This story made me think. When was my last tetanus shot? I think it was about 9 years ago. Guess I”m due. But I’m pregant so I asked the doctor, is it safe to get a shot now? Dr. Macdonald says, it’s not a problem. But she recommends to get it after I have the baby. Now, for those of you who are gardeners or home improvement types, you should get one right away if you’re due! If you can’t remember when your last shot was, call your health care professional and ask them to check your records. Or, if there’s no way to trace it back, it’s okay to get it early. In fact, if you turn up at emerge with a bad cut, and you haven’t had a shot in 5 or 6 years, you’ll get a tetanus shot anyway.
Here’s the story.
Linda Ciuffreda is getting ready to get into her garden.
“I’m one of those lazy gardeners. I get something that’s in full bloom, water when I have to, I’m so good with that.”
And it’s gardeners and home improvement types who should really be thinking about whether their tetanus is up to date.
“Tetanus is an organism typically found in soil or animal feces and it’s everywhere throughout the world,” explains Doctor Judy Macdonald.
“It’s usually in spore form and can enter our bodies through little cuts in our hands or even if you don’t have obvious cuts, it can get through cracks in the skin and cause serious disease, in fact, tetanus can be fatal.”
So when you’re getting your hands dirty this weekend or you’re starting that home improvement project, make sure you’re careful when using tools that can either cut or puncture the skin. And if you do get a wound, clean it immediately.
The standard symptoms of tetanus have lead to the term “lock jaw.”
Doctor Macdonald says, “you can get muscle spasms especially of the jaw and neck muscles just where muscles go into tight spasms and it can also interfere with breathing – so that’s the part that makes it fatal.”
But tetanus is not that common because most canadians have been vaccinated against it. The trick now, is to get that booster every 10 years to keep our immunity up to date.
“In Canada most people would have gotten their last tetanus shot in grade 9,” explains Macdonald, “and unless they’ve been good at keeping up with that, they’re due for another dose.”
Ciuffreda thinks she’s probably due for her booster and plans on getting one soon.
“There’s a clinic not too far way, I’ll walk in and see what they can do for me there.”