I think I might have been shot -- but it's a flesh wound at most.

F

FUD

Moderator
I was at the range this afternoon shooting off some targets for submission and while I was loading up a magazine, I felt a sharp, burning sensation in my left forearm. I looked at it and saw dark red blood about half an inch long and maybe a quarter of an inch wide. It wasn't actually bleeding -- meaning that drops of blood weren't coming out but when I touched it, I did get blood on my other finger.

Since it wasn't really bleeding and while it hurt, I wouldn't really call it pain (more like discomfort than pain), I decided to stay and finish my shooting. When I got home, I cleaned it with water & alcohol and but a band-aid on it. I'm looking at it now and it looks sort of like a deep scratch more than anything else although when I touch it, it hurts as if it was a bruise more than a scratch.

Since I'm not really sure how I got this, do others feel that I should get a tetanus shot?

Share what you know & learn what you don't
fudflag.gif
FUD

PS: When I moved from NJ to FL, I never switched doctors with my insurance company so I really don't have a doctor in Florida. If I need a tetanus shot, can I just walk into a clinic and get one?
 
You probably caught a chunk of rebound. That's happened to me more than once.

If you haven't had a tetnus shot in the last couple of years, YES, get one, the sooner the better.

Call your insurance comapny tomorrow morning, describe the situation, and ask them what you should do.

If you have to pay out of pocket, do it anyway.

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Beware the man with the S&W .357 Mag.
Chances are he knows how to use it.
 
If tell them you that you were shot, they will call the law and then you will have to explain the whole thing to them.

They will want you to take them to the range, and blah blah blah. You know what I mean?

Get the shot, but make something up.

Waterdog
 
See waterdog's reply, probably just rebound, this is why we wear ANSI eye protection, right everyone??????

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"Government is not the solution to the problem, Government is the problem!"--Ronald Reagan
 
Waterdog wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>If tell them you that you were shot, they will call the law and then you will have to explain the whole thing to them.[/quote]

Maybe, and maybe not. I once caught a jacket fragment in the leg at a shooting match about 100 miles from my home. I finished the match, and then drove home, waiting until I got back into town to go the ER. I told them what happened, and they treated it as a normal puncture wound, not a gunshot wound. This was in '92 or '93.
I guess it all depends upon jurisdiction, though.

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Shoot straight & make big holes, regards, Richard at The Shottist's Center
 
Probably not an issue.

Once when shooting steel plates I got a nice cut right under my nose from a fragment. Stung like crazy. A week later, I got nailed in the family jewels. Also very painful.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Satanta:
A tetanus shot for a 'rug burn'? please...

Do what you want but unless it was a rusty bullet......[/quote]

Did you know this about Tetnus, S?

Did you know that the bacterium that causes tetnus is common in soil worldwide, meaning that it is very likely present ANYWHERE, outside or inside, meaning that you can contract tetnus from just about any cut or wound?

Did you know that the tetnus bacterium is a member of the clostridium botulinum family?

Did you know that members of the c. botulinum species by themselves are not toxic, it's the waste products from their metabolization that are?

Did you know that these waste products are among the most lethal substances known? 1 ounce of pure toxin is enough to kill between 10 and 20 MILLION people.

Did you know that up until the tetnus vaccination was developed, tetnus infection was one of the leading causes of post battlefield deaths in all wars, much more so than gangrene and other infections?

Did you know that John Augustus Roebling (father of Washington Roebling, engineer and builder of the Brooklyn Bridge) died of a tetnus infection after his foot was smashed between a ferry boat and the pier? There was no soil around, but the tetnus pathogens were there none the less.

A few years ago a man I worked with contracted tetnus after being pricked by a rose thorn in his garden. He thought it was nothing, until he nearly died. He was in the hospital for 3 weeks, on life support for much of it. He was conscious, and in incredible pain, he just couldn't breathe or move. His recuperation time wasn't in weeks, or months. It was in years. Last I saw him he's still having problems related to his bout with tetnus.

He was one of the lucky ones, apparently, as tetnus is fatal in something like 95% of the cases that reach the point he was at.

I'm not trying to bust your chops, here. I'm trying to convey the point that tetnus is a SERIOUS medical condition that can be incurred from the most trivial of wounds. It doesn't take the proverbial "rusty nail" to cause a tetnus infection. All it takes is contact with this member of the c. botulinum family.

What all of this means is that yes, you CAN contract tetnus from a rug burn. How? People and pets walk outside, picking up the tetnus pathogens on their shoes. When they come indoors, they deposit it on the rugs. Someone gets a "rug burn," they've just innoculated the wound with tetnus pathogens.

The great thing about it is that tetnus is completely preventable.


P.S. -- Any sort of eye injury caused by an outside source should always be followed with a tetnus booster, no matter when you had your old one. A tetnus infection that originates in the eye apparently almost always results in blindness in both eyes, and is normally fatal.

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Beware the man with the S&W .357 Mag.
Chances are he knows how to use it.

[This message has been edited by Mike Irwin (edited August 14, 2000).]
 
A. Mike has the nail on the head hit.

B. Tell the doc that you scraped yourself on a ladder, or workin on the car, or sumpin. That way no hassles.

Sam
 
mike...geez, ok, you WIN! FUD...go getta tetanua ahot!

If he's stepped off the front porch on his horse ranch into some weeds a week after moving there and there had been a board with nails in it and one of the nails went all the way thru his boot/foot and out the top, then he had to stand on the board and jump off the nail to get it out-I'd have reccomended a shot. However, since he might also have worked at a veterinary clinic just three months before and had a cat attack him, bite him thru the forearm and into the bone, and it was clinic policy to have rabies and tet boosters every year-he might not have worried about it. ;)

Speaking of...I stabbed the hell out of myself with a screwdriver the other day...

If FUD wants to go for a tet shot...i'm not gonna stop him. Even tho if he got 'lockjaw' he could still TYPE, right? ;)

I just figger if the bullet is moving at warp speed the germs are gonna fry offa it anyway...and can they stick to something rotating that fast? :)

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Satanta, the Whitebear
Sat's Realm: http://SatantasRealm.tripod.com/Entrypage/entrypage.html

My Disability petition: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/DisbHelp/petition.html
 
Okay, "I cut my forearm on a metal picture frame in the garage." I'm going to get the shot right after work. Exactly where am I going? I don't have a doctor.
 
S,

The chunk of bullet that apparently hit FUD hit something to cause it to rebound.

It could easily have picked up tetnus pathogens from the object it hit. At that point, the bullet is no longer rotating.

Can germs, etc., stick to something that is rotating that fast? Hell if I know.

I think we tend to look at things like tetnus, measles, polio, diptheria, bubonic plague, etc., as killers from a bygone era, things that won't affect us. They're things we heard our Grandparents talk about, or things we read about in history books.

But every one of those diseases kills people in the United States just about every year.

Polio, measles, and diptheria outbreaks leading to death occur predominantly in Amish communities. The Amish generally don't vaccinate their infants, leading to mortality from diseases not commonly seen in the general population anymore.

These diseases also occur among the truly poor, ones who have no access to health care due either to their poverty or immigration status.

Tetnus occurrs infrequently, but often enough.

Bubonic plague -- you probably think I'm joking, right? :)? Nope. -- has probably upwards 100 cases every year in the United States, with a few cases every year being fatal. These are mostly limited to the Southwest, where rodent populations carry the fleas that carry the plague.

I think a lot of people also tend to think that these diseases have been eradicated. Smallpox is the only disease that has ever been completely eradicated. The last known smallpox case was in Africa nearly 30 years ago.

All of the others are still with us, and still killing people at a regular clip.

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Beware the man with the S&W .357 Mag.
Chances are he knows how to use it.
 
FUD,

Look in the phone book under medical providers for "urgent care" or "walk-in" clinics.

Or, call the nearest hospital and ask them where you can go locally for a tetnus booster.


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Beware the man with the S&W .357 Mag.
Chances are he knows how to use it.
 
General rule of thumb on tetanus boosters - if you can't say off the top of your head when your last one was, you probably need one...

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"...and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one."
Luke 22:36
"An armed society is a polite society."
Robert Heinlein
"Power corrupts. Absolute power - is kinda cool!"
Fred Reed
 
Santanta do you think those pesky germs can live on a bullet, most I have picked up are quite hot?

Also watch out for that flesh eating disease :)

FUD are you sure that you didnt get your slide too close to your forearm? ;)

1 a : an acute infectious disease characterized by tonic spasm of voluntary muscles especially of the jaw and caused by the specific toxin of a bacterium (Clostridium tetani) which is usually introduced through a wound -- compare LOCKJAW b : the bacterium that causes tetanus
2 : prolonged contraction of a muscle resulting from rapidly repeated motor impulses.

"spasm of voluntary muscles especially of the jaw"
hell I think most women have tenanus, based on how much their jaws move while their yapping all the time. :p

[This message has been edited by oberkommando (edited August 14, 2000).]
 
Fud,

Glad you're okay. Get the shot and be careful of those . . . (you fill in the blank, but it did NOT involve firearms).

Regards.
 
Well, I MIGHT be wrong...but I've never heard of or been warned of tetanus being caused by a 'bunr' type wound...like a grazing wound or even a cut. Now if FUD was playing war games and crawling in sludge I'd be concerned...and not just about tetanus.

When I laid my motorcycle down in 91 and had several square yards of road rash...I didn't need a tet shot. Same with most things. Everytime you cut, poke or scratch yourself, do you run in for a shot?

I guess all I'm trying to say is don't worry so much...do it you wanna but I personally wouldn't be concerned about it. Tet [for what I've understood]] usually occurs with puncture wounds. The stuff don't live well in open wounds or scrapes. Just my info from the vet clinic, I aint a doc so do what's right for you.

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Satanta, the Whitebear
Sat's Realm: http://SatantasRealm.tripod.com/Entrypage/entrypage.html

My Disability petition: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/DisbHelp/petition.html
 
S,

When was the last time you DID have a tetnus shot?

When you laid your bike down in '91, tetnus shots were, I believe, good for 5 years. Now it's 10.

If you had one in that period, and it was in your medical records, you wouldn't have been given one.

Or, if you didn't, you may very well have been given one and not have even known it.

When someone goes to the hospital with 3rd degree burns covering more than about 5% of their body, they are normally given 4 things in the emergency room:

1. Morphine or another related pain management drug.
2. IV fluids.
3. IV antibiotics.
4. Tetnus vaccine.

The same is true of traumatic amputations, or an animal bite from an unknown or unprotected animal. Rabies vaccine, in conjunction with a tetnus vaccination.

FUD's description was not of a "burn" but of a wound that drew blood.

A cut is no different than a puncture. It's an avenue for infection, ANY infection, to enter the body.

The concept isn't one of running for a shot everytime you cut yourself. It's maintaining the proper protection within prescribed timeframes.




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Beware the man with the S&W .357 Mag.
Chances are he knows how to use it.
 
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