Greetings fellow URGLERs and RGers,
Have you been vaccinated against
Tetanus? I know, I know: You were - as babies and kids, but have you
been vaccinated recently? As in, the last ten years?
I cut my foot yesterday and having forgotten about it, scooted out
into the garden for some digging and mucking; It started to rain and i
continued till i noticed that my foot felt a wee bit sore - Alas! I
wear broken down shoes which leak water and mud. Well, when i examined
it, i found the cut and treated it with anti-septic. I also checked up
on when i had last taken my Tetanus shots. Alack! my license had
un-fortunately expired!
Today morning i woke up with a mildly sore neck from over-sleeping
and sore muscles ( probably from the sudden shock of actually working
*grin* ), however i decided to do the cautious thing and update my
tetanus vaccine. I also googled up on tetanus and though i'd share my
findings:
1. 5 Shots: 3 (as a wee lad)) + 1 + 1 (by 6 yrs)
2.A booster shot every 10 years.
I would also suggest wearing watertight and mud proof shoes, not that
you can't contract tetanus via a nick on your hand..
There is no need to err..panic..if you do expose yourself.. since the
tetanus bacteria has a incubation period of 3 days to 15 weeks (long
after the wound or pain from the wound has passed!), however you must
get the following done:
1. Wash wound in antiseptic.
2. Go to a doc and get a tetanus shot.
3. Get a tetanus immunoglobin injection (which is a anti-dote for the
tetanus toxin. It does not provide immunity in itself). Some ppl may
be allergic to this, so remind the doc about allergic reactions.
4. Wait patiently for a month and see if you survive *grin*.
You can garden in this period, but don't expose your wound to more
bacteria.
Here's a link to motivate lazy bum's:
http://www.abc.net.au/health/minutes...es/s597774.htm
http://www.tetanus.org/
Info links:
http://www.acep.org/webportal/Patien...etanusShot.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetanus
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/tetanus.html
http://www.vaccinehaffkine.com/faqinfo7.htm
http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/articles...ectionId=12476