Many of us derive great pleasure from our gardens, but we need to guard against infection risks. Mark Blaskovich, Senior Research Officer, The University of Queensland explains why even healthy people should wear gardening gloves - so his message is particularly relevant to us immune compromised folk:
theconversation.com/at-leas...
Neil
Very timely and useful article - I was aware of many of the hazards with gardening and the use of fertilizers but not to the extent listed in the article. I do wear gloves but blackberries and roses manage to scratch me anyway. I keep a bottle of iodine handy - serves two purposes - kills germs in the scratch and keeps my thyroid happy -
Thanks for the entry Neil into a discussion of the fungus among us...
😁
My new best friend is aspergillus fumigatus... my immune sytem tanked recently and number of opportunistic pathogens bit me... the other was C.difficile.💩 It defines SH*T in a whole new light.💡
Aspergillus is a very hard to treat fungal lung infection.. that is found in soil.. so perhaps an N99 certfied mask might offer some protection from spores, when gardening to raking leaves, mower grass...etc
I have been on VFEND...IV antifungals for 30 days and now have oral tablets for 30 days... the side effects are awful!
❗️
Common side effects include vision problems, nausea, abdominal pain, rash, headache, and seeing or hearing things that are not present.[3] Use during pregnancy may result in harm to the baby.[3] It is in the triazole family of medications.[3] It works by affecting the cell membrane or affecting fungal metabolism.[3]
The labels carry several warnings of the risk of injection site reactions, hypersensitivity reactions; kidney, liver, and pancreas damage; trouble with vision; and adverse effects in skin including damage due to phototoxicity, squamous cell skin cancer, and Stevens-Johnson syndrome; in long-term use there is a warning of the risk of bone fluorosis and periostitis.[2][8]
Additionally, very common adverse effects, occurring in more than 10% of people, include peripheral edema, headaches, trouble breathing, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, nausea, rashes, and fever.[8]
Common adverse effects, occurring in between 1 and 10% of people, include sinus infections, low numbers of white and red blood cells (agranulocytosis, pancytopenia, thrombocytopenia, leukopenia, and anemia), low blood sugar, reduced amount of potassium and sodium, depression, hallucinations, anxiety, insomnia, agitation, confusion, convulsions, fainting, tremor, weakness, tingling, sleepiness, dizziness, bleeding retina, irregular heart beats, slow or fast heart beats, low blood pressure, inflamed veins, acute respiratory distress syndrome, pulmonary edema, inflamed lips, swollen face, stomach upset, constipation, gingivitis, jaundice, hair loss, flaky skin, itchiness, red skin, back pain, chest pain, and chills.[8]
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vor...
~chris
Chris,
OMG 😮
That medicine is horrendous. I hope it works and your off it quickly.
I see you’ve been busy. Your absence here was noticeable.
Feel better pal.
Jeff
Sorry to hear about this, Chris!
Are you over the C.diff, or do you have both at once?
=seymour=
Both at once...
The C.diff appears to have ended, but it could go chronic... and reappear at will.
I think I hold the record at my hospital of 20 BMs in 24 hours...
💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩
I'm sure its a record in the semi;;colon world as well...
I will discuss it in a post after I get a bit of distance from the ordeal.
~chris rebuilding my microbiome
I am sorry to hear you have been so ill for the past while and hope you get well from these infections very soon. Do you think that you may be able to take the oral poop pills to treat the C-Diff or is it too early to consider.
Keeping you in healing energy and light,
Sandy Beaches
The FET and pills are used for chronic C.difficile with good success. Acute C.diff requires antibiotics. Vancomycin in my case
?Salvia Hotlips!
Gardening is one of my favourite pass times and when I was first diagnosed I was warned about these issues so I bought some leather gardening gauntlets. I hardly used them and now often only use vinyl which provides little protection which is foolish.
One thing I do have a concern about is going into my greenhouse in the winter where I'm overwintering plants or growing on seedlings for next year. It's undoubtedly full of fungi from the damp/plants and the air doesn't circulate much so I hold my breath before I go in and then dash out again asap!
I wonder if a mask might not be a "should" too?
OOPS, and then I read Sir Chris's reply which gives the details I was wondering about.
Chris, if you haven't been, you should be KNIGHTED. So, I hereby dub you, Sir Chris. We are indebted to your graciousness in sharing your most hard won first-hand knowledge.
May you be well, and soon.
Thank you cllady01
When I decided many years ago to become a patient advocate/pathfinder in CLL, nobody told me that I had to actually EXPERIENCE all these things! 😁
My greatest hope us that others learn from my trials and tribulations, as I learned from many friends who walked the path before me...
~chris, improving
Absolutely, wear garden gloves, yet don't assume the insides are free of bacteria when you slip your hands in. I don't know about you, but dirt always gets into my gloves, and the gloves often get wet from sweat or water. I can only imagine what's growing inside while they sit waiting for their next use.
I keep boxes of surgical gloves in my garage, in my basement, under the kitchen sink, and in the bathroom. In addition to wearing them when cleaning and going through old stuff to toss, I slip on a new pair before donning garden gloves. Sometimes I wear just the latex gloves to clean the filter in my pond pump. I am surprised at how sturdy they are.
Wearing surgical gloves when washing dishes also helps minimize skin cracks on fingertips.
If I'm cleaning out science experiments in the back of the refrig, or any other place that might have mold, I wear a surgical face mask along with the gloves.
Whatever it takes.
CLL? Have a 3rd primary dose at least 8 wks after your 2nd jab
Started Zanabrutinib
Should you avoid caffeine while on Acalabrutinib?
What, who and how much should you tell?
