How often do you wash your hands now?

[Aladdin]

It was happy birthday twice, wasn't it?

Never sang that.

I usually end up with this...in my head though. Not out loud.


Eta double time.


Sometimes this..



Or

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Does anyone actually do it for twenty seconds?

I found that twenty seconds was the length of time it took me to walk to the window, look out of it, sigh, then walk back to the sink. So that has proved a useful timing system.

 

[SheilaNaGig]

The posters and ads I saw made me aware of the need to wash my wrists as well. Can’t say I paid them much attention for hand washing before this.

I’m pretty much stuck at home alone so once I’m indoors and I’ve sanitised my phone and earbuds I’m not washing my hands unless they need it. I don’t wash my hands after I pee at home although I do when I’m out. Always wash hands before handling food, kitchen items etc. Always wash after bringing in shopping, post etc. Always wash after coming in from the garden (unless I end not touching anything at all).

Wash my hands before going out and as soon as I’m indoors, even if only to the shop over the road. When I’m in the shop (one afternoon a week) I’ll wash my hands about once an hour and definitely before and after touching anyone or handling money.

I’d agree that if you’re not washing your hands for 20 seconds you’re not being thorough. And I make sure to scrub my fingernails too, when I can and definitely on coming indoors.

I’m so much more aware of the things I touch these days, and just of when I touch stuff.

It makes me think of biblically muddy festivals, how conscious you need to be to keep the mud out of your pockets, wallet, hair, tent etc. Once I clicked onto how similar it is to be on duty for the virus and for the mud, I just dug into the learned skill and that made it easier. Just that quick mental check “did I touch that... is this clean... what order should I do this in to stay clean...?”

I made a decision to stop sterilising my shopping. It was taking so long, the reports about viral particles on surfaces as a vector for the illness were reassuring, no one I spoke to who was not doing it had got sick, and I was in danger of becoming pathologically OCD about it. So I worked up to it for a week and then gradually reduced the cleaning I was doing. I’m still far more careful than I ever used to be, like I’ll discard most wrappers and store stuff in containers, but I no longer wash everything down.

 

[SheilaNaGig]

If someone come see to my place and goes indoors for a pee I’ll clean the loo and all door handles light switches etc as soon as they’ve left.

 

[Espresso]

I don't think I wash my hands now any more than I ever did. Before and after I go to the loo and when I get in from being anywhere outside and when I cook something or sneeze or cough into a tissue.
That reminds me of years ago when I was at work with a bit of a cold - my workplace then was very much of the mindset that unless the coroner signed a sicknote for you, you should be at your desk, you sad and soppy malingerer - I was sneezing like a mad thing and had a runny nose and all of that, and after each sneezathon, I chucked the tissues in the bin and popped off to wash my hands. My horrendous arse of a boss told me that I should stop being such a drama queen and that there was no need for all of that running off to the loo and that if I kept it up, she'd have to put me on a warning.
She was a peach and no mistake.

 

[Mrs Miggins]

I don't think I wash my hands now any more than I ever did. Before and after I go to the loo and when I get in from being anywhere outside and when I cook something or sneeze or cough into a tissue.
That reminds me of years ago when I was at work with a bit of a cold - my workplace then was very much of the mindset that unless the coroner signed a sicknote for you, you should be at your desk, you sad and soppy malingerer - I was sneezing like a mad thing and had a runny nose and all of that, and after each sneezathon, I chucked the tissues in the bin and popped off to wash my hands. My horrendous arse of a boss told me that I should stop being such a drama queen and that there was no need for all of that running off to the loo and that if I kept it up, she'd have to put me on a warning.
She was a peach and no mistake.

I really hope that one thing that will come out of this is an end to that culture of going into work if you are sick. Somehow I doubt the effect will last but if it lasts for a few years, that's something.

 

[cloudyday]

I really hope that one thing that will come out of this is an end to that culture of going into work if you are sick. Somehow I doubt the effect will last but if it lasts for a few years, that's something.

The one benefit from all this so far for me has been that the two martyrs that come into work every winter full of cold have not been around. One of them has a runny nose most of the year and gets through a box of hankies a week. Due to a rotar system i've seen neither hide nor hair of them for 6 months thank fuck.

 

[Mrs Miggins]

The one benefit from all this so far for me has been that the two martyrs that come into work every winter full of cold have not been around. One of them has a runny nose most of the year and gets through a box of hankies a week. Due to a rotar system i've seen neither hide nor hair of them for 6 months thank fuck.

We used to make jokes about passing various colds around everyone and my manager states proudly that she's had about 3 sick days in 20 years. It's bullshit. She's just getting over COVID now and I think really should not be in even now. She's knackered and looks terrible. She's not symptomatic any more but she should stay off until she's properly well.

 

[Aladdin]

I really hope that one thing that will come out of this is an end to that culture of going into work if you are sick. Somehow I doubt the effect will last but if it lasts for a few years, that's something.

I remember getting really angry (internally) with a colleague who sat beside me at lunch and coughed and sneezed pretty much in my direction. People all saying "oh your poor thing you're so good to come in so sick".
I sort of lost the plot and just said straight out "no you're not. You should stay at home and stop spreading your germs...and as you do know I'm immunosuppressed then you'll excuse me as I go sit somewhere else".
She came after me later in the day with some intimidatory shite about how she wrote up the duty roster to suit me staying indoors so there! I actually said "so you did your job...and you want me to thank you for doing your job?"
"What's more you're still in my face ... knowing that you are contageous and putting me at risk". She was actually spitting as she spoke to me. She was that pissed off.
She didnt speak to me for 3 years after that. Then she retired.

I sometimes wonder how she is getting on with all this covid precautions.

 

[kalidarkone]

Before I leave the house
Alcohol gel entering work
After I get changed and into my work zone
Before and after every patient room that I enter or patient contact.
After the lav obvs
Alcohol gel before and after entering the canteen.
After I get changed into civvies and leave the changing room.
Alcohol gel before leaving the building.
Wash hands when home from outside.
I estimate at least 15- 20 times a day.
And that is why my hands look like this.....despite moisturising regularly.

Posting from the bath!