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Hello Gingerhands. It is more than likely your mom's eye infection came from hand contact to her eye. We all touch our eyes, and unfortunately our hands pick up all kinds of bacteria easily transferred especially to the eye area. Of course, hand washing is imperative! Particularly important after any toileting. All kinds of flora live in our digestive tract and in fecal matter. I work for a GI doctor and he constantly stresses the importance of closing the toilet seat prior to flushing as well. So keeping the bathroom area sanitized and clean is important as well. A pathogen like staff infection is easily transferred, not only from one body part to another, but to other people. Since she has this infection you and others caring for her need to be very careful. Bacteria clings to clothing, towels, etc. so make sure she has her own things and clean often. Seriously, cannot stress the importance of hand washing enough. It's a nursing "rule" that we wash hands as long as it takes to sing happy birthday! She is under a doctors care for her ulceration right? If she has been prescribed eye drops make sure the bottle does not come in direct contact with any part of her eye. I know it seems a bit over zealous to stress cleanliness, but you don't want permanent eye damage and staff to spread elsewhere or to others. Also, I don't think this is about anyone being "dirty" since staff is prevalent everywhere. Good luck and I hope this is helpful.
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POOP. Wash hands often, and with soft soap - not bar soap. Also, coumadin causes eye problems, like massive blood clots right on the eyeball that will eventually burst. These two things happened to the lady I take care of, and is just my experience.
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I picked up a freak, antibiotic resistant infection in one of my fingers a little over a year ago. It was so bizarre. It caused severe pain and disability for months, had 3 surgeries, 4 doctors to help me. They said it can happen to anyone and who's to say how. I just touched something with that particular bug. What's so odd is that I do wash my hands frequently. I'm very diligent about it. When I can't, I sanitize.

One of the doctors told me that the worst germs come from our own mouths! lol I use a lot of Listerine now.
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Although poor hand hygiene may spread staph it is not associated with feces. Staph is a common bacteria. From the Mayo Clinic website:

"Many people carry staph bacteria and never develop staph infections. However, if you develop a staph infection, there's a good chance that it's from bacteria you've been carrying around for some time.

These bacteria can also be transmitted from person to person. Because staph bacteria are so hardy, they can live on inanimate objects such as pillowcases or towels long enough to transfer to the next person who touches them."
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I don't know if this is true of your mother, but I have observed that older people do rub at their eyes a lot - we tend to have overheated, dry atmospheres in our homes, maybe that's got something to do with it?

And if your mother is constantly fidgeting at her eyes, then she could easily have introduced the staph which she could easily have picked up from almost anywhere. I'm sorry to learn that she developed an ulcer from this infection, though - is it healing now?

Also styes - can't remember which bacterium is the usual suspect with styes. I'll look it up.
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Usually caused by a staphylococcal infection. Well, there you go then. It had probably been lurking in her eyelashes for donkeys' years.
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My mom's opthamologist suggested she wash her eyelashes with baby shampoo. Have you heard of that?
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It's so funny you ask that, Sunny; I was going to post about that but decided it was extraneous. YES! It's the best way of keeping the bad stuff out of one's eyes. My mother was quite dubious about this when her geriatrician suggested it, but one of my daughters, as a teenager, kept getting infections in her eyelids; "marginal blepheritis" they called it. Doing a good scrub with baby shampoo stopped that.

I think the doctor had my mother scrub her eyelashes once a week as maintenance after whatever issue she had subsided; he initially had her do it every day.
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Sunnygirl, My neighbor just told me about her thumb joint swelling and urgent care just said it was arthritis. Then her doctor diagnosed a cuticle infection. Her beautiful fingernails were done georgeous-like! After talking, I agreed she should remove the polish and any fake nail, cause it just makes common sense that would add to the problem, or even be the source?
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I've been coping for over 4 months with what was diagnosed on culture as impetigo (staph bacteria but not the MRSA kind) in my nasal passages that spread to my lips. The dermatologist told me I could have been a carrier all these years and/or could have gotten it from "anywhere," no good explanation given. Believe me, there's nothing funny about it; it can be painful and definitely not pretty to look at. I found people online of all ages who suffer with recurrences of staph and also have had a hard time getting much help with it. I'm 62 and never had this before, but it's been a nightmare that has finally improved; at first, it kept recurring despite the fact I was prescribed mupirocin and 2% hydrocortisone creams. I thought I was being clean enough but now really concentrate on handwashing very often, changing towels, even pillow cases more often if I have a flare. I now know I have to keep clean Kleenex and hand cleaner in my purse at all times. The flares can come with stress or even change of season. (I know mom didn't have it, though at first I thought I got it from taking care of her in my home these last 3 years).
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My 82 yr father gets ulcers in his eyes. His is caused by a herpies complex. Has to use drops daily, at one point it destroyed his cornea. Good luck
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I am 62 and was diagnosed with HSV in my eye last year. after seeing seven physicians it was finally correctly diagnosed. I am on daily antiviral medications and steroid drops. The herpes virus lays dormant in the trigeminal nerve and flares up under periods of major stress. It's like having the Shingles virus in the eye. Extremely painful and cannot be cured, just the flare ups maintained.
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No matter how careful you are, you're going to p/u germs (think restaurant door handle)..especially guys do not wash their hands often enough.
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