It’s time – wash your hands! | Archive

I’ve told this story before, but with all the illnesses going around these days, it’s worth repeating.

Whenever I mention stomach rashes, I always think of a strange little thing that happened during a Carolina Panthers-New York Giants football game I saw a few years ago. Authentic football fans would most likely have paid little attention to the game as they are highly competitive and do not allow distractions to cause loss of concentration. I’m not that much of a fan.

One of the commentators mentioned a Giants player vomiting (as in sickness, not passing the ball). Until that moment, I barely paid attention to the game, thinking about other things and reading. But when I heard the term “barfing,” my previous experiences as a mother and germophobe teacher alerted me to a serious situation.

I waited for a referee to stop the game so this medical condition could be addressed, but to my disappointment the game continued as normal. I wanted a camera view of the player and important information, e.g. B. the location where the incident occurred. Whether on the sidelines or on the field would make a big difference. Would they clean it up? Where was the hand sanitizer? Lysol spray? Would they isolate him and more importantly, did someone call his parents?

I watched the rest of the game with interest, only to witness more episodes of vomiting. Nothing, no mention. The next day, more information was released that a Giants defensive end had come down with the stomach flu, and blog rumors said he had vomited into his helmet. This is the kind of detail I needed! This player had been well coached.

Early on in my motherhood, I decided that puking on the carpet was to be avoided at all costs because part of that cost was loss of sensitivity to suffering. If one of the kids mentioned a stomach ache, my attitude was, “Take the trash can and talk about your feelings later.” At work it went like this: “Mrs. Neal, I’m not feeling so good-” “Okay, here’s the trash can.” I can leave a whiteboard marker in the air, jump across the room to get a trash can, and come back before the marker falls. I’m obsessed with containing vomit, so I really admire this player’s efforts to control his own issues.

When it comes to viral gastroenteritis, the best offense is definitely good defense. Washing your hands is the cure for this disease. If you’ve ever seen the videos of clinic handwashing demonstrations, you’ve probably laughed at the fact that no one goes to such lengths just to wash their hands. Well, if you ask me, that’s an understatement.

Taking your hands out of your mouth is also an important training point. I used to give a lecture in the classroom about the hand-to-mouth habit and how virus particles multiply exponentially in less than a second

Hour. With my vivid description of the result, students would sit on their hands to avoid putting them in their mouths.

If the Giants spread a virus in that infamous game, let’s hope the Panthers fared better than Florida State football players did in a game against Duke University a few years ago. No disrespect, but that day Duke received the “P” instead of the “D” in her name.

Despite all precautions, I have occasionally succumbed to viral gastroenteritis myself. Few things in life are as humiliating as severe vomiting and diarrhea, and I suppose a bout of these every now and then gives us an appreciation for normal bowel function. One evening recently, when I had an uneasy feeling in my stomach for some reason, my husband’s comforting comment was, “Do you need a trash can?”

Pass the Lysol and wish you a Merry Christmas!