Fun with Gym Fungus – Adventures with Bacteria from the Gym

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I was lifting weights here in Brazil in January.   The gym is pretty dirty and none of the employees is given  the responsibility to clean them.  They have a “Use Of Towel Mandatory” sign up but I did not worry.  I would go during the day and be a monster. I had a shirt on but in Brazil that time of year its pretty humid. Very quickly I would end up with a soaked shirt.

Little did I know there was a funky bacteria lurking on the equipment.  I got sick feeling 2 times.  The first time I recovered ok.  The second time I felt feverish but the more interesting symtom was my shoulders joints hurt pretty badly.  I thought this was because I was a monster on the bench press and 46 years of age. Later I saw a rash on my shoulders where my body pressed down as I did bench presses.  Only after a while did I start taking some antibiotic.  I used Amoxicillin due to the fact that its good for local infections.  The 20th of January I had to return to Phoenix Arizona to get a better visa.   At that point the rash cleared up totally due to the fact its so dry in Phoenix.

The only problem is that during a 6 week stay in Phoenix I think I had the symtoms of a head cold 3 times.   Also and worse my right shoulder, which had hurt worse than the left originally in January continued to be stiff and hurt.  I attributed this fact to that I am right handed and probably transfer more force through my right shoulder when I do monster bench presses. 

When I started checking out of Phoenix I had to put a bunch of stuff back in storage. Since I felt a little weird I thought to break out some of the old antibiotics I have from my various trips about.  I took some cipro and low and behold after only 1 dose or 2 my right shoulder felt ALOT better.  When I read the cipro information on page 2  I saw the following:

 

       

Good for ( among other things ) :

Bone and Joint Infections caused by Enterobacter cloacae, Serratia marcescens, or Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

When I got to Brazil I went directly and bought a full script of cipro.  My shoulder is noticably better after only a solid dosing of 24 hours with 3 pills.  I’ll finish this course and buy another ….and then another after that.      

I’m reminded of the story of syphillus and how it used to be transmitted by casual skin contact when people wore less clothing.  After it got to Europe where people wore clothes and bathed it had to morph into a form that could still tranmit.  That form used sexual contact to travel between white europeans who are less touchy feely.

Its a bit of scary thing to have had this.  I felt maybe my heart was acting a little weird. I’m not sure.  But these types of local infections are known for sometimes going to the heart.   Needless to say in the future I will be using a towel that is different colors on each side so I can tell which one to place upwards for contact against my body.  I will not be wanting to repeat this episode.  I’ll be taking a spray bottle of ethyl alcohol as its cheap in Brazil.

 

Health insurance doctor angle:  If I would have gone to a doctor and complained about my right shoulder hurting after lifting weights he would have said ” you’re getting old…do not lift so much”  I have been through the wringer with doctors before. They are next to useless.  I’d rather experiment with the antibiotics myself using the internet.  Very low probability he would have prescribed Cipro had I not pushed for it very hard and made the case about the rash and the gym.

In summary: A

Age was a factor in joint damage. A particularly communicative variety of bacteria opportunistically entered my right shoulder joint due to doing 100 kg bench presses.  Since my shoulders normally do not hurt I think if I avoid exposure by using a towel and spray ethanol as a disinfectant it will not be a problem.  Of the 3 mentioned possible infections I think the 3rd fits the symtoms the best. I assume however there are quite a few more than just 3 bacteria types that like to attack joints.  That being said Cipros effectivity at alleviating the pain of my right shoulder makes me feel with a near 100% certainty that my the joint pain was being caused by bacterial infection. 

See the next story for pychological effects of this episode. Some interesting dream information to be learned.

Epilogue:

I’m starting to think that the antique form of syphillus that is transferred by casual contact is still alive and well or one of its cousins.  Why should a bacteria go extinct just because it went to Europe and morphed into something else because it had to there? …Absolutely no reasons.   While I had no symtoms of urinary tract infections they were mentioned in regards the above bacteria.  I saw a discovery channel program on syphillus that showed bone lesions.  Putting it all together I think I just saw the sasquatch of bacteria.  ( in case you are thinking I’m am out of my skull and got the clap from some girl ….wrong.  I had 2 episodes during the one month time I was going to the aforesaid gym ). I’m certain whatever caused this episode I got at the gym.  And I was not having sex with the sexy trainer they have there so it was from the very dirty equipment they have!   This kind of thing is enough to make you freak out and become a germophobe like Howard Hughes.

However I am thankful that I did not get sometime even worse.

Added note this gym in southern Brazil and VERY humid.  A noted condition that allows bacteria to thrive.