IMMEDIATE ADVICE REQUESTED...stepped on a nail...alternatives to tetanus shot?

[kaybee]

Hi--

would be grateful for advice

I was swimming in a lake this morning and stepped on something sharp. when i pulled my foot up out of the water there was a short nail sticking out, like a tacking nail or somethign. . i pulled it out, it was probably in 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch. not really far in and it didnt hurt much except the initial puncture. when i pulled it out it appeared that there was dark-colored stuff left under the skin. the wound was small, though the surface edges of it were more like a cut rather than a puncture, the nail had a sort of wide end on it. it was difficult to tell if there was rust on the nail or not. 1. DOES ANYONE KNOW IF TETANUS CAN SURVIVE IN WATER? IF IT DOESNT, THEN IM PROBABLY OK, AS THIS IS A SELDOM-USED LAKE AND LIKELY THE NAIL HAD BEEN IN THERE FROM QUITE SOME TIME... i should also add that i know that tetanus lives in animal faeces and there is potential for there to be some minor contamination in this lake from sheep droppings as there are loose sheep grazing sporadically in the surrounding mountains; again, the question would be whether the bacterium survives in water or not.

in any case, i tried to make the wound bleed as much as possible by squeezing it and trying to hold the edges apart. it appears that i got the dark-colored stuff out though i cant say for sure. i got it to bleed some but not profusely. i could not wash it well with soapy water at the time as there was none. when i got home i soaked it in salt water and applied lavender essential oil (which is supposed to be antibacterial), but the wound had already begun to close at this point so im not sure how effective that was...

i have not had a tetanus shot in about 13 years or so and am pretty opposed to getting one now. i dont want to die either though ;) ive been raw most of the time for the past year and a half or so, and im concerned about introducing the vaccine chemicals/preservatives into my body; i find my body to be super-sensitive even to things like consuming alcohol and caffeine, and i hate to put mercury, etc. in there..... i am pretty careful about the things i put in and on my body.... I also cant afford to be sick from the vaccine at this point as im living abroad and also in the middle of working on my thesis.... though i cant afford to be sick from tetanus either... However i also dont really want to risk dealing with the potential consequences of the vaccine chemicals such as "brain fog" , which i am already dealing with on a regular basis as a result of another (as-yet-undiagnosed) condition anyway.

are there other steps i can take to avoid infection? what do people who are anti-vaccine do when they find themselves in a situation like this? what are the alternatives? can i wait and see if the site swells up and turns red as an indicator of infection, or will it be too late then?

the info i have found on the internet suggests the following as alternatieves:

-propylactic antiobiotics such as metronidazole and penicillin which will inhibit the tetanus toxin

and/or TIG shots or tetanus immune globin, which gives immediate immunity into the system for 3 weeks.

HOWEVER, antibiotics dont seem like the best idea, thats potentially introducing a whole new set of problems,... and

as for the TIG shots....dont they contain mercury etc as well? so wouldnt that defeat the purpose of avoiding the vaccine in the first place?

as far as i am aware i only have access to regular allopathic doctors in the area.

advice much appreciated.

thanks much

kaybee

[Revvell]

If the wound is still open, pack it with cayenne pepper. It wont hurt as much as you'd think. Cayenne will get the wound bleeding if necessary, cauterize and not leave a scar.

Revvell

[Bobbie]

Ouch! That sounds painful and I'm sorry you've had to go through that. You were brave to hold the wound apart and try to make it bleed I'd be too wimpy to do that! I was cringing just reading about it.

I trod on a nail when I was about 9, it was sticking straight up and I trod right on it, which left a huge wound and took ages to heal and was really painful (I had to go to school wearing slippers for ages) - but I didn't receive a tetanus shot, and I didn't die. I was on a very junky cooked meaty diet and in very poor health. So I should think on a healthy raw vegan diet, your body should be capable of protecting you, without the need for any injections. As you said, the mercury and bad stuff in the shot would be really harmful to a raw body.

Coconut is a really powerful anti-bacterial, and has been known to heal people of Aids. The dosage was half a coconut per day. Colloidal silver is supposed to be good, but its never worked for me. Manuka honey is effective but expensive. Ozone will kill anything (anything nasty) so ozonated olive oil or ozonated water if you have access to any...

I hope it gets better soon.

[codajess]

Healing people of aids???

[ccrider]

I would consult a doctor - even if it's a natural one to be safe

Everyone here means well - but if they're not doctors it's just guessing which is fine for minor issues but not really okay for bigger ones

I wouldn't risk my health in the end - I'm sure you can find and a solution that sits well from you BUT comes from someone who really knows

That's just me

[freelive]

I had similar accident-except my nail was not in the water, and it went almost all the way(I could see the other end on the top of my foot, even though top end did not cut the skin through. I was actually shaking for a while, it was bad. At first I just sat at home for a few days, because it was too painful to walk and I could not fit into shoe. But it kept getting worse, so my dad brought me to the emergency room. At that time I did not know about vaccine dangers, so I just let them vaccine me.
On the other hand I read that of British solders, who got tetanus, all of these who survived - were not vaccined...It is a tough choice. I am definetely agains routine vaccination, but when you have this kind of wound(which most people do not get in their lifetimes!), I don't know...

[Revvell]

So, what happened to KayBee? 3 days later and no report/response?

[kaybee]

hey revvell--sorry--the internet connection here is such that i have to go down the dirt road and sit on a stone wall outside the neighbors house in order to pick up anyones signal, as im living in a caravan at the moment, and if its raining, i cant do it cuz no internet...so, my internet access is rather spotty, to say the least..

the wound was already pretty much closed so i couldnt pack it with cayenne or anything...i got some goldenseal tincture from the health shop and have kept cotton soaked in it over the site for the last few days and have been taking the goldenseal internally as well as its meant to be a natural antibiotic. i also found on the internet that the homeopathic rememdy LEDUM 50 was recommended for treating/preventing tetanus, but the dosages and times werent listed...all i could get was ledum 6, and frankly i havent been very good about taking it..

i informally spoke to a dr. that i give horseriding lessons to and she said she probably wouldnt worry about it, she said that our bodies do have the ability to fight of tetanus, even if we havent been vaccinated in the past, (which i have anyway, just not for 13 yrs), and said that when they were kids they all did stuff like this and never got tetanus and werent vaccinated later. she said to keep an eye on it if it got red or the redness started to spread or if the glands in my groin got inflamed. she said i could go get the tetanus shot if i wanted, but she understood my hesitancy to do so if I didnt absolutely have to, and also given that theres already something going on with my body for the last year and a half or so that even doctors havent been able to pin down, so adding in more junk (mercury, formaldehyde derivatives, etc), isnt really preferable.. anyway she said to give it a few days. if i had actually gone to a dr here, she said they probably would have recommended the shot as standard practice, as everywhere else, but told me to give it a few days.

there is no redness or swelling, so hopefully it'll be OK. Ive read that britain now just recommends the vaccine series of 3 in children and then 2 boosters and then dont seem to require additional shots because the antibody levels are high enuff.... seems like theres a lot of vagueness surrounding the whole issue of tetanus.

What im still wondering is what do parents who choose not to vaccinate do when their kids step on a rusty nail, etc?? seems like there are a lot of people who choose not to vaccinate, so they must run into this situation...how do they deal with it?


kaybee

[Revvell]

Thank you for the update.

I think many would do what you're doing IF they do the research. I dunno though. IF I had children, I'd do what I said or what you're doing. Hopefully others will respond. I'd be interested in knowing as well.

You're living in a caravan? Would you mind expanding on that please? I don't want to just "assume" stuff... I'm curious as to what that really is as I don't know of an equivalent here. Thanks! :)

Revvell