…… How do I protect myself against TB and other infections while in hospital, rehab unit?

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Barry Natchitoches

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I am about to have to go into the hospital for double knee replacement surgery, followed by a one or two weeks of therapy in a skilled nursing facility.

My wife’s sister will come to take care of my wife, but I will not have anybody other than the rehab center staff, and an occasional visit from my wife‘s sister.

Anyway, they are letting all these illegal immigrants in with TB and who knows what else. Medical staff working with me might be exposed to these folks. Worse yet - what if they admit one or more of these patients with TB, the way New Yorkbdid the Covid patients?

How do I protect myself?

Will ivermectin horse paste help? (My SIL can slip some in for me, if I ask her to. She’s savvy to the situation.

Thank you in advance for your information, suggestions and insights.
 
Knoxville's Joker

Knoxville's Joker

Has No Life - Lives on TB
TB is not something there is a curative for to prevent it other than taking an antiobiotic regimen to kill it off. TB longer term if not abated will become an expensive hospital issue and may end up forcing old school quarantines on immigrant families after things explode.

I half expect a TB or small pox or polio outbreak to get planted as a guise for the next plague and blame on immigrants to create unrest...
 
Knoxville's Joker

Knoxville's Joker

Has No Life - Lives on TB

Tuberculosis Precautions

Infection control principles and practices for various health care settings Why are tuberculosis (TB) precautions important? Mycobacterium tuberculosis is transmitted in airborne particles called droplet nuclei that are expelled when persons with pulmonary or laryngeal TB cough, sneeze, shout...
www.dhs.wisconsin.gov www.dhs.wisconsin.gov

It is a contact and airborne contatgion so unless protocols at admission time are changed and isolation protocols rigorously enforced, not much to stop it.
 
Mtsilverback

Mtsilverback

Veteran Member
Most states require a two step TB test on admition. Ask the rehab center if they do. Hospital probably wont do one.
 
B

bracketquant

Veteran Member
Barry Natchitoches said:
I am about to have to go into the hospital for double knee replacement surgery, followed by a one or two weeks of therapy in a skilled nursing facility.

My wife’s sister will come to take care of my wife, but I will not have anybody other than the rehab center staff, and an occasional visit from my wife‘s sister.

Anyway, they are letting all these illegal immigrants in with TB and who knows what else. Medical staff working with me might be exposed to these folks. Worse yet - what if they admit one or more of these patients with TB, the way New Yorkbdid the Covid patients?

How do I protect myself?

Will ivermectin horse paste help? (My SIL can slip some in for me, if I ask her to. She’s savvy to the situation.

Thank you in advance for your information, suggestions and insights.
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Relax. I don't think that it's something to worry about. The first sign of TB in your area, and all hospitals will be on high notice. Rehab sounds like it will be middle-aged to elderly patients. The illegals are young people. Staying positive will go much further towards your getting well.
 
ainitfunny

ainitfunny

Saved, to glorify God.
You are more likely to get it from a kid, who goes to school
with illegal alien kids, or sitting next to a TB carrier in a waiting room for a long time, or with a bunch of other people, on a plane or bus ride sitting next to a TB carrier, in line at a pharmacy, post ioffice or at grocery store to check out, in an elevator immediately after a TB carrier exits it, or in a taxi after a TB carrier contaminated all the air in that confined space( I'd not take taxi's because the taxi drivers are exposed regularly to TB carriers!
By the way, i'd ask for myself and my roommate to be tested for TB before becoming " bunkies" if i was worried about that.

By the way, N95 masks will stop TB transmission because it is a bacteria, much, much larger than a virus and will be stopped by the N95 mask.

Or you can just let go and let God decide and quit worrying.
 
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SlipperySlope

Veteran Member
As soon as I knew where DH would be, I would get to the room ASAP and spray Lysol everywhere and wipe down as much as I could with antiseptic solution. I couldn't always do it ahead of time but I would always do it as soon as I could. I also always had a small bottle of generic Purell on his tray table where he could use it frequently.
 
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bluelady

Veteran Member
Barry Natchitoches said:
I am about to have to go into the hospital for double knee replacement surgery, followed by a one or two weeks of therapy in a skilled nursing facility.

My wife’s sister will come to take care of my wife, but I will not have anybody other than the rehab center staff, and an occasional visit from my wife‘s sister.

Anyway, they are letting all these illegal immigrants in with TB and who knows what else. Medical staff working with me might be exposed to these folks. Worse yet - what if they admit one or more of these patients with TB, the way New Yorkbdid the Covid patients?

How do I protect myself?

Will ivermectin horse paste help? (My SIL can slip some in for me, if I ask her to. She’s savvy to the situation.

Thank you in advance for your information, suggestions and insights.
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I don't know much about TB. But Ivermectin is good for viruses, and there seem to be a lot going around, so it would probably be a good idea to start taking it right now, and continue until you've been home for at least a couple of weeks. Also vitamin D for sure. High doses of C. Use Listerine, the original gold one, several times a day. There's more, but I'd consider those minimum just for being out & around.
 
L

Luddite

Veteran Member
TB is probably farther down on your potential risks of contracted hospital acquired infections. (HAI or nosocomial infection)

Wash your hands at every opportunity.

Insist that your health care workers do the same. It sounds like you won't have a family advocate present so "walk a tight-rope" between being insistent without pissing off the nurses and therapists.

I truly pray your stay goes uneventful.

Imho, don't obsess about a specific contagion. Reading up on nosocomial infections might make you feel more comfortable. It might not...

For perspective, Wikipedia says about 90k people die per year from infection acquired in a health care setting. Compared to about 35k traffic accident deaths per year.

Most of us don't think about the numbers every time we get on a roadway. We just do our best to minimize the risk and go.

Keep a positive outlook on your upcoming procedure. The benefits are worth the risks, right?
 
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Melodi

Melodi

Disaster Cat
There are a lot of other infections, especially post-surgical ones, that are more likely to cause a problem. The advice here so far has been good. Proper handwashing by everyone (including the nurse or care worker who brings in your lunch) will help stop the spread. So take good supplements before you go in, and at least take a good multivitamin and pro-biotic (if they let you bring them) while in care. You can take more, but nurses get antsy if you take too many non-prescription pills.

Check your surgical site every day for any signs of infection. This can happen to anyone and is common in modern hospitals where the stuff lurks in the air and on most surfaces. The days are long gone when nurses are expected to be hospital cleaning ladies. That was a positive change until hospitals and care homes (especially in the US and, to a lesser extent, in the UK/Europe) started "saving money" by downgrading and outsourcing cleaning staff. People are paid meager wages (much of the time) with no reason to care much about their jobs.

You can try to limit using the bathroom to your room (once you are allowed up) or share with as few people as possible. This may be less of a problem in the US than here. But when my Mom was in the "nice" part of the Morro Bay, Califonia nursing home, the bathroom was shared with about four to six patients. And one lady was recovering from the same surgery you will be having. This was a really lovely place, so I suspect the bathroom sharing is not uncommon (this was about six years ago) .
 
W

Wildwood

Veteran Member
I could be wrong but I think it usually takes more than one brief, casual contact with someone to catch TB...as a rule.

Good for you for always being so dedicated to the care and safekeeping of your wife.
 
F

FireDance

TB Fanatic
AddisonRose said:
The rehabs that I go into require a TB test upon employment or a chest x-ray.
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Yes. And we do the two part test on every admission. This is not something I would even remotely worry about.

Post surgical infection, yes, but not TB.

You can’t control everything. So just practice extremely good hygiene and don’t let ANYONE touch that surgical site without washing hands and putting on gloves. Even you.
 
P

Publius

TB Fanatic
Today anyone with TB gets a hospital room to themselves unless they have another patient with TB and the room will have the ventilation system cut off from the rest of the system, the staff all know about this person or persons infected so no one will enter the room without a face mask and proper coverings.
 
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SlipperySlope

Veteran Member
If you want to get really paranoid..one time when DH was in ICU the nurse said something about having the flu. I thought she was kidding but she wasn't. They were shorthanded and 3 of them with active flu in the unit were told to show up or else. This was one of the good nurses who had actually saved my DH's life once. I was stunned to say the least.
 
Kathy in WV

Kathy in WV

Down on the Farm...
My oldest boy (25) as well as his entire unit (cardiac stepdown) were exposed to active TB by a patient who happened to have been a .mil surgeon.

She was infected on duty overseas and something like 60 people are now exposed. Nowhere is ever 100% safe. We're human and far from perfect. I forget how long/often he said he has to be tested. Quite a while! At 25 he's been exposed to hepatitis and now TB. Say prayers and trust God.
 
Kathy in WV

Kathy in WV

Down on the Farm...
Kathy in WV said:
My oldest boy (25) as well as his entire unit (cardiac stepdown) were exposed to active TB by a patient who happened to have been a .mil surgeon.

She was infected on duty overseas and all the people on the floor are now exposed. Nowhere is ever 100% safe. We're human and far from perfect. I forget how long/often he said he has to be tested. Quite a while! At 25 he's been exposed to hepatitis and now TB.
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Kathy in WV said:
Say prayers and trust God.
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O

Old Gray Mare

TB Fanatic
Barry have you considered changing professions? Even that's no guarantee. Who knows if the the person you're treating or standing next to in the check out line has it or has been exposed to it via a kid or grand kid? You can lessen the odds but this side of Heaven there's no guarantees.
 
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anna43

Veteran Member
I'm pretty sure that all hospital and nursing home workers are required to do at least annual TB testing. Your only problem would be other patients or visitors to other patients.

I would not waste time and energy worrying about it. Just concentrate on getting through surgery and rehab and back home.

My late dh never had TB yet always had a positive test. Back in the day employers often required a TB test to get a job so he'd have a positive test and they'd order x-rays. He had way too many chest x-rays as a result of the positive tests until his doctor told him to refuse any more x-rays.
 
Knoxville's Joker

Knoxville's Joker

Has No Life - Lives on TB
anna43 said:
I'm pretty sure that all hospital and nursing home workers are required to do at least annual TB testing. Your only problem would be other patients or visitors to other patients.

I would not waste time and energy worrying about it. Just concentrate on getting through surgery and rehab and back home.

My late dh never had TB yet always had a positive test. Back in the day employers often required a TB test to get a job so he'd have a positive test and they'd order x-rays. He had way too many chest x-rays as a result of the positive tests until his doctor told him to refuse any more x-rays.
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It is a questionaire and no skin test…
 
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