I’ve been venturing out a bit more, lately, for various appointments. Wearing a mask in public is both required here in Massachusetts and a no-brainer, for my own health and those around me. But I’m debating whether I always need my second level of protection against Covid: disposable gloves.
I have a stash of gloves that I use for cooking, because I learned long ago that touching raw food with bare hands is an invitation to infected ulcers. So now the question is whether I need to wear them whenever I go out to a place where I may have to purchase something in Covid Time.
Here’s the problem: Inevitably, with credit card terminals, you have to push a button on the screen or use the pen device to do same. I really, really don’t want to touch any surface that’s been touched by so many fingers. Even the most conscientious sales clerk doesn’t sanitize the terminal regularly.
My default up to now has been to go for the extra protection and wear gloves. But sometimes it seems like overkill, and it’s also not great from an environmental standpoint to use all of those disposables that will live forever in a landfill. So this Monday, when I had a meeting that didn’t involve any financial transactions, I skipped the gloves. When I opened the doors to the office building, I pulled my sweater sleeve over my hand so I didn’t have to touch it. I was vigilant about not touching other surfaces. And when I was all through and back in my car, I used hand sanitizer.
Here’s hoping I didn’t miss a step. The whole thought process for a simple trip beyond my home safety zone requires so much concentration, being very mindful of everything I touch to avoid the virus. On the one hand, given my Covid protection protocols, I’m probably at less risk than ever of picking up an infection in one of my digital ulcers. On the other, I’ve still had a few minor infections that I could handle with topical ointment, and one major infection several months ago from having to go gloveless to a medical appointment in a local hospital, per their regulations.
So it goes. I hope you, too, Dear Reader, are doing all you can to keep yourself and your loved ones and anyone else with whom you come in close contact healthy and safe.
Evelyn Herwitz blogs weekly about living fully with chronic disease, the inside of baseballs, turtles and frogs, J.S. Bach, the meaning of life and whatever else she happens to be thinking about at livingwithscleroderma.com. Please view Privacy Policy here.
Image: Emin BAYCAN
I wore gloves for a while to the supermarket, then stopped, not for any very good reason except that all the many, many extra steps in everyday activities that COVID requires become exhausting. How much more so for someone like you, Evie, coping with a chronic disease.
I do have a good collection of gloves. I use the disposables for handling raw meat in the kitchen. I use either some old leather gloves or heavy-duty fabric ones for gardening, and the latter also served as gloves for shopping because they are washable. But the ultimate gloves for all my purposes are the old-fashioned ladies’ rubber gloves for housework, the kind that come half-way
up your arms. You can wash them with hot water and soap while your hands are still in them. They do get muggy inside, however, and probably would not work with finger ulcers.
I have heavy-duty gloves, too, for housework. And, yes, it is a lot of mishegas, but necessary, unfortunately.