Top Ten Dirtiest Places - #9 and #10

Sorry - I accidentally deleted a couple of posts so am republishing them.


I thought I would combine the last 2 since I think I am grossing you all out. But if you read each one, you will notice that I give you suggestions on how to control and keep yourself protected. But here we go on #9 - airplanes. Airplanes are closed off places where a lot of people are crammed into a small space where more than 20% at any one time is sick. If you took a swipe of any surface in the airplace, you will find lots of bacteria abound. Swiping just the tray tables, they found coliform bacteria (bacteria from our intestinal tract), Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, and other disease-causing organisms. The bathrooms on planes were similiar to public restrooms as was the ice machines, etc. Flights turn around quickly, so the flight crew only has time to pick up the trash. They don't disinfect. In fact, when asked, no airline could produce a disinfection cleaning record. What to do: The old handwashing again (do it and do it often). I carry Lysol wipes and wipe down my tray table and seat arm. Avoid touching your eyes or nose as these are the main entry points for diseases. Avoid using the airline toilet unless absolutely necessary. If your seat mate is coughing or sneezing ask to change seats. If not, then turn the other way and keep wiping your hands. Bring your own magazines. Stay hydrated because you are more suspectible to respiratory organisms when your mucous membranes are dry. Drink plenty of water and if the cabin is very dry, drink hot water and use the steam to moisten your nasal passages or use a saline nasal spray (make sure it's the proper size for travel).

#10 is our lovely schools. I don't know about all of you but when my kids first started in school it seemed we were all sick all the time. That first year was murder. You name it we caught it. Daughter would come home with something then give it to me then I would give it to hubs who in turn gave it to his office employees and the cycle would begin again. Any gathering of children is a place of questionable hygiene. I know I talked about restrooms before but there is nothing like a school restroom. I am reminded of an email joke that circulated for a while: The janitor was tired of cleaning the mirrors in the girl's bathroom where they had kissed the mirror with lipstick. So he posted a message telling the girls how much effort he had to do to clean the mirrors in order to get their lipstick off. He explained the only thing he could find to get the mirror clean was to dip his mope into the toilet and then clean the mirror with it. He never encountered lipstick marks on the mirror again.

In reality, parents rarely have the opportunity to randomly visit school restrooms, but you should. Be prepared for a shock. They are filthy. There are no doors on the stalls even in the girls bathroom. There was no soap. No paper towels, and newspaper quality toilet paper. Definitely no seat covers. That was the girl's bathroom. Now the boys is even worse. Little boys use the stall so no one will see their weenies. Making sure that no one is behind them or sudden open the door, their aim is very poor, hitting mostly the unlifted seat. For the rest of the day, there is not one boy who will sit on it. Many would rather have poop build up to their eyeballs than sit on a sticky seat. Toilet paper if found is usually strewn all over the floor.

Which brings us to a problem seen in doctor's offices everywhere: children with urinary tract infections and constipation. The medical field are finding that this is caused by the school's strict policies on bathroom times as they are too disruptive in the classroom. Recess and lunch are the only free times to go to the restroom but recess is the most important part of their day and they would rather hold it than give up recess. The first time my daughter came home from 1st grade crying that her tummy hurt because the teacher wouldn't let her go to the bathroom was the 1st and last time I ever had to complain to that principal. I produced study after study, printed them off, and carefully placed them on his desk. I then said I would go to the school district meetings and take this all the way to the newspapers unless something was changed. A 1st grader should not have to soil her pants because of some stupid policy. I didn't encounter that again until she entered junior high and got her period. Then again after having to go pick her up and bring her home to change clothes and wash, I got that school's policy changed. I must have created a stir because by the time she got to high school, we had no problems and the policy had already been changed.

There is not much you can do for keeping your child safe unless you are involved in the school. I was a lunch mom, room mother, reading helper, math helper, etc. I deliberately never used the teacher's bathrooms (which by the way were immaculate with nice smells, lotions, basically what my daughter terms a "Pretty Woman" bathroom. I used the kids bathrooms and went to the principal each and every time they were a mess. We got to be very good friends. Basically one has to be an advocate for their child.

Gosh now I have to come up with a different thing to post. These were fun for me.

Inspirational Sunday - Kodak Moments of Your Life

I tried quite a few times yesterday to post this but alas, blogger wasn't working so here it is a day late.

Ever see those 'Kodak Moments' either on commercial or on the internet? I love them because that depicts my life pretty much all the time - those precious priceless times!

So what is a Kodak Moment? Kodak describes a Kodak moment as "a rare, one-time moment captured with a photo, or should have been captured by a photo". So it means a moment that you would want to remember, a moment worthy of being captured on camera. But some of life's greatest moments are unexpected.

So why do Kodak Moments belong on Spiritual Sunday? Because Kodak moments are those moments that turn the ordinary into the extra-ordinary. I know quite a few people who are really really good photographers, one of my nieces being one. She can capture that special look a child or person gives that lets you look into the soul of the person. She is truly gifted. But how is being creative also defined as turning the ordinary into the extra-ordinary?

In the 1st chapter of Genesis we learned that God is the undisputed Creator of earth and everything in it and He did it out of nothing. While we cannot do that, He has given us the ability to be creative. We have been given the ability to take something that is ordinary and turn it into something that is extra-ordinary. Do you know what the word paradigm means? A paradigm is the lens through which we view the world. Much like the lens of a camera or the photographer who looks into those lens, we view the world through our paradigms. Through our lens we view the world. That world will be colored by our culture, our upbringing, our educational background, our race, and those things that makes us who we are. Each of us view life and things differently for these and other reasons. But all of us have the innate ability to turn the ordinary into the extra-ordinary.

Take two people standing in the same place viewing a beautiful sunset. One person sees it as something ordinary, a normal sunset. The other person sees it as something extra-ordinary. That person sees the colors and how they interact with each other and then reflect off the water. One person can look at a glass of water. One will see it as half-full. The other person will see it as half-empty. It is a matter of perspective. The paradigm through which you view things makes all the difference. Does your paradigm change? Mine does, sometimes even on an hourly basis.

We long to capture a Kodak moment to hold onto it for the future and eventually for future generations. But we must remember that one also has to live in the moment. We need to spend less time trying to capture a moment on film and learn to live in those extra-ordinary moments as they come. Think about what it is that makes them special. What would those snapshots reveal?

So were my Kodak Moments always put into a physical photograph? No, some of my most memorable Kodak Moments are not on paper. They are in my heart. They are on our king sized bed where family discussions were carried out with our kids, they are moments in time where I am surrounded by what makes me happy - the people I love and God, they were all of us - well most of us - singing and playing the piano while our beloved lab howled with us.

So in terms of one of my Kodak Moments that happened yesterday:
Scenario: Spooning and snuggling with my husband surrounded on that king sized bed by our 2 male kittens, our female cat. Then having our daughter come to our house and put our 2 precious bulldog granddoggies on said bed, then hug and kiss us goodby for a few days.

What I captured in my mind was priceless: the scene above - nice and peaceful and loving - that is until my cell phone went off underneath one of the bulldogs which spooked her and the whole bed jumped at least a foot off the bed with cats and dogs and us all tangled up laughing our rears off.

Let us thank God for the revelations, the transformations, and the divine manifestations that are ours, each and every moment - those moments that turn the ordinary into the extra-ordinary. Watch for them. They happen more than you think. It is those memories that you will carry with you through life. Did you see your life half full or half empty?

Top Ten Dirtiest Places - #8

Yep the next top dirtiest place is your doctor's office. On any given day, there are a variety of patients in the waiting room at your doctor's office. Most pediatric offices have a well and sick waiting room. But remember viruses are contagious for at least a day before it actually hits you so even though you are in the well room, there could be sick kids in there. Even in the sick room, your child might have come in with a cold and may leave with diarrhea. My son has asthma. I remember trying to decide which waiting room I should wait in. He wasn't sick per se, he was having a breathing problem. The last thing I wanted to do was put him in the sick room when his immune system was low but I had a child who sneezed and coughed as his asthma symptoms. You would not believe the looks we got if we went in the well room. I think once I repeated myself 20 times that he wasn't sick - no one can catch it.

Now we come to those exam rooms. Cosmetic cleaning is totally different than disinfection. For instance, if you just wipe off a counter top that had blood and urine specimens sitting on it all day, it does not remove the bad bugs. It will take a chemical disinfectant to do that job. This job is usually left to the medical assistant and if the office is a busy one, that disinfection step might not have happened. I know in my offices I have a timer in each room. For 4 treatment rooms we run 2 assistants with me as a buffer if either girl is busy. I put magnets on the back of a digital kitchen timer. The girl that checks out the patient is responsible to go back to that room, pick up the litter, take the instruments to the ultrasound for cleaning, tidy the room and then spray the room, chair, and counters with Lysol. They exit the room and press the timer. I have them all set at 10 minutes. After 10 minutes we go back to that room and wipe down the room and then turn off the light. This signals to all of us that room is clean and ready for the next patient. But many offices don't do this.

So 1. Assume that many things in your doctor's office are contaminated: the arms of the chairs, door knobs, faucet handles, etc. By knowing these "hot zones", you can try to avoid them, or know that you will need to wash your own and children's hands.
2. Contain your children into a safe zone where you can watch them. As natural as it is for them to be social, a doctor's office is not the place to socialize with potentially-ill children. Children are very curious, so keep them from rifling through the drawers and exploring other dangerous places.
3. Bring toys, games, books, etc. for the kids from home so that they will have something to do. Waiting room toys have been eliminated from our office to reduce the spread of infectious disease although we still have our magazines.
4. Wash everyone's hands once you get to the examining room; wash them again after you leave the office.
5. Keep in mind that most pathogens enter the body via the nose or eyes, so avoid rubbing or touching these areas with contaminated hands.
6. Make sure your doctor is washing his hands prior to touching you. Many doctors now are not wearing ties because a study showed they were the biggest germ catchers.

Top Ten Dirtiest Places - #7

One night hubs and I went to see a movie (a rarity but we had gotten a bunch of passes from the kids so we have been going out on a movie date after 10 years). The movie we saw was No Reservations which was pretty good. We termed it a 'chick flick'. But critiquing it isn't what this post is all about. It is about another dirty place....the movie theater. Theaters are crowded and I bet at least one if not 2 people in there are sick. Remember many viral infectious diseases are contagious a day before you know you are sick. During flu seasons it is not uncommon to hear someone sneeze or cough and an uncovered sneeze or cough can spray fresh microorganisms several rows away. Children's movies are the worse. There you can add head lice to the things you can catch if there are cloth seats. Think I am kidding? Did you know that during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic, movie theaters in all major cities were closed?

Ever thought how many people sat in your same seat before you? Ever hear how often the clean those seats or for that matter the theater? I didn't know either until my son worked in one. They are lucky to get swept once a day and mopped once a week. My son said he couldn't ever remember when the seats and arm rests were wiped down.

Then there are the movie bathrooms that see waves of people using them after drinking those large colas. Ever notice how movie-users are not big hand-washers (I notice these things). Usually they are either rushing back to the movie, or trying to avoid the traffic jam in the parking lot. Bathroom stall door locks have got to be one of the more contaminated areas of the movie toilet, namely because they are always opened with unwashed fingers. Now think of all those man dribblers. Yanno the ones who either don't aim good or don't care. While urine is usually sterile and clean, what woman wants to put their purse on the floor of the theater where someone's foot with urine once was?

Then for many film buffs, a movie just isn't a movie without a tub of buttery popcorn or a jumbo-sized box of Raisinets. Ever wonder where most of that food ends up? Yep the floor. Ever wonder why they keep the lights on low? So you can't see how dirty the theater really is. Then there is that ice factor I talked about in an earlier post. And the teen factor in another post.

For me: I don't eat at the theater. I don't use the restroom. I only go to theaters that have non cloth seats and I never go during cold and flu season. I never take a purse but I do carry a lysol towelette to wash my hands as I leave.

Top Ten Dirtiest Places - #6

Yep the next on the top ten dirtiest places are pools, waterparks, and beaches. There are a whole lot of people out there that have a lower standard of hygiene than others. I really like people and kids. I am the one right in there with them playing at their level (must be the kid in me). I get sneezed on, kissed, slimed, peed, and pooped on regularly and it doesn't bother me a bit because I know how to dispose of dirty diapers and how to wash my hands. However, at public beaches, pools, and waterparks this is a little less controllable and filled with people with that lower standard. I have seen dirty diapers buried in the sand.

I own a 24 foot round pool. I used to think that no bacteria could live in a highly chlorinated pool but it does, even in ours. When my nieces and nephews or friends of my kids come over, the chemicals in the pool change. I have this sign before you climb the stairs to the pool that says.....there is no p in this ool. People laugh about that....think it's funny. But in reality, kids do not want to take the time to come inside to go to the bathroom. They put the p in the ool. Fecal matter like E. Coli is different but common with kids in swimming areas and beaches. But the bacteria doesn't just come from kids or irresponsible parents. They come from storm drains and sewer overflows. They come from RV owners dumping their holding tanks into storm drains. Some of that untreated water eventually makes it to the ocean where currents keep it conveniently near the shore for our recreational pleasure.

Here are the stats: it is estimated that up to 1.5 million people develop health problems and illness from beach and surf contamination. Health officials carefully monitor "acceptable fecal limits" and close the beaches quite often when those levels climb. To me, there really is no thing as acceptable fecal limits. I am not happy about acceptable limits of rodent and insect parts in my food either.

Another huge problem at public pools and water parks is warts. The concrete around the pool is rough on purpose so people don't slip and fall. But it roughs up the bottom of your feet and because your feet are wet, the skin barrier is now broken and allows viruses to invade....warts is a prime example. Wearing water socks will prevent you and your child from getting warts. Now the fecal matter is a different story.

But when it is hot outside and summer beckons, we all would love to be at the beach or in the water, contamination or not. We take our chances and just hope we are not one of the 1.5 million people who come home with vomiting and diarrhea or warts.

Top Ten Dirtiest Places - #5

I thought I would combine these two together because not only do they rank up there with the dirtiest places but they also have the distinction of being the most dangerous places. What are they? They are hospitals and nursing homes.

Have you walked in a nursing home lately? FYI - when you first walk into a nursing home, you enter on the first floor. These are the up and about lucid patients and there is a pleasant odor emulating from the hallways. Don't be fooled. Before placing your loved one in a nursing home check the upper floors. Those are the floors where the sickest are kept...you are greeted on those floors with the smells of urine and feces and the sounds of moaning and crying. You see either people slumped over in wheelchairs with a blank dull expression on their face or people who will try to draw you into their room to help them. I know. I worked in a county nursing home for 7 years, 3 years part time weekdays full time weekends from age 15 to 18, then 4 years full time nights until I graduated from nursing school when I was 22. The chances your loved one will get an infection are high in nursing homes. The CDC reports that over two million people contact nosocomial infections when they are hospitalized, resulting in over 80,000 deaths. Unless the nursing home or hospital staff strictly adheres to standard (or enhanced) precautions, people will die. Those precautions are as simple as thorough hand-washing, the use of disposable gloves, and routine environmental disinfection. Those precautions work, but only if people consistently use them. I rarely see the personnel do any of the above. The number of MRSA (antibiotic resistant bacteria) is very high and MRSA infections have been becoming increasing rampant in hospitals and nursing homes since first recognized in 1961. Beware: they are now in our backyards. Just walking in a nursing home and touching anything puts you at risk. So keep a can of Lysol spray in your car. Before placing your loved one in a nursing home, look at state records on infection and make sure the nursing home hasn't been cited for deficiencies. Ask about staff turnover. The higher the rate of turnover, the higher your loved one is at risk. Look at the staff taking care of your loved one. Do they speak English? Many are foreign nurses. If at all possible, keep your loved one alive and have them live with you. Hire help to come into your house.

Hospitals have just as high rate of MRSA infections and 'hospital aquired infections' as nursing homes....after all, where do the nursing home patients get transferred when they get sick? Now I will say that hospitals are cleaner than nursing homes. The medical personnel is trained and I personally have never seen a nurse enter a patient room without donning gloves and then washing their hands before leaving the room even if dispensing medications. The OR is the place to worry. With increasing cutbacks in hospital payments, services are being cut while insurance companies rank in the Fortune 500 and CEO's of said insurance companies rake in millions in compensation. It is at the expense of you. It used to be standard to have operating room RN's, circulating RN's, and a RN assigned to each and every operating room. Now you are lucky to get what is termed a 'OR tech'. The training for a 'OR tech' is 3 months, high school diploma. They don't know the instruments. They don't know sterile technique. They can't assist the doctor. You are lucky they show up or know where things are. There is a high turnover of OR techs and it has been reported they are sometimes recruited from housekeeping. My husband refuses to have them in his operating room. Instead he works with other podiatrists and they buddy up on each other's surgeries so they have someone who knows what they are doing. If the assistant gets paid, fine. If they don't, then no big deal. It is at no charge to the patient. It is for our patient's benefit.

Schedule your surgery for the am...never in the afternoon or evening. Again look up through your state websites and find out all you can about your hospital. Check their infection rate. Check their JCAHO standing. US News publishes a list of hospitals who reach a level of excellence. Avoid the others. Here is their link: http://health.usnews.com/sections/health/best-hospitals

All of us are part of the problem and part of the solution. There should be a worldwide 'Neighborhood Watch' for hygienic procedures. Viruses and bacteria have lived here long before we showed up and they will remain here long after we are gone. In the meantime, we have to co-exist.

Now, go wash your hands and have a nice, clean day....And remember, Lysol is your friend.

Top Ten Dirtiest Places - #4

Now I would hazard a guess no one would have ever entertained the idea that shoes and feet are in the top ten dirtiest places. I mean we clean our feet everyday, right? While you might shower and wash your feet every single day, you put those clean dry feet right back into dirty shoes. When was the last time you cleaned your shoes? Most will say NEVER!

When is the last time one of your kids or your husband took off their shoes and you said. "Oh god, what's that smell?" You think something up and died on you or the cat peed so you go sniffing around and lo and behold you find the culprit....tennis shoes and your husband's smelly feet. In order to understand how shoes get so smelly, we need to actually understand what causes smelly shoes in the first place so the first thing you need to look at is the type of shoes you are wearing. Are they synthetic materials like rubber or vinyl? You should always wear either leather or cloth that can absorb moisture.

But the problem of how to clean smelly tennis shoes is to deal with what caused the odor to begin with....and that is the feet. The damp and warm conditions in socks and shoes, especially training shoes, provide the perfect environment for the growth of bacteria and fungus, which cause smelly feet. Athlete’s foot and other skin disorders also contribute to smelly feet.

So you have sweaty feet? The medical term for sweaty feet is called hyperhydrosis. It is very common in teens and young adults. Each of us has a set point for our metabolism. This set point is somewhat like the thermostat in our homes. Some folks have a higher set point than others. For some, this may be due to anxiety, stress, hyperthyroidism, hypoadrenalism or excessive fluid intake. For others, it's just their natural metabolic set point. Bromhydrosis is a condition that occurs with excessive perspiration and a foul odor. The distinctive odor of smelly tennis shoes is actually caused by bacteria helping to decompose the perspiration and dead skin cells on the foot and those that are left in the shoe. You are making cheese in your shoes without milk, just leather and human skin flakes.

Just to make sure you are keeping up here....you have clean feet. Your shoes have not been cleaned and contain each and every day's worth of perspiration and dead skin cells left behind....accumulating...take a black light to the insides of your shoe. The whole shoe lights up like it was radioactive.

Ok, so how do we solve the issue? Definitely not by drowning your feet in heavy odor-masking perfumes. After awhile, "peach banana sunrise" doesn't smell much better than "rotten toe funk".

Did you realize that here are approximately 250,000 sweat glands in each pair of feet that release nearly a cup of moisture every day? Bacteria jumps from your feet to your shoes, and from your shoes to your feet. So, when they come in contact eith each other (the feet and shoes) you contaminate the other.

You need to keep your feet clean and dry. Wearing natural fiber socks that absorb moisture, and only wear boots and tennis shoes for as short a period as possible. Don't wear the same shoe for two days in a row...you need to let them dry out totally. Wash you feet with antibacterial soap with a couple of squirts of Betadine (we put ours in a squirt bottle for the shower so we don't accidently spill the whole bottle). Dry totally. Use antiperspirant spray to control the sweat issue. Change socks and shoes more than once a day if you perspire a lot. After taking off your shoes at night, spray the insides of the shoe liberally with Lysol spray. Let it totally dry before wearing that pair of shoes again. Throw them in the washer with a cap of bleach water in the shoe. Take out the insole of the shoe and wash it at least once a week. Some people say that soaking your feet in a green tea solution works too. Doing all the above will keep the smellies and cheese away and prevent athletes foot and fungus toenails. If the above doesn't work, then it's time to see your podiatrist.