Use gloves!
 

Being an old dog mechanic, I have always resisted using gloves while working. My reasons: I couldn’t “feel” and I could find any that fit correctly ( 3XL glove size…not easy to find!). Nearly two weeks ago I developed pain in my right middle finger; nothing new, I’ve had moderate arthritis in my hands for years. This pain was different; it was in the joint accompanied by swelling. This started on Wednesday two weeks ago. By Friday my finger was double its normal size, so off to immediate care I go. The diagnosis: cellulitis. A prescription of Keflex and off I go, except my finger was getting worse, not better. By Sunday, I couldn’t sleep due to the pain, so off to immediate care I go again. The APNP on duty x-rayed my finger to make sure there were no foreign bodies in my finger, examines the finger and tells me he needs to take a culture sample because he’s certain I have pickup MRSA. He lanced the finger ( which actually felt good because of the swelling) with a little puss but a copious amount of blood comes flying out of the finger. He gives me a shot of Bactim, a sulfa based antibiotic that kills MRSA, a bit of hydrocodone for the pain and orders to see my PCP soon( I had an appointment for the following day). My PCP looked at my finger on Monday. His diagnosis: MRSA. He told me to finish my prescription of bactim; he also set up an appointment with a ortho to examine my finger for joint damage for May 20. At this point, my finger is pretty much back to normal; it still swollen at the tip and the skin looks scalded from the edema, but I have no pain and can use the finger. The lesson I learned? WEAR GLOVES! I found a brand of exam gloves that comes in 2XL ( a bit snug but loosen up enough for me to wear), so gloves WILL be the order of the day in garage. According to my PCP, had I waited a day or two later to go to immediate care the probability is I would have lost that finger due to necrosis.

So -

What precipitated all this? Had you been in the garage a couple days before the flare up? Anything significant happen while you were in the garage? Was there a foreign body in your finger? How do you get MRSA from a garage environment (rather than a hospital where there is an infected person)?

Thanks,

K

Yep. Gloves are mandatory for me now. When I was younger I never used gloves. Nobody did really. Now whenever I'm doing yard work or mechanical work I always wear gloves. I'm not as tough as I used to be.

MRSA is no joke! Gloves are a good idea where feasible.

X2. I'm not a tough guy anymore.

Keith, that is what’s crazy; nothing I had been doing would have had contact with MRSA contaminated surfaces. I know mice can carry MRSA; I fight mice in the garage constantly. This is the ONLY thing I can think of that COULD have had MRSA involved.

Went through this with my 75 year old father almost 2 months ago. Had a minor cut on this thumb from doing yard work. Swells up a few days later and goes to the doctor. They write it off as nothing and give him some antibiotics. Antibiotics do nothing and his thumb swells up like a balloon. I threw him in the car and off to the emergency. They cut out a bunch nasty junk and sew him back up. I threw away all of his gloves that were filled with holes and told him to wear new ones at all times.

Damn Vietnam veterans think they're still 20 and invisible to everything....

Thanks for posting. Maybe helpful information to someone one day. A friend of mine picked his hand with a thumb tack and dam near lost his hand by the time doctors realized what was going on. Same thing, MRSA.

HurryinHoosier,
I have been wondering a bunch as to who is wearing gloves these days? As a gearhead when I sold my business 15 years ago I went to work with my brothers. My brothers business is PPE for the fire industry, ,Fire, Rescue, extrication and disaster. On day one of the new job he asked me to design a glove for me, for extrication. Using and trying everything from Mechanics wear, Ringer, Craftsman and everything in between I made my own, and call them BOSS. (Best Offensive Safety Solution) They are mostly rubberized kevlar cut resistant with Litex, that is heat resistant on the palm inner fingers to 700 degrees. They are lite weight and work well, you can remove a hot spark plug with no problem. or work a chain saw or anything else. With that said, I'll get yo a pair in 3 XL N/C, just email me , see below or PM (don't go on everyday) your address, and stay safe.
[email protected]

Believe it or not most people have MRSA on their skin I think it is 1 out or 3. Most of the time it is harmless other times all it take is a cut or scrape in your skin. I wear gloves all the time when working outside mainly because I am a slight germaphobe. If I get any cut or scrap I dump 91% alcohol on it, feel the burn:jumping:. If you had surgery and infected popped up there is a higher chance it will happen again for the next surgery.
Another thing to get checked with swollen digits hand or feet is gout

From Mayo Clinic:
"Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection is caused by a type of staph bacteria that's become resistant to many of the antibiotics used to treat ordinary staph infections."
I didn't know so I looked it up. Sounds nasty!

I've got more kinds of gloves than I have fingers.
Gloves for everything , and I'm not a germaphobe by any stretch.

The blue nitrile are best fitting for delicate dirty stuff , but pretty much one and done.
The clear vinyl can be taken off and used again repeatedly , like mixing paint or stuff where you want them off a while and on a while.

Learned and saw others in paint & body business who didn't wear gloves while cleaning their guns or mixing spreading bondo. Awful looking permanently stained.
And "washed" their hands in lacquer thinner afterwards.
In the winter their knuckle bends would dry-cack and bleed.
Then washing their hands in thinner was like sticking them in a fire with the dry-cracks.
" I CANT WEAR GLOVES and do anything with my hands "

Barage of gloves for all other mechanical and outdoor tasks.
I wear Large.
3XL is probably way more challenging.

Wishes for a full recovery to you.

I never worn gloves for anything mechanical, home building work or dirt work. Until recently...

A friend of mine helped my doing some heavy lifting at my shop recently and he bought for everyone, those cheap lime green cotton gloves with the thick rubber dipped palm and fingers.

He really insisted for me to wear em , since he was nice enough to come help me and spend his money to buy them gloves for everyone, I just shut up and wore em.

Well , those definitely made the job easier on my little callous hands lol and now I use em from time to time, but just when no one is watching ...lol.

That said what stresses me a little more is the permeability of our skin to petroleum and other chemical products. As I get old and more friends get cancer around me, I try to not push my luck.

I dont siphon gas with my mouth anymore, I even look away when i get gasoline drafts while pumping my gas at the station. No more washing parts in gasoline without wearing gloves either.

It just reminds me of the "good" ole days of DDT when everyone sprayed that **** in the neighborhood , while kids played outside the house... lets not even talk about leaded gasoline...

I guess we learn something new everyday.

Peter

Wow! My father when we were working together would say ,'toughen up'. Last week I had a swollen finger right above the nail. Red tender pcp gave me a antibiotic seemed to work. I have a part time job at a machine shop buffing inconel parts for nuclear reactors. What gloves should I buy? I'm mowing grass with CC tractor. Shoveling stone and dirt at home. Going to pour large concrete slab. Gloves ? I'm 75-76

Definitely non-permeable gloves. Many people don't realize that you can get severe chemical burns from wet concrete. Some people can do concrete work their whole lives without it happening to them but it can affect some with their first contact. I've seen it.

Just remember to NEVER use glove when you are operating a rotating mill, lathe, or drill press!!

Yep learned the hard way when I was 18 on a good.ole Bridgeport mill. The end of my right index finger got chewed off, my foreman almost passed out when I removed the rest of the glove.

The sewn it back on, so I dont scare the ladies with a chopped finger and I could pick my nose again, but it feels like a stranger is doing it since I cant feel anything with that finger....

Peter

It IS! I’m susceptible to staph after having it as a child( how stupid do you have to be to put a geriatric patient with staph filled bedsores into the pediatric ward with a seven year old…me and a 14 year old…my oldest sister; both with open surgical wounds?) I got the worst of the infections; for five years I had to take 3 million units of penicillin a month. If I had an outbreak it was 3 million units of penicillin per WEEK until the outbreak went away. MRSA is far worse than any other form of staph.

I’d wear gloves on a Ford Or Chrysler :D
Did it the mechanic on Wayne’s show get something off a car?

Update: had my appointment with the ortho this morning. My infection was not MRSA as originally diagnosed but septic arthritis instead. That explains why the culture for MRSA came back negative. In many ways septic arthritis is worse than MRSA. It may require weeks of intravenous antibiotics and surgery if the infection returns; additional infection can and does lead to amputation of the affected portion of the digit ( finger). As of this morning, the ortho believes I received treatment early enough to prevent a recurrence of the infection, but as a precaution ( mainly because I’ll be on the Kasilof River in Alaska starting Friday for ten days) he gave me another prescription for Bactum to take if the finger starts to swell or becomes hot. Sounds like I may not be finished with this crap, yet.