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Am I a hand washer freak

sawyerloggingon

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My wife says I'm freaking out on hand washing because I use those wipe things after going into any public place and touching door knobs etc. Ten years ago or so I got this weird infection on a small cut on my finger and overnight my whole finger was swollen and black and hurt like Hell and they had to give me some special antibiotic to get rid of it so now I sterilize my hands after touching things in public places, seems prudent to me. Who's right, me or my stupid wife?
 
I wash my hand before I eat, handle food, or go to a public restroom for certain. I try to touch as little as possible--push the door open with the elbow, use a stall so I can use my foot to flush, use a paper towel to open the door to get out.
 
Fisher said:
I wash my hand before I eat, handle food, or go to a public restroom for certain. I try to touch as little as possible--push the door open with the elbow, use a stall so I can use my foot to flush, use a paper towel to open the door to get out.
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Dude your as weird as I am! :lol:
 
sawyerloggingon said:
Dude your as weird as I am! :lol:
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Well, almost as weird :fart2

There as some nasty nasty people in my town so I hedge my bets plus I have learned I do not get nearly as sick as often since I started that and when I do I don't get nearly as bad off.
 
If you do much of anything that can cause small cuts on your hands you're a fool not to wash regularly.
 
Fisher said:
I wash my hand before I eat, handle food, or go to a public restroom for certain. I try to touch as little as possible--push the door open with the elbow, use a stall so I can use my foot to flush, use a paper towel to open the door to get out.
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Imo, that's just good sense. :lol:

I am not a germophobe, and most likely have higher resistance than most people, because I've spent a lifetime in an occupation which exposes me to all kinds of organisms. That being said, MRSA is a reality in the community, and some people are just downright nasty, so in public bathrooms, I'm extra cautious. At home, I'm not at all.
 

Your stupid wife.
 
For the most part, I subscribe to the George Carlin theory of germs: bring it on. I ain't dying of a cold if I'm elderly. I want to die of something real, not from having coddled my immune system to death.

Apart from handling food and using the bathroom, I am pretty lax about germs. I also avoid antibacterials most of the time. Using it too much can impair your immune system.

Seems to have paid off. I'm rarely sick. Despite circulatory problems in my fingers due to injury, my body is very good at fighting off infection from wounds even on my hands -- even from the dirty, dirty mouth of a cat (she nipped me while I was trying to put a pill in her, poor old girl).
 

You're not wrong for washing your hands and using the "wipe things". There are some truly nasty bugs around now that have evolved (yes, evolved!) resistance to antibiotics. They kill people all the time.

For calling your wife "stupid", however, you're dead wrong. If I were you, I'd hope she never reads this thread. You're likely to go back to that doghouse or camp trailer, or wherever she sends you when you do something to tick her off.
 
You're supposed to wash your hands frequently. But, I only wash my hands when they are dirty or after going to the bathroom.

I never had a hand infection though.
 
I don't blame you. I wash my hands often but I'm not a germophobe. I try to avoid public bathrooms when at all possible, but I sanitize like a mo fo when I finish. I use my elbow to press the dryer button and use a paper towel to open the door handle, because do you know how many people use the bathroom and don't wash their hands? They walk right out of the stall and right over to the door, and open it up. The germs move from their hand to the handle to your hand.

No, you aren't crazy. I even keep a bottle of Bath and Body Works hand sanitizer permanently attached to my purse.
 

if you are, then we both are. i'm a microbiologist, so that's part of the reason.

at my previous job, we all had a laugh about me being a germophobic microbiologist. however, working with bugs in the lab doesn't bother me much. we have PPE and a biosafety hood. i'm more afraid of a sneezing child behind me in line at the store.
 
Well, new information says that there is such a thing as being TOO clean. You need exposure to dirt and germs in order to build an immunity to them, just like with vaccinations. However, they are saying now that children get sick more often because of their anal-retentive parents who have to sterilize everything that their baby comes into contact with, so there is no immunity being built up. Just one of the suspected reasons why so many people suffer from allergies nowadays.

Those hand sanitizers are not good either. Plain soap and water should do the trick. We are not supposed to be sterile after all.

Are We Too Clean? Letting Kids Get Dirty and Germy
 
I always believed that those chemicals used to sanitize hands were actually worse for you than the few microbes we may come in contact with after opening a door or handling some inanimate object.
 

when I was working myself through college..I got a cleaning job at the local pub...one of my duties was to renew the soaps in the loo's..

In the ladies..I had to renew every day..but in the men's..(sorry guy's)..I used to have to change the soap because it had dried out due to lack of use..

And don't get me started on bar snacks....

About 70% of bar snacks contain fecal matter....from dirty hands..
 
 
sawyerloggingon said:
All in all I feel vindicated here and I win, my wife loses. (Despite what Maggie said that was obviously just a women sticking together post).
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If we were that susceptible to germs on our bodies, we'd never have survived. Unless one has a compromised immune system, our bodies are perfectly capable of fighting off and destroying most germs. If that wasn't the case, parents would croak when their kids turned three.

If one has a cut on their hand, then it's important to keep it clean, as you've opened the door, so to speak, for bacteria to enter and cause infection.

How many people do you know who've had to have limbs amputated due to infection? Go on antibiotics for no reason other than a cut on their hands? We are not fragile little creatures. Our bodies are powerhouses ready to defend against all comers....'ceptin' a few.

I just love the sanitizer cloths they have at most supermarkets now. As if we are going to catch some awful disease from touching shopping cart handles. Because, you know, before they had those, we were catching deadly diseases by the score. Why, they were droppin' in the parking lots.

Tell your lovely wifey to buy stock in Procter & Gamble. And if you ever call her "my idiot wife" again, I'll fly through your computer screen and GIVE you something to wash your hands about!!!!
 
You should watch this video...

 

What you are forgetting is there are new and improved bacterias out there now. The thing I had could have killed me if it had got into my blood and into organs, so said the doc. I will admit though that my wife was the one that demanded I go to the ER, I was going to wait and see if it got worse or better so she likely saved my life. As for your idle threat, LMAO!
 
Don't most people who get those new and improved multiple drug resistant bugs catch them in hospitals?
 
Dittohead not! said:
Don't most people who get those new and improved multiple drug resistant bugs catch them in hospitals?
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I had to fill out a questioner as to everywhere I was for the past 7 days. I came to the conclusion I got it digging through the cheap CD pile at Wal Mart which I DON"T do any more! It was just a little nothing paper cut. Went to bed one night it was a little red, the next morning my entire finger was black and swollen. Scary stuff.Now I'm a hand sanitizer.
 

So, they can be pretty much anywhere that people have been. That is pretty scary, no doubt. Ever read Robin Cook, the doctor turned novelist? He describes some very frightening scenarios about the race between our ability to develop new antibiotics and the bugs' ability to evolve resistance to them. Seems that the bugs are winning.

Now, when there is a strain of resistant bacteria that develop an immunity to hand sanitizers, then what?
 

Antibiotics is what led to our huge population growth and I honestly believe at some point some new bug that no antibiotic can touch will decimate humanity and the thing I got may be a precursor to this. What they gave me was some antibiotic of last resort, when that stops working....
 
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