The Old Folks Home

[Alaskan]

Back in the day docs had an autoclave for sterilization.... all instruments went in including needles... NO ONE uses them any more... I remember watching the stable manager use the same needle on eight horses rinsing it out with Alcohol... Giving immunizations.

The mare I had that was taken back by her original owner died of Hepatitis... I didnt put two and two together till twenty five years later.

deb

Didn't realize horses could get hepatitis. Huh! In humans at least, it is very contagious.

 

[perchie.girl]

Isn't it the polio one that leaves that dime sized scar?

Ok Now I have to go look it up......

 

[Alaskan]

Al, didnt you just say a few pages back that you had a normal, happy childhood?

Uh.... normal and happy are relative?

 

[perchie.girl]

Small pox and BCD both leave a scar like that

BCD is for TB ....

I am sure mine was for small pox... Polio didnt leave a scar.

deb

 

[ronott1]

Small pox and BCD both leave a scar like that

BCD is for TB ....

I am sure mine was for small pox... Polio didnt leave a scar.

deb

Polio was a sugar cube! My kind of vaccine!

 

[Alaskan]

Small pox and BCD both leave a scar like that

BCD is for TB ....

I am sure mine was for small pox... Polio didnt leave a scar.

deb

Ok... sounds right.

My scar doesn't have a label on it.

 

[microchick]

Thank @superchemicalgirl. Just wanted to make sure I was getting this straight.

That smallpox vac. Funny thing, they gave it to me as a kid like 3 times, couldn't get it to take. They finally told me I had natural immunity to it and gave up. Forward 30 years or more, went to a new doc who looked for my smallpox vac scar and when he didn't find it, questioned me. I told him what I had been told and he just guffawed at me. Nobody was naturally immune to smallpox. He insisted on giving me the vac again. I didn't argue told him he was wasting his time and my money. He had me come back in 10 days. I did. With a clear arm....again. He did a double take, checked my chart, checked both my arms shook his head and said, you ARE immune to it. He speculated that maybe I was exposed to a mild form of the virus at some point early on. I just smiled sweetly and couldn't resist telling him 'told ya so!'

I also remember docs sterilizing the old hypodermic needles. Hated those things. Always dull always hurt like H E double toothpicks. But I can remember back in the 70s, we had autoclave-able spinal needles in the supply room. I know that because we used one one night when we were bored to pierce my ears.

 

[ronott1]

Ok... sounds right.

My scar doesn't have a label on it.

Why did scarring occur?
Scars like the smallpox vaccine scar form due to the body’s natural healing process. When the skin is injured (like it is with the smallpox vaccine), the body rapidly responds to repair the tissue. The result is a scar, which is still skin tissue, but the skin fibers are arranged in a single direction instead of various directions like the rest of the skin. Normal skin cells take time to grow while scar tissue can grow more quickly. While the result is protective, people can be left with a visible reminder of skin injury.

For most people, the smallpox scar is a small, round scar that’s lower than the skin around it. Most people’s scars are no bigger than the size of a pencil eraser, although others may have larger scars. Sometimes they can be itchy and the skin feels tighter around them. This is a natural result of scar tissue development.

 

[pertnear09]

Isn't it the polio one that leaves that dime sized scar?

It was on me. It has migrated over the years to where it's between my shoulder and neck now.

Rethinking, it may have been smallpox

 

[WVduckchick]

Amen to that about the shots. Technique is everything. Most folks don't realize that the bulk of the sting comes from not letting the alcohol dry completely after swabbing the site. The needle drags the wet alcohol into the puncture site.

Penny, sorry to hear about the chick.

We had an employee skim 40,000 dollars off the books over several years. They did it so slick that the accountant didn't even catch it. DH finally found out what was going on by checking into the accounting data. We then had to get a forensic accountant involved along with a CPA auditor, state police, it was a nightmare. Turns out we had almost 50,000 dollars gone via embezzlement and identity theft by the same person. They pleaded guilty, got a slap on the wrist, probation, three weekends in jail and public service, and has to pay us back 100 dollars a month or go to jail. Sometimes we only get 35$ though and when we questioned the authorities about it they said they were always responsible about getting the money to them. what a freakin' joke that is.

The moral of this story is, embezzlers unless the amount of money stolen is quite high, generally get off with a pretty light slap on the wrist.

I was just watching a show on Netflix about a woman that embezzled 53 million (million!) from some small town in Illinois over 20 years. The lady had one heck of a horse farm, with a bunch of high dollar quarter horses. Unreal.