jdwat

Sharon!

I hope you're still awake. Please go to the ER!!
I may be paranoid, but I've read about it too. Before I was dx'd I
thought the arthritis in my jaw was tetanus & it was some of the
scariest reading I've ever done.

8 hours is too long to wait, IMO.


Maggie

mair

Sharon,

If you got a cut a week ago, I believe that is too long a period for a
booster to work. When I drove that guitar string through my foot, they told
me at the hospital that I had 72 hours in which to get the booster.

Sharon, I know quite a bit about tetanus, as I have seen it treated. Please
just go to the ER and tell them what happened, as soon as you can.

Mair

sharon

<snip>

I went to my god awful gp today, and he gave me the tetnus booster. He
said that there were about 40 cases of tetnus nationwide last year, and
it's rare, so he said if my pains persist, to let him know. I feel
awful, pain in my jaw and neck and the rest of me has aches and pains,
and I feel like I haven't slept in a week. Could be from the start of
school this week though. I guess I'll go to the er if it gets worse or
if I start to have breathing probs. It seems that's the worst when your
lungs and diaphragm gets affected.

Can you tell me what I should watch for?

Thanks to you Mair and Maggie too! I'm sure I'm just overreacting.
-Sharon

--
"Don't make me come down there..."
-God

jdwat

Hi Sharon!

Hopefully, your GP is right. From what I read, it seems you'd be unable
to open your mouth by now, so hopefully you're just having a flare.
Have you been talking a lot? LOL!

Here's what I pulled off of the internet:
-----
The first symptom of tetanus is often a stiff or "locked" jaw which
prevents the patient from opening his/her mouth or swallowing. This is
also called trismus and results in a facial expression called a sardonic
smile. Stiffness of the neck and other muscles throughout the body and
uncontrollable spasms often follow. Sometimes these convulsions are
severe enough to cause broken bones. The bacterial toxin (tetanospasmin)
affects the nerve endings, causing a continous stimulation of muscles.
Other symptoms include irritability, restlessness, loss of appetite, and
drooling. People with tetanus that is localized experience pain and
tingling only at the wound site and spasms in nearby muscles
-----

HTH,
Maggie

jdwat

Hi Sharon!

Don't put your armor in the attic, but I think we panicked. : ) Better
safe than sorry, huh? Especially for those that haven't had that
booster & are waiting to get a rusty cut before going to get it.

From what I've read; it's not rust, but soil that has the dangerous
bacteria in it. Even a cut/sc**** that you cannot see can give you
tetanus under the right cir***stances.

If your legs started hurting first & then your jaw, then you're no doubt
safe. It *usually* begins with the jaw & spreads to the neck,
shoulders, back & legs, respectively. I couldn't find anything about a
time-line, except for the onset which can vary from 3 to 50 days, (Each
website was different, it seems.) but usually around 10 days.

Hopefully your experience can serve as a warning for our
immuno-supressed gang to strongly consider getting their tetanus booster
if it's due. (every 10 years.)


Hugs,
Maggie

candi bowen

Once I got serum sickness from a tetanus shot; had a temp of 105. Now I have
to get the booster in 3 small doses. It works.

Candi

rep

I wish I'd known that! I got my last booster 2 years ago, and since I
got one as a brat, then at 17, 27 and the last one, they say I'm set for
life. The ones I got at 17 and 27 were severe thumb-injury related; I
figured I better get the last one because I'm running out of ******!

--
"Did Father shoot him? I will eat Grandfather for dinner."
- Helen Keller, on learning of the death of her grandfather