Its happened again. Woke up with what looked like to be a spider bite on my butt on Monday, and by Tuesday it had exploded into a boil the size of a thumbnail. Got some antibiotics by Tuesday night from the ER. Thursday morning it had popped and about a tablespoon of gunk came out.
Now its Friday, and its no longer sore, but its still a little hard and there seems to be a white cap developing in the hole, which makes me think it has not fully drained. I have an appointment with the GP later today. Im hoping that he will tell me its fine and to continue with the antibiotics.
There is no way Im going back into the hospital for a general anaesthesia for a “lance and drainage”. Im not comfortable with the idea of general anaesthesia and would rather go through the pain with hopefully some help from a bit of local anaesthetic.
What are you/they using to clean the mats? The place I train runs classes all day on the mats, has plenty of accidental shoe’d foot traffic, but there hasn’t been any issues with any sort of infections with anyone. Also, how are you cleaning your gi?
We clean the mats before every class with some disinfecting solution and hot water. About 3 months ago(after my other staph incident) we ha a busy bee day, and spent the whole day pulling up the mats and scrubbing the whole dojo from head to toe.
I chuck my gi and belt straight in the washing machine after training for a 40 minute cycle, cold water, detergent plus some disinfecting solution called canesten (its meant to kill 99% of germs). I then hang up outside in the shade where it would get some direct sun exposure and plenty of air during the day.
I scrub myself in the shower with a loofer and soap straight after training, twice.
Im not sure if whats going on? Is it me? Am I just genetically more predisposed to get staph? Am I training too hard and my immune system is compromised (I do go to the gym on the mornings of BJJ). Maybe its some one at the dojo, or the environment we train in?
I have started to eat raw garlic with my dinner every night (girlfriend loves it), and I am looking into getting some full body spats and rashguards, although Im not convinced that will make much difference.
My only idea would be finding out what the cleaning solution for the mats is composed of/potentially upgrading it. If it’s good strong stuff, maybe your immunities are just not awesome. We have guys who rarely if ever wash their gis but still as a whole the gym has been infection free. Spraying down and mopping the mats nightly seem to cover the bases.
Hate to hear this. It’s so bad I’d rather not hazard a guess. I’ve trained for 13 years (admittedly the same gym/academy) and I’ve never heard anything even remotely this persistent.
@burien_top_team: interesting enough I have been doing BJJ for 2.5 years, and it’s only the last 12 months that this all has happened. And I’m not the only one… we have had 2 bouts of staph breakouts at the dojo.
We mandate wearing rash guards beneath the gi for hygiene reasons at our academy.
I’ve always worn long sleeve rashguards - both under the gi and when doing no gi. Partly for the extra bit of hygiene, partly as an homage to my first favorite grappler, Marcelo Garcia, who always rocked the long sleeves.
For better or worse, our academy (Gracie Barra) mandates the house brand. I think we used to use Storm, but we may be in the process of transitioning to another company …
It’s happened again. This time in my armpit. Luckily enough it wasn’t too large or too deep, and the GP was able to lance it.
Admittedly, the past month I have been placing myself with huge amount of stress from an increase workload at work, 4 strength sessions, 3 BJJ sessions and 2 boxing sessions a week. I think my immune system just too a dive and the staph set in.
I’m now planning to program a deload week every 5-6 weeks where I will limit myself to 2-3 activities in that week. Usually I don’t program deloads as usually there is something in life that comes up that will have the impact of reducing my training for sometime.
Anyway, now I have 2 weeks off as I wait for this hole in my armpit to heal.
Bird,
Thought of you when I saw this was being used by SWAT teams to clean up after a narcotics raid. I have never used it myself, so, cannot say if it is worth a shit. They have an IG page also.
Hey man - when active I was around mats all the time
you got to CLEAN everything.
Like a kitchen.
Defense soap or the one Idaho mentions
are good use that shit at home.
Or even get one of the ones that burns your eyes from fumes
that they use for ringworm.
Tea tree oil or tea tree soap is great too- for feet etc.
and BLEACH
mop matts 5x a day if you have too
NO shoes. and use HOT water and BLEACH.
yeah im heavy on the shouting -but grappling and hygene
need to go hand in hand.
Luckily my latest episode only had me off the mats for 2 weeks. I’ve kind of figured it happens to me when I am overtraining/overtired, and hence the immune system is vulnerable.
I have now added a chloramphenicol rinse to my shower routine, which I use after I have soaped up and scrubbed a little. Not sure if this is effective, but Im willing to try anything may help.
Have they done a test on your infections to check for MRSA? I had it on and off for years, it’s just a particular type of staph that’s resistant to some antibiotics. It would come about every few months for me. Very annoying.
Haven’t had any reoccurrences lately, although I think I woke up with a pimple on my calf this morning that looks typical of my previous staph infections, although I’m not worried about it as it’s very superficial and should self resolve.
I think I had worked out that I was prone to these infections when tired and run down. I’m paying more attention to recovery and try to have a dip in the ocean most days and spend more time in the sun for direct contact.