Garage Sales, Estate Sales, and Germs

[silverdollarbill]

Hello Everyone,

So after being exceptionally lucky at saling this year, I ran into some bad luck. What I thought were two pimples, ingrown hairs, or at the worst boils.......turned out to be MRSA which is the antibacterial resistant version of staph. I seem to be back on the road to recovery, but the experience so far has been horrible and it's still not over.

I'm in my early 40s, work a desk job, and am relatively healthy. While MRSA is now more common than it used to be, (It used to be just hospitals and nursing homes, but is now found in the general population) I can't help but wonder where I picked it up. The doctor said it is common and me getting it was just bad luck. However, between all the estate sales and yard sales I go to, I must be increasing my exposure. It's not going to stop my saling, but I definitely will be using hand sanitizer, washing my hands more, and wiping down or lysoling anything I buy.

Curious if anyone else has had a similar experience / what precautions you take / how you clean your items?

bill

 

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[JimDon]

I'm glad you are on the road to recovery. To be honest it's always on the back my mind . Been lucky so far.

 

[GibH]

I just looked it up on the Mayo clinic website. It says it spread by skin to skin contact, so the chances of getting it off a sale item would seem slim. Washing and sanitizing your hands often is a good idea in this day and age though. We come in contact with all kinds of nasty stuff. Money is one good way to spread germs, almost all shopping carts would test positive for fecal matter, commercial ice machines have been found to be about as clean as a toilet, the list goes on.

I hope you beat it soon.

 

[Piledriver]

Did you know that if you catch MRSA from your Doctor or Hospital, that they can be paid for treating the disease they give you?
The most likely places to encounter MRSA are Hospitals, nursing homes, and YOUR DOCTOR'S OFFICE.

 

[cyberdan]

It says it spread by skin to skin contact, so the chances of getting it off a sale item would seem slim.

So don't shake hands with the yardsale seller on closing the "deal"

I wonder if pickers Mike & Frank & Danielle worry about that as half the show has them shaking hands.

 

[AlienLifeForm]

Carry a bottle of hand sanitizer in the truck and use it often.

 

[CladSpends2]

Get better soon, SDBill. Love reading about your finds, so hope you get back out there soon.

T.

 

[Beachkid23]

That stinks. Hope you get better soon.

The only thing I've brought home from yard sales that I'm not fond of was cockroaches. I had a table and I separated it and put it in my van and all these roaches fell out of it. I grab that sucker and threw it on the ground in the ladies driveway and left. freaking disgusting.

 

[cyberdan]

The only thing I've brought home from yard sales that I'm not fond of was cockroaches.

I used to keep a can of insect killer in my car along with big black plastic bags. If I buy a computer (for recycling) and I can tell it was stored in the garage or outdoors I would spray it with RAID and put in garbage bag and tape closed.

The reason? Twice I opened the computers and say black widows. Many times I would see empty spider egg sacks.

Never any roaches beachkid.

 

[OldSowBreath]

I think the thing I'm most afraid of is Brown Recluses. Especially in the back of dark garages. I've had two friends bitten by the BRs and it wreaked them. One had about twenty operations to her leg.

Guy who lives below me got popped the other day by a Black Widow. Nasty, nasty hole in his leg.

 

[blacksheep4289]

I once had a great idea. I'd just put my cards up where all the druggies hang out. They will sell everything cheap so either I'll profit or the pawnshop with profit. When they needed cash they would call with something to sell. One day I got a call about an xbox one for $100. Came with 2 controllers and 5 games. I of course bought it and brought it home. It was a nice warm day and I was to cheap to turn my ac on so I took off my shirt and carried it all into my living room where I proceeded to play for about 20 minutes or so. My stomach started itching.... And then burning... It was horrible. I grabbed a shower but it didn't help. Not knowing what to do I went to my dr. By this point I had blisters all over my belly. Turns out that it was in the area of a meth lab at some point and that's what can happen when you get that crap in contact with your skin. About $1k in dr bills and a scarred up stomach later I've learned my lesson. I'm sure to wipe down everything I bring into my house. Oh and I took down my cards lol.

 

[AlienLifeForm]

I once had a great idea. I'd just put my cards up where all the druggies hang out. They will sell everything cheap so either I'll profit or the pawnshop with profit. When they needed cash they would call with something to sell. One day I got a call about an xbox one for $100. Came with 2 controllers and 5 games. I of course bought it and brought it home. It was a nice warm day and I was to cheap to turn my ac on so I took off my shirt and carried it all into my living room where I proceeded to play for about 20 minutes or so. My stomach started itching.... And then burning... It was horrible. I grabbed a shower but it didn't help. Not knowing what to do I went to my dr. By this point I had blisters all over my belly. Turns out that it was in the area of a meth lab at some point and that's what can happen when you get that crap in contact with your skin. About $1k in dr bills and a scarred up stomach later I've learned my lesson. I'm sure to wipe down everything I bring into my house. Oh and I took down my cards lol.

Not to mention most of their "merchandise" is likely stolen, you don't want to get caught with a hot potato.

 

[The_Piratess]

Hey silverdollarbill,

Sorry to hear about what happened. I am an apitherapist and the only known, medically proven cure for MRSA is Manuka Honey found only in New Zealand. You need to put some Manuka Honey with a high, UMF Factor directly on the affected areas and then cover with bandages. It will completely clear it up quickly and stop it from spreading as it is very contagious! Also there are no bad side effects from having to take medications which may, or may not work and take much longer to clear it up if they even do. They use it in hospitals all over the world for burns, wounds and after surgical procedures which is why they don't have MRSA epidemics like we do here. I purchase mine for myself and practice from ApiHealth online in New Zealand.

 

[GibH]

Hey silverdollarbill,

Sorry to hear about what happened. I am an apitherapist and the only known, medically proven cure for MRSA is Manuka Honey found only in New Zealand. You need to put some Manuka Honey with a high, UMF Factor directly on the affected areas and then cover with bandages. It will completely clear it up quickly and stop it from spreading as it is very contagious! Also there are no bad side effects from having to take medications which may, or may not work and take much longer to clear it up if they even do. They use it in hospitals all over the world for burns, wounds and after surgical procedures which is why they don't have MRSA epidemics like we do here. I purchase mine for myself and practice from ApiHealth online in New Zealand.

Good info to have. I'm sure doctors here won't want that known though. If it got to be too widely used, big pharma would have the FDA ban it's import, or figure out a way to get a patent on it.


Oh, and WELCOME to the forum.

 

[billjustbill]

Did you know that if you catch MRSA from your Doctor or Hospital, that they can be paid for treating the disease they give you?
The most likely places to encounter MRSA are Hospitals, nursing homes, and YOUR DOCTOR'S OFFICE.

Have a friend who is in a rehab facility for long term issues. He developed pneumonia in one lung and by the time they sent him to the hospital, it developed into double pneumonia. His "hospitalist" doctor said that nursing homes can develop their own strain variants of this type of lung congestion which can be worse. He said he has found that patients from places like that usually have to stay on antibiotics TWICE as long.... So, when you go visit residents of places like this, make sure you use a lot of antibacterial hand sanitizing gel, and consider doing something for the bottom of your shoes, too.

As for myself, the only issue I've had came with an estate sale. The past owner had a garage full of woodworking hand tools and can after can of parts. He had been away from his home for over a year and everything was coated with a super-fine dust. I made the mistake of rubbing one of my eyes with my dust coated fingers. Later that afternoon, my eye and eyelid began to itch, weep, and turn red. My eye felt like it constantly had grit in it. Several days before Thanksgiving, it spread to the other eye. Through the goodness of my local optometrist, he prescribed a surface cream and an eyewash that got the condition under control in short order.

I'm now prepared with a soft, zipper nylon bag "Estate/Garage Sale Kit" I toss in the backseat.... It has a 20oz. pump-jug of the sanitizer sealed in a Zip-Loc baggie, a roll of soft paper towels, some wet packs of eyeglass cleaner, and a bottle of drinking and washing water for those greasy items.... After reading Dan's experience and advice, I added a can of Raid bug spray found at Sunday's half-off estate sale and some closable trash bags......

Hope you try the Honey and get/stay well!

Bill

 

[silverdollarbill]

Hey silverdollarbill,

Sorry to hear about what happened. I am an apitherapist and the only known, medically proven cure for MRSA is Manuka Honey found only in New Zealand. You need to put some Manuka Honey with a high, UMF Factor directly on the affected areas and then cover with bandages. It will completely clear it up quickly and stop it from spreading as it is very contagious! Also there are no bad side effects from having to take medications which may, or may not work and take much longer to clear it up if they even do. They use it in hospitals all over the world for burns, wounds and after surgical procedures which is why they don't have MRSA epidemics like we do here. I purchase mine for myself and practice from ApiHealth online in New Zealand.

Thanks for the kinds words everyone and thank you Treasure Queen for the tip. I never heard about manuka honey before. With my particular case, I was at a point where I was not going to mess around with a non-traditional solution, but will try it out if I am ever this unlucky in the future.

I looked at the apihealth site. Manuka honey is NOT cheap! What UMF rating do you recommend? From what I read, anything 10+ is sufficient. Also, I have a 9 month old with eczema. Any recommendations?

I now keep a sanitization pack in my car for garage sale finds. I also keep a couple industrial sized garbage bags for the larger items.

 

[against the wind]

I live in complex of 110 buildings in NYC.
Every year they have a one day flea market. Great way to clean house and meet your neighbors.
There is a fear of Bedbugs. Management will not allow the sale of clothing or furniture.

 

[jodan3399]

I'm a junk picker. But extra careful about it...so one real horror story...and nothing like MRSA thankfully.

Thin and thick Gloves (you can get medical grade by the case, leather for loading stuff), sanitizer, wipes, flashlight, and...I have a truck so nothing ever goes in the cab.

Tips:
Use gloves (when possible, especially if trash picking).

Use a stick or something handy to poke through random boxes of stuff at estate sales, think twice before you stick your hand in and start digging. (I've found more spiders and mice than I care to talk about). Brown recluse are plentiful in this area.

Flashlight. Not just any one, get a nice black light (they pick up everything from bedbugs to cat pee on that rare antique chair you can't believe they only want $2.00 for).

That said...as careful as I try to be, you can never really prepare for the unexpected...SO helped a friend move a loveseat to his house that someone gave him, came home passed out on the brand new bed for a nap...and yep, you guessed it...bedbugs. I freaked. Friend called 2 days later and said, yep, the loveseat was infested he had to burn it, guy was scared to death to come over for coffee or call for the next 6 months, because he knows I'm a little OCD as it is.

To say I was ready to ready to choke him was an understatement.

I bought covers for the mattress and box springs, sprinkled diatomaceous earth inside...sealed them and nuked the entire bedroom with diatomaceous earth (twice)...b*tch to clean up, but it works wonders if you should you even get them. We just got rid of all our carpet last year and put down laminate, I didn't find so much as one tiny ant in that room while ripping up the old carpet.

 

[CoinRoller]

Good luck! Had my own staph infection back in 2009 and it didn't exactly leave me unmarked - physically, or emotionally. One thing: Be careful on the antibiotics they give you. Sometimes the cure is damn near as bad as the initial ailment. Be sure to take in lots of probiotics to keep your stomach flora up to snuff

 

[Beachkid23]

The brown recluse scares me down here in Florida too. A friend got bit in and almost died. He was in the hospital for probably a month and had numerous surgeries. Huge medical bill and he spent the night at his mother-in-law's house when he got bit. His kids were sleeping all around. If it bit one of them they probably would've died. I've never even seen one. I hate spiders in general... but I know there around here. I'll mess with a snake any day of the week before I mess with a spider in Florida!