Get hand sanitiser - a, er, dire warning

I fly-fished a local lake on Thursday last week. The river floods had, briefly, overflowed into it. There were a few occasions - biting through nylon, etc - when whatever was on my hands reached my mouth.

Now, I always thought dysentery was severe diarrhea. I now know it's not. Believe me, you don't want what I've got. I'm now on super-strength antibiotics, in real pain, blood emanating from a southerly orifice, and I'm not even close to being out of the woods. If it's amoebic dysentery, I'll be in an isolation ward in hospital. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the tests, and my legs crossed for everything else.

When rivers are in flood, sewage works let the dilution do their work for them, and let untreated waste into rivers. It's not hard to work out where that can lead.

Please, folks, avoid hand to mouth contact while fishing and carry some hand sanitiser, especially before tucking into your sarnies. The irony is that my fly fishing bag has a bottle of the stuff and I didn't use it. Now I know what the alternative feels like, I will be using it from now on....

Ewwww sounds nasty

GWS Mark.

Unlucky Mark, hope you recover soon.
It always makes me laugh to see the drunken antics of the students here in Cambridge.
If they knew what was in the water they would not swim in it.

Truly sorry to hear of your misfortune Mark, and I wish you the speediest recovery.

Isolation wards can be pretty boring and grim places, I hope they have allowed you to take your lappy or I-Pad . . . . .

Best of luck.

Wishing you a speedy recovery Mark, I suspect that, there but for the grace of God, a few more of us would be in the same position.

Ian

Jeez Mark, sorry to hear that. Hope you get yourself on the mend very soon!

Hope the tests prove favourable Mark and wish you a speedy recovery.
Jerry

Thanks for your Get Well Soons. I'll be back on the bank soon; I'm quite a tough little runt.

What really sticks in the craw is that I spent £16 on that evening ticket, and dysentery is all I caught!

MarkTheSpark said:

What really sticks in the craw is that I spent £16 on that evening ticket, and dysentery is all I caught!

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LOL, I reckon you'll steer clear of the place in future !

As you say our rivers are full of god only knows what sheeeeeit and deffo not clean enough to get the water into our mouths. I'm amazed that in this day and age the sewage companies are allowed to discharge into our rivers even when they're in flood ! Everytime there's been a bit of water going through my local rivers there's womens jam raggs hanging from branches and often they're still full of jam mg: On many occassion i've actually reeled one in...not the best thing to try and unhook, infact I don't I cut my line and put a sod of grass onto it or similar.

I remember hooking a chub in a small local river, it was a tight spot and I had to pass my rod round a tree to my other hand and was leaning on the tree to get my hands round. I felt a cold wet sensation on my chest and noticed it was a jam ragg left there from the recent high water !! Needless to say I went straight home and put my clothes on a boil wash. Then I had a bath in bleach .

Anyhow Mark, here's hopin you get well asap

Get well soon mate

Paul

Thanks for the warnings Mark and hope you get better soon

You never know the moment, get well soon mate, advice noted

All the best for a speedy recovery, Mark.

Two friends of mine, one caught Weills Disease, one Lymes Disease while fishing in the last few years.

TAKE CARE EVERYBODY.

Extremely bad luck Mark, hope your soon on the road to recovery.

That doesnt sound good Mark,you get well and get back to chasing the fish mate.
Excuse my ignorance Simon but what is Lymes disease?

alan whittington said:

That doesnt sound good Mark,you get well and get back to chasing the fish mate.
Excuse my ignorance Simon but what is Lymes disease?

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It's a particularly nasty one carried by Deer/Sheep Ticks. While stalking some fish in a wooded margin, laying down in the leaf litter for a few minutes at a time, the ticks climbed up on to his legs and bit him.

Knocked him out for damn near a year.

Simon K said:

It's a particularly nasty one carried by Deer Ticks. While stalking some fish in a wooded margin, laying down in the leaf litter for a few minutes at a time, the ticks climbed up on to his legs and bit him.

Knocked him out for damn near a year.

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Bloody hell Simon,how did your other mate fare,as weil's disease is often fatal,so they tell us.

He was knocked out for about 8 months plus Alan. Both made pretty much a full recovery although in both cases major organs (kidneys, liver from memory?) were affected and I think they both still feel the odd "twinge" now and again. Very lucky lads.

I don't carry a sanitiser/wipe, but I do rinse my fingers with clean water from a bottle before eating etc. The Lea Valley is renowned for Weills although you won't catch it from lake/river water itself as a general rule, but from where the rats have pee'd, mostly around the swim on land.

best wishes

Hope you get well soon. I certainly hope its not amoebic dysentery for although it can be treated if caught in time it will be more than one course of treatment. I have seen this hit people and without good and fairly swift medical treatment it is extremely serious.

You however are in good hands and it sounds like you are getting treated fingers crossed that it is bacillary dysentery the more common British version.

However I will use your sad example to remind people that plain water rinses for ones hands will not prevent either Weils disease or bacillary dysentery. I am a pretty rough sort of guy in some areas and a very experienced backwoodsman. Anyone even following my homemade bait methods will be aware I am no shrinking violet. Yet in Britain these days I carry and use an hospital quality hand sanitizer and even a couple of pairs of latex gloves, I have seen a good few water test results which were done in Britain and as I have experienced stomach problems of this sort and have no wish to repeat the experience. Contamination can even be from old bait on your hook or the hook itself. You cant see the problem no matter how good your eyes are the parasites and bacteria are just far too small. Sewerage is an increasing problem despite all the talk of clean rivers.

A lot of waterborne problems are quite deadly and the ones that are not will make many a 'tough bloke' wish that he was dead. So don't be a fool and use a sanitizer hand wash and for a secondary warning that towel that you are drying your hands on just might be covered with lethal problems for the unwary. So consider paper towels.

Fish, Birds and some animals always pass excrement and urine while in the water they don't all climb out to go behind a tree or bush, so think about it that dog playing in the water may have just rolled in cow dung. ...hehehe...

It isn't tough, it isn't macho, it isn't butch, it isn't hard, it isn't manly. It's just plain stupid. Plus you can pass the problem on to others including your wife or partner and children, survival is not guaranteed.