We’ve all heard that the microbes in soil are helpful and can actually make you feel better. There are some nasty ones hiding there as well, as I found out recently.
The back story-
Working outside on April 30th I accidentally cut my thumb which required 8 stitches to close (I never did get that whole “cut away from yourself thing.) Ten days later, all was fine and I had the stitches removed. A few days later after it appeared to be healed, I started potting up some plants in the nursery.
The next day a few spots appeared along the incision filled with pus. Not thinking much about it, I applied some triple antibiotic ointment and bandaged it. A few days later, I bumped it and the incision broke open. Treating it the same way for another week or so, it wasn’t getting any better, so I broke down and went to the doctor.
After the obligatory “Why did you wait so long?” (hint- because I’m a guy) question, He cleaned it out, took a culture sample and prescribed two antibiotics. One or both of them laid me out for two weeks in which I was able to eat little and do even less. As soon as the course of pills were done, I started feeling better. Eating yogurt and backfilling my system with probiotics helped some. The only bright spot was that I did lose 25 pounds in that two-week period of having little or no appetite. Not a diet I would recommend, however.
Needless to say, I’ll be using gloves when potting plants for a while, but there goes the whole “Dirty Fingernails” for which our nursery is named.