Immunosuppressed and the beach

[BarbW]

Okay, do you go swimming at the beach? I'm just not sure if this is something you do because the water can be polluted. What do you think?
Thanks,
Barb

[vdub]

I wouldn't let it stop me unless it was obviously polluted at which point I wouldn't swim in it anyway. Note my avatar -- yeah that's me.

I don't think of being immune suppressed anymore. Maybe I should, but it hasn't gotten me into any trouble yet. I fly on airplanes just like anyone else (prefer military airplanes, tho) and don't wear masks or do anything special. But you might be more suppressed than me -- I'm on 8 tabs (20mg) of mtx per week. I guess I do draw the line at going into nursing homes and I don't like touching elevator buttons or the seat rails of chairs in restaurants, but those are things I would think twice about regardless of my drugs.

[Debbie C]

I wouldn't let it stop me either...you can't worry about everything or you'll stop living. I carry a bottle of hand santizer with me if I am out before I eat anything. I've heard one of the dirtest things in the resturant is the menu,so I always use it after I order.

[sbeach78]

I wouldn't let it stop me either...you can't worry about everything or you'll stop living. I carry a bottle of hand santizer with me if I am out before I eat anything. I've heard one of the dirtest things in the resturant is the menu,so I always use it after I order.

I am the same way, hand sanitizer is the key. I just make as little physical contact with others as I can and keep the hand sani close

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2

[vdub]

Very easy to overlook the most obvious items -- I never even considered the menu.

I don't carry hand sanitizer. I used to, but I just have too much junk in my pockets and it had a tendency to dry out my hands, so that meant I was often scrounging around for some hand lotion. So, I just wash my hands a lot (which also dries them out) and try not to touch my eyes or nose. Bottom line, tho, is that its near impossible to avoid germs.

[chris.wg]

I wouldn't let it stop me either. But I work for a major grocery chain as a department head and returned to work almost 2 to 2 and a half months after diagnosis. Dangerous spot for someone in our condition that I know with all the people who come thru but its what I do. I did get a cough shortly after being back and my store manager was in a panic are you ok..... I told him look Im on drugs to suppress the immune system. If you panic every time I cough we are going to have a long couple of years. "most managers are in and out of a store every few years"

[chris.wg]

Sorry that whole rambleing thing I do again. My point was if I am willing to work in that kind of environment I wont let this stop me from enjoying life also.

[Michael Bell]

I work in a college with 750 residential students and 3000ish day students. Scary sometimes and I have picked up a few infections, mostly in the first few months after returning to work. But I made a promise to myself not to let Wegs beat me or change the way I live my life ( apart from the tiredness, pain, aches etc etc). Still it can be daunting in the first few weeks of a new term when students return with a whole batch of new bugs.

Mike.

P.S. I do not like the neurovirus, enough said.

[vdub]

I totally understand the hazards of working at a college. Pre-wegs and pre-retirement, I worked at Washington State University. I'm not sure how many students they have, but I'd guess 10 to 15 thousand grad/undergrad. Whenever they returned from Christmas break, Spring break, or Summer break, they always brought viruses with them. Not only the biological kind but all forms of the electronic kind, too. We had special lines set up to examine every computer coming onto campus. Then, of course, the biological kind where they introduced new viruses from around the world. About the time you get things under control, all the students leave to get more viruses to bring back to school. Never ending cycle.....

[mishb]

I've heard one of the dirtest things in the resturant is the menu.

Thanks Deb, something else for me to think about :crying:

[Alysia]

I love to go to the sea. we have updates on the news if any beach is polluted and then I will not go there.
but as much as I LOVE the sea, I had some problems with it: if there is too much wind or the water are too cold, my joints are screaming :w00t: and few times when the water were too cold, my nose started to bleed :sad: so I didnt try it yet this summer :unsure:

but here is a pic of one the beaches that I like, in the north:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/t1.0-9/71661_1459700770908735_163721002_n.jpg

[LisaT]

I'd be less inclined to go in the water if I had any scratches or wounds not yet healed.

[LisaT]

By the way, I often carry a small purse-pack or car-pack of antibacterial wipes and make my kids wipe their hands clean and do the same myself. These can come in handy for filthy surfaces too. Menus are gross.