caught staph infection from paintball??

[desslock]

got a question for any p-ballers out there with a medical degree job etc...

Ok so like 3 weeks ago I was playing at the local indoor field, a buddy was trying to teach me superman slides ( I suck at them btw) anywho whilst slidding my left pant leg kinda came up a little and I caught the carpet with the the top of my foot, right above the ankle. Rugburn about the size and length of a cig filter. No biggie keep playing, couple hours later get home take a shower, pour like 4 capfulls of hydrogen prioxide on the rugburn, stings like hell. If its bubbling its working right? Eat dinner goto my fiance's mom's house blah blah blah. Wake up next morning my ankle is red and puffy I look like the guy from Misery. Nice big yellow thick scab. After a week of prioxide treatments.. scab becomes more yellow and thicker?!?! FOOT and ANKLE are now swollen. Go to ER. Dr tells me its a staph infection gives me some pills and cream sends me on my way. 2 weeks later its almost healed and the yellow scab fell off...now there is a new red scab waiting yeah!!!! Anyway I can tell you that the field I go to never ever (except on tournement days) cleans the field. My quess..old paint, not decomposing is laying around and rots. Rotten paint + open wound = nasty scab and scar. Has anybody had anything remotely the same happen to them?

[Echo419]

That ruined my breakfast. I know nothing about this matter, but I wouldnt think that for the .5 seconds your leg was in open contact with the carpet or w/e that you could of recieved all of that? Im thinking your pants?

[desslock]

sorry about your breakfast.....I wash my pants and jersey every time after I play.

[tropical_fishy]

This is gonna sound weird, lol... but I've had my experiences with staph, I caught it from camp bathrooms last summer.

You could, very possibly, have staph living ON your skin all the time. It's only harmful when it gets into wounds and the like... You also carry staph in your nose. Yeah, in your nose. So there's a distinct possibility you gave yourself staph.


You could have picked up this staph ANYWHERE. When you were showering, you could have washed it into your scrape. So it's possible that it came from the field, but I really doubt it.

Just be glad it isn't the antibiotic resistant form of staph. They stuck me in quarantine for that, hah.

[Hamster Huey]

Staph isn't really something you catch from somewhere, it's more like something that you always have on your body. Staph, strep, and a whole host of bugs live on your skin pretty much all the time. Bathing won't get rid of them completely, although using antibacterial soap helps a bit more than regular soap. Usually these bacteria are no problem because your skin acts as a barrier to infection. But when you get a cut, scrape, or some sort of break in your skin, those bacteria have a chance to get in. When you hear of people getting infected cuts, the culprit is usually staph and/or strep. Luckily, most of the time cuts don't get infected. This is your immune system at work. But you can help your immune system by washing wounds out thoroughly and applying antibiotic ointment.

And incidentally, when peroxide bubbles it doesn't necessarily mean that it's working. It just means that the peroxide is in contact with blood. Blood contains enzymes that speed up the normally slow breakdown of hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen. That oxygen is the bubbles you see. Having too much blood in contact with your peroxide will actually inactivate the peroxide too fast, meaning it won't be able to kill bacteria as well.

[tropical_fishy]

Don't use antibacterial soap, it makes those bugs resistant.

And as I said before, antibiotic-resistant bugs=bad.

[Hamster Huey]

Antibacterial soap is entirely different from antibiotics .

Antibiotics are drugs like penicillin, erythromycin, and cephalexin that you can take by mouth or IV to combat bacterial infections. They target specific parts/processes in bacteria that let them hurt bacteria specifically without hurting you (much). They are a precise, surgical strike against bacteria. Antibiotic-resistant bugs are real and a huge problem. This is one of the reasons why you shouldn't take antibiotics indiscriminately; let your doctor decide.

The antibacterial soaps hospitals use contain stuff like chlorhexidine or iodine, which are chemicals designed to indiscriminately nuke bacteria on the skin. They affect bacteria in several ways and as such are much much much less likely to garner resistance. Another important distinction is that these are (usually) not things that you want inside your body. Bleach is a superb antibacterial agent, but you wouldn't want it going into your veins.

Commercially available soaps labeled as "antibacterial" may be more hit-or-miss in terms of their efficacy, but if you have a dirty cut or wound that you want to clean out in your sink, I don't think there's any doc out there who would fault you for using antibacterial soap.

[MicroMiniMe]

Yeah, you got the infection through the rugburn. Either ground in as the rugburn happened, or something coming into contact with the damaged area immediately afterwords. Just dirty sweat from your own body, or some sweaty dirty bunker you rubbed against or touched and then transferred to your damaged skin when checking it out. Give you credit though, you did actually think of using the hydrogen peroxide.
Sounds like you got it bad either way. There is a fair amount of semi and highly resistant Staphlococcus out there these days, not just hospitals anymore.

[SpecialBlend2786]

Antibacterial soap is entirely different from antibiotics .

Antibiotics are drugs like penicillin, erythromycin, and cephalexin that you can take by mouth or IV to combat bacterial infections. They target specific parts/processes in bacteria that let them hurt bacteria specifically without hurting you (much). They are a precise, surgical strike against bacteria. Antibiotic-resistant bugs are real and a huge problem. This is one of the reasons why you shouldn't take antibiotics indiscriminately; let your doctor decide.

The antibacterial soaps hospitals use contain stuff like chlorhexidine or iodine, which are chemicals designed to indiscriminately nuke bacteria on the skin. They affect bacteria in several ways and as such are much much much less likely to garner resistance. Another important distinction is that these are (usually) not things that you want inside your body. Bleach is a superb antibacterial agent, but you wouldn't want it going into your veins.

Commercially available soaps labeled as "antibacterial" may be more hit-or-miss in terms of their efficacy, but if you have a dirty cut or wound that you want to clean out in your sink, I don't think there's any doc out there who would fault you for using antibacterial soap.

antibiotics always put me in bed for days. i get so sick from them.

[MicroMiniMe]

antibiotics always put me in bed for days. i get so sick from them.

Even worse for the womenfolk usually. Doesn't play nice with the 'plumbing' and the yeast are unaffected and go wild for a few days.

[desslock]

lots of good info here, my scab is like 98% healed... thanks for the info. But I found out yesterday that a teammate has a nice infection, much like mine, and he plays at the same field. I know that at all times germs&bacteria are present on our bodies. But I like to think that I am a clean person and I dont usally come into contact with a lot of "infectious" substances, I work in a bank office in a cubicle, but I find it odd another person got the same heebie jeebies. I would like to know more about what happens to old paint fill/shells as the paint breaks down and decomposes. I still think the problem is the paint doesnt "rot" into the earth or get washed away by rain like an outdoor field. How often should an indoor field clean its carpet, and how? I know you can use leaf blowers to move out old broken and unbroken shells but how do indoor field owners clean the old slimy paint from the carperts? I always wondered why peroxide bubbled and know I know.

[tropical_fishy]

Antibacterial soap is entirely different from antibiotics .

Antibiotics are drugs like penicillin, erythromycin, and cephalexin that you can take by mouth or IV to combat bacterial infections. They target specific parts/processes in bacteria that let them hurt bacteria specifically without hurting you (much). They are a precise, surgical strike against bacteria. Antibiotic-resistant bugs are real and a huge problem. This is one of the reasons why you shouldn't take antibiotics indiscriminately; let your doctor decide.

The antibacterial soaps hospitals use contain stuff like chlorhexidine or iodine, which are chemicals designed to indiscriminately nuke bacteria on the skin. They affect bacteria in several ways and as such are much much much less likely to garner resistance. Another important distinction is that these are (usually) not things that you want inside your body. Bleach is a superb antibacterial agent, but you wouldn't want it going into your veins.

Commercially available soaps labeled as "antibacterial" may be more hit-or-miss in terms of their efficacy, but if you have a dirty cut or wound that you want to clean out in your sink, I don't think there's any doc out there who would fault you for using antibacterial soap.

Antibacterial=BAD when you don't need it.

Consumers use these products because they have been marketed as an effective and necessary way to lower the risk of infection. However, many scientists fear that the widespread use could lead to a strain of resistant bacteria, or "superbugs," and cause the ingredients to lose effectiveness for the times when they really are needed.