A little backstory: Though I'm a barefooter, I work at a job that requires me by policy to wear socks and shoes. Because of that, I spend about nine hours a day in minimalist footwear five days of the week. Evenings and weekends are my barefoot time. Sometimes I can go barefoot for a three-day weekend for those few official Monday holidays. Because of all this, the longest that I've consecutively gone barefoot was a meager 86 hours from a Friday evening to Tuesday morning on a holiday weekend. Not bad, but as a barefooter I long to go sans shoes as much as possible.
So I went barefoot into the E.R. with my wife. I figured at the time, "Hey, why not? I've never gone barefoot in a hospital before." Two hospital staff members -- both nurses -- warned me about doing this.* The first nurse raised concerns that "you never know" what's on the floors of a hospital E.R. room. I asked if they clean the floors regularly and she replied that yes, they do, but they still see people with various viruses and bacteria in there including MRSA. Her recommendation: Clean my feet really well when I get the chance. The second nurse shared the same thoughts as the first. I told her that I have no open wounds on my feet and she said that such infections can be spread through the smallest of wounds -- even ones we can't see. Ooookayyy. I wasn't terribly concerned about their comments, but my feet were pretty dirty when I got home, so I cleaned them...and put hand sanitizer on them...just because.
Wednesday & Thursday, Days 1 & 2
Over the next two days of my wife's stay in the hospital for tests -- everything turned out okay -- I visited her only in bare feet. I didn't even take shoes into the facility. If, at the end of the day, I felt like my feet were overly dirty, I'd wipe them off with baby wipes or even wash them in the bathroom tub. No big deal and my feet turned out fine.
I'm amazed that, of all the places that you'd think the floors should be especially clean, people think hospital floors are some of the dirtiest. That certainly doesn't bolster my confidence in our health care system. Nevertheless, I see hospital floors as most any others: Yes, there might be something icky stuff on them, but the risks are very low for dangerous exposure or foot infection.
By the time I took Glenda home on Thursday afternoon, I'd gone nearly 48 hours totally barefoot. Not anywhere close to a record, for sure, as that's standard practice for a weekend. I anticipated returning to work the next day and my barefoot streak ending until...
At dinner that evening, I asked Glenda if she was sure she'd be fine the next day with me going back to work. She surprisingly shared that she wasn't sure -- I say "surprisingly" because she hates to inconvenience others for her own benefit, so I realized she was still struggling. Having spent more than two days in a hospital bed and still feeling some after-effects of the stay, she was hoping I could stay home Friday to make sure everything went smoothly. I agreed that was best and called my manager to let him know I wouldn't be back until after the holiday.
Then I realized the serendipitous stroke of barefoot luck that had been dropped in my lap! I'd already gone without shoes for two days and now I had the opportunity to go four more! Most excellent! Not only could I spend more time with my wife -- which cannot be understated -- but I could keep my feet bare longer than I'd ever been able to since taking on this lifestyle. If I kept my shoes off, that barefoot span would definitely break my previous record AND allow me to go almost a week unshod. I was nearly giddy with anticipation of the long weekend ahead.
Next, Part II: Barefoot About the Town
Let's have some feedback. What do you think about my choice to go barefoot in a hospital? Do you think that hospital floors are disproportionately unhygienic compared to other indoor surfaces? Was I taking an unnecessary risk? Was it inappropriate? Please leave your comments below.
* - This post originally mentioned only one nurse. It seems as though my wife's memory is better than mine and that I was merging the conversations with TWO people into one story. That's since been remedied.
I've been barefoot in hospitals a lot in the past five years, accompanying my mother for surgeries and chemotherapy. Out of the dozens of medical personnel we've met (she was in two separate locations, for 10-14 days at a time, and I also went with her to see several different specialists before they diagnosed her) only a few have commented on my feet. Two or three nurses out of all of them did warn me in a similar way, but I said similar things that you did -our skin is made to keep pathogens out, and also I added my favorite argument, that we're far more likely to catch something through our hands than through our feet. The ones I spoke to quickly agreed that I was right, they could see I knew what I was talking about and was not just barefoot out of carelessness, & their warning had been mostly a knee-jerk reaction when seeing something they'd never seen before (going barefoot is *really* rare here).
ReplyDeleteI do agree with the nurses that even though they clean a lot in hospitals, it's still a place where there might be more and especially more different pathogens than in other places. But as long as visitors can still walk around without gloves, I feel okay walking around barefoot too. I do however wash both hands and feet more carefully than when I've been on a shopping trip! I always wash up hands and feet with anti-bacterial soap when coming home, and also I wash my hands when at the hospital before helping my mother with food or drinks. Interestingly enough, out of the many times I was there at lunch time together with several other visitors/partners/family members, different people each time, I have NOT ONCE seen one of the others wash their hands before they helped their loved ones. Only the nurses washed their hands at the sink in the chemotherapy treatment room, the friends/family just sat around reading the magazines (the same stack that's laying around for many weeks, touched and read by dozens of people, patients and visitors), then they got up and poured drinks, helped with lunch etc without a second thought. It's not our feet we should worry about most, folks!
I think as long as you didn't have any open soars, you were fine. I'm surprised to hear your feet were "pretty dirty" from walking on their floors, but it's nice to know I'm not the only one who uses hand sanitizer on their feet.
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