Alpo Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 Sometime in junior high school I stepped on a bone in the backyard, poked a hole in my foot, and Mama took me down and got me a tetanus shot. I thought about that when I was in my fifties - probably need to go get a tetanus booster. Never did it. Maybe three months ago I stepped on a roofing nail, went down and got a tetanus shot. Just now I stepped on a stick. Did not break the skin, but the pointy feel got me to wonder - if I had just stepped on another roofing nail, would I need another tetanus shot, or would the one I got three or four months ago still protect me? Just checked my records. Got the shot October 18th. That's 6 months ago not three. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perro Del Diablo Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 10 years unless step on nail or something I have tendency get them more than that. Wreck one little motorcycle and they say just in case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Father Kit Cool Gun Garth Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 Alpo, Sounds like the best solution to your problem is: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crooked River Pete, SASS 43485 Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 I once asked my Doc that same question, if I remember correctly it was something like, One year if you got cut by a clean( not rusty) piece of metal, a couple months if rusty metal, or animal bite, and if bitten by a human the next day he'd give me another. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172 Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 Watch your step. Alpo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabez Cowboy,SASS # 50129 Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 Every 7 to 10 years under Normal Conditions ... Says my DR. Jabez Cowboy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Four-Eyed Buck,SASS #14795 Posted April 11, 2020 Share Posted April 11, 2020 It's been a few years for me, maybe more than a few now that i think on it. believe it was after I split my lip working on brakes for the wife's friend. Had a couple stitches from that one. I stepped on a nail in the storage barn awhile back. Thought it got through the way it felt. Checked, but found it didn't break the skin. Lucky for me, that thing was rusty and covered with nasties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Widder, SASS #59054 Posted April 11, 2020 Share Posted April 11, 2020 4 hours ago, Jabez Cowboy,SASS # 50129 said: Every 7 to 10 years under Normal Conditions ... Says my DR. Jabez Cowboy Yep, thats about what my Doc tells me. I get a 'booster' about every 5 years whether needed or not. I live by a farm with lots of barbwire and other such rusty stuff. The 'precautionary' booster is just a safety umbrella. P.S. - my dad's older brother died at the age of 5 from stepping on a nail. This would have been in the early 1920's. ..........WIdder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-BAR #18287 Posted April 11, 2020 Share Posted April 11, 2020 If you get a puncture wound, get a booster. No big deal. Why take a chance? Biological variation from one individual to another makes the question moot. You don't know that you have antibodies from a previous vaccination unless a laboratory does a titer test on your own blood. Not everyone responds to vaccinations the same way. Some individuals do not respond to particular vaccinations. I had a veterinary professor who could not respond to rabies vaccinations (veterinarians get vaccinated for rabies because we never know when we will be exposed). He decided to specialize in poultry, because birds do not carry rabies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chickasaw Bill SASS #70001 Posted April 11, 2020 Share Posted April 11, 2020 hum that might be the reason , you foam at the mouth , when a miss is called on them 36s Chickasaw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Riot Posted April 11, 2020 Share Posted April 11, 2020 7 years. I insist on it at 7 years. If you knew me you’d know why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpo Posted April 11, 2020 Author Share Posted April 11, 2020 The booster every 10 years seems to be useless, based on the answers in this thread. Let's say that I did have one every 10 years since the last one in the 8th grade. Spring of eighth grade I was 13. So I have one at 23, 33, 43, 53, and spring when I was 63. Then in October when I was 63 I stepped on that rusty nail. And, according to the answers in the thread, since it was several months after I got that shot when I was 63, I would need another shot. If the shot that I got in April of 2019 would not protect me when I stepped on the rusty nail in October of 2019, why get the shot? It kind of seems like snake bite antivenom. If I get snake bit, I get the antivenom. But if I haven't been snake bit there's no need for it. And if I took some antivenom, every year or every 5 years or every 10 years, and then I got bit, all that antivenom I've been taking over the years would do me no good. I would still need to get an antivenom shot. It is puzzling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-BAR #18287 Posted April 11, 2020 Share Posted April 11, 2020 Repeated vaccinations increase the speed of your immune response. The number of B lymphocytes in your spleen and lymph nodes that have been sensitized to respond to tetanus antigens decreases over time. You probably have a good number available if your last vaccination was a few months ago, but your odds of avoiding the disease improve if you get the number of sensitized lymphocytes as high as possible. No blanket answer since immune systems vary from one individual to another. You make the decision in consultation with your doctor. If I get a deep puncture wound, I’ll gladly take the booster shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chickasaw Bill SASS #70001 Posted April 11, 2020 Share Posted April 11, 2020 J Bar ya been training nurses for the VA ? they like to play darts , with me as the target CB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpo Posted April 11, 2020 Author Share Posted April 11, 2020 J-Bar, that was a quite helpful response. Kinda like your car will go a thousand miles on a tank of gas. You could drive a thousand miles and not put any gas in it, and at the end of the thousand miles it would be empty, or you can stop every couple of hundred and top the tank off, and at the end of the thousand miles you would still have a lot of gas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Rich Posted April 12, 2020 Share Posted April 12, 2020 So, basically the booster is good until you do something to need a tetanus shot for. kR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyrus Cassidy #45437 Posted April 12, 2020 Share Posted April 12, 2020 Every six months the army sends me an email that says, "go get the following shots." I don't even know what most of them are, but for the past 26 years I've felt like a pincushion. I assume every now and then one of those is a tetanus shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-BAR #18287 Posted April 12, 2020 Share Posted April 12, 2020 4 hours ago, Kid Rich said: So, basically the booster is good until you do something to need a tetanus shot for. kR An occasional booster is good insurance against an unidentified exposure. Deep punctures are the classic risk situation, but I personally knew a fellow who developed tetanus from a barbed wire scratch. His old vaccinations provided enough resistance to keep him alive until the doctor could diagnose why his arm felt so funny. The odds are pretty good that each of us has been protected from tetanus infections by our vaccinations several times in our lives and we never realized it. The bacterium is common in the environment and can grow in any anerobic wound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-BAR #18287 Posted April 12, 2020 Share Posted April 12, 2020 2 hours ago, Cyrus Cassidy #45437 said: Every six months the army sends me an email that says, "go get the following shots." I don't even know what most of them are, but for the past 26 years I've felt like a pincushion. I assume every now and then one of those is a tetanus shot. Probably and I hope so! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyrus Cassidy #45437 Posted April 12, 2020 Share Posted April 12, 2020 1 minute ago, J-BAR #18287 said: Probably and I hope so! I'm also immune to anthrax. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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