, 2014, 06:22:32 am
content: An old thread, I know, but I feel I had to add this link for completeness:http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/opinion/sunday/the-fat-drug.html

author: scientist
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 19, 2014, 11:54:06 pm
content: Fascinating article.

author: SL4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 20, 2014, 01:25:38 am
content: Darned, good for nothing antibiotics.Oh yeah, that's what we're trying to avoid.

author: ecat
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 20, 2014, 10:30:03 am
content: Glad you made it through FE.Our first level of protection from bacterial infection is not our skin, it is the secretions and fauna than covers our skin. This environment is the product of millions of years of evolution, it is not well understood yet our society promotes the regular and often obsessive purging of this first protective layer.Another obsession is the use of antibacterial cleaning products promoted through fear mongering marketing with scant regard for the large scale risks and reality of creating breading grounds for resistant bacterial strains.A third issue comes to mind. It was once common practice to use copper for doorknobs, door push plates, tap fittings, containers and even some work surfaces - much of this has been replaced by stainless steel, aluminium, plastics and chrome plate. Why should this matter?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimicrobial_properties_of_copper. Had the shower door handle and possibly other fittings in FE's gym been made from copper there is a strong probability that the infecting bacteria would already have been dead.

author: Dr. Frank
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 20, 2014, 01:13:29 pm
content: Antibiotics have another big disadvantage, that they flood the whole body, instead of affecting only the intended location, and they destroy any bacteria - also "good" ones. So you feel completely dizzy, those 7-10 days of usage.A very effective anti-bacterial substance is the so calledAustraliantea tree oil (so that fits in here).http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_tree_oilIt's been used by Australian soldiers in WWII, but was forgotten after invention of antibiotics.Once in a while I use that stuffin situ, when I have small, skin-deep inflammations, for example at the elbows, rubbing on the worst bacteria source, the office desktop.It's very effective, and the side effects are probably much less severe, than antibiotics.It may destroy MRSA also, see Wiki.I don't know precisely, but the Aborigines originally discovered and used that substance.So it must be good!Frank

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 21, 2014, 09:18:44 am
content: I have a bottle or two around. It is pretty good, and does treat wounds well. Also very good at dissolving plastic. I used it in a solution with other ingredients as a fish wound treatment, it worked quite well.