Creeping Me Out
You all know that Blips joined the YMCA with a family membership. Since Mona is not allowed…..that leaves me as the intended target of the ‘family’ membership. I started going just to support Blips because he was so determined to get fit again. Not wanting to waste my time, I have developed a passion for the designed workouts also. First there was about $200 in workout clothes. You think you can wear just an old t-shirt but…noooooooo, it has to breathe.(quoting Blips here) Then yesterday I caught a blip(pun intended) on the TV about MRSA, the superbug that does not respond to antibiotics.
BUT…here is what is creeping me out. MRSA used to be just in hospitals. It now has moved to schools and locker rooms AND gym equipment. GYM EQUIPMENT, you mean like all the machines people are sweating on at the Y??? The machines I use 6 times a week! (Maxima shivers) The TV said it kills more people in the USA each year than the AIDS virus. The Center for Disease Control said, 19,000 died in the US in 2005 from this virus. Now I am super creeped out. I am going to the gym today BEFORE all those sweaty guys drip on the machines. It makes me feel just a little bit better. And maybe I have to get out my dirty looks or start handing some of these guys the bottle of cleaner and a towel. There is a bottle of sanitary stuff that you are supposed to spray on the equipment and wipe it with a paper towel as you leave a machine. And I can hear it flying out of my mouth already…..”hey, you dripped all over that, wipe it down!” Maybe it would be a good idea to bring Mona along for enforcement. One look from a pit bull is much more effective than a dirty look from me.
and then I start thinking about the bottle. You have to pick up the bottle to bring it to the machine to spray. Yah, the same bottle the sweaty guys pick up to clean their sweat off the machine. ohhhh geeezzzz, creepy feeling in my stomach returns.
mir said,
October 18, 2007 at 1:10 pm
that can´t solve it though! Wiping things and over using “anti-bacterial” stuff must just make it worse. Isn´t that what made them resistant in the first place?
Blips said,
October 18, 2007 at 8:23 pm
Now the choice is get fit and die from bacteria
or
not getting fit and die from cholesterol, heart-attack, diabetes or obesity.?
maxima said,
October 18, 2007 at 8:56 pm
@mir: so you want to know which came first…the chicken or the egg?
Fred (from whom I stole this pic of the virus) can explain it to you pretty good. This is unbelieveable.
http://tinyurl.com/2j24k2
Irish said,
October 18, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Mir, you’re right. Avoid the anti-bacterial soaps, etc. They can cause an increase in antibiotic resistant infections. The epidemiologists are reporting that people should not be requesting that their doctors prescibe antibiotics. There was a real over-use/unnecessary use of antibiotics in our country in the 1950’s and perhaps much longer, when every parent wanted an antibiotic every time their child had a cold.
This new infection is scary, Maxima and Mir. I’d guess that a small use of products at your “Y” would be okay. I bought “Purel” for my hands on the airplanes, ended up not even opening the bottle, and travelled safely and healthily to and fro.
Now, I’ll check out the website you quote, Maxima. Let’s all “seize the day!”
maxima said,
October 19, 2007 at 7:55 am
@Blips: is there no death by chocolate any more???
Irish said,
October 19, 2007 at 8:24 pm
Sure hope there’s still death by chocolate, Maxima. That’s certainly how I plan to go!
mir said,
October 29, 2007 at 1:57 pm
mmm… I just had a chocolate ball! They are great!