Tetanus injections

[AC79xxx]

Is there a doctor (or nurse) in the house??

Over the weekend I managed to spear the thumb muscle on the back of my hand with some thick wire (it wasn't rusty).

Would anyone happen to know if I need a tetanus jab (the last one I had was about 4 years ago) and is there anything I can get to reduce the inflammation of the muscle?

Typing with one hand isn't much fun

[jimothy]

AC79xxx said:

Typing with one hand isn't much fun

Depends on what site you're on!

[Julian64]

Nope, tetanus usually lasts ten years and current think is that if you've had three or more in your life chances are you've aquired lifelong immunity.

Rust got nowt to do with it.

Cold applied to the wound in the first hour or so is probably beneficial, and a good analgesic. Wound cleaning and savlon from the prettiest woman you can find is worth doing.

Worry more about normal bacteria. The tetanus bug is not the only one out there. Swelling, hot, pain get slowly worse over the first 72 hours if infected.

[chim_knee]

Tetanus lasts 10 years IIRC so you should be OK.

To reduce the swelling... hmmm, Ibuprofen should do the trick I think.

HTH,
Phil.

[beanbag]

I managed to chop the end of my finger off with an axe in a gardening accident

I got pumped up with morphine at the hospital and I had three nurses all giving me a tetanus jab. It wasn't until the 3rd nurse came back with a doctor to tell me i'd been slightly over-dosed I knew anything about it!

Does that mean I'm covered for 30 years!?!?!?!

[Fer]

Depends, did you keep it in icecream?

>> Edited by Fer on Monday 9th May 16:00

[beanbag]

beanbag said:

I managed to chop the end of my finger off with an axe in a gardening accident I got pumped up with morphine at the hospital and I had three nurses all giving me a tetanus jab. It wasn't until the 3rd nurse came back with a doctor to tell me i'd been slightly over-dosed I knew anything about it! Does that mean I'm covered for 30 years!?!?!?!

Nah! They sewed it back on.......all good and working again apart from a small lack of feeling at the top of that finger......

As with regards to that article, typical american suing b0ll0x

[AC79xxx]

Cheers guys, lucky I don't need another jab I suppose as needles put the fear of Christ in me.

[Julian64]

Never understood why a woman never has a problem with a small prick but for a man its a really big deal.

[Pigeon]

I went for an anti-tet a while ago after drilling a hole in my finger. What I actually got was a combined tet and diphtheria jab, despite explaining that I've been immunised against diphtheria - which lasts a lifetime - ages ago; apparently the combined jab is "all there is"... What's going on here then?

[medicineman]

Agreed with Julian, watch out for any infection, deep punture wounds are prone to them.