Toxic shock syndrome, I'm sure you've heard about it.
And in today's video, we are going to be talking in depth about that condition.
We're going to be dispelling myths and we're going to talk about some very important truths
that you need to know.
So make sure you stay tuned to this video.
[00:00:21] Hey, you all.
Welcome back to my channel.
My name is Quinn CJ.
If you are new, I'm a registered nurse.
I'm also a women's health coach and I am here every single week making videos just for you
about your body.
In today's video, I'm going to be talking about toxic shock syndrome because I feel
like we've all heard about it, but I don't know if we've all heard the correct information
about it.
So today, we going to get it straight.
So I want to try something new.
I want to try something new and I want this to be interactive.
So as I talk to you about it, I'm going to be putting questions right up here, or is
it over here?
I think it's over here.
And you're going to be able to actually answer the questions that I ask you during the video
so you can kind of test your own knowledge.
So if you click the card once I ask you a question, you can actually click and tell
me what you think the answer is.
So, we'll go into that a little bit more, as I get into discussing it and we get to
the very first question.
Alright.
Okay so I think it is pretty safe to say that you don't need anybody that's ever had toxic
shock syndrome, personally.
Is that, can I say that?
I know for me growing up I never knew anybody.
I never actually, as I became, you know, a nurse, I never treated anybody with it.
It was kind of one of those things that was rare.
All I heard was that it was very rare and you get it by using large tampons, right.
Is that what you heard?
If that's what you heard let's go ahead and jump in to the first question.
Question number one, right here.
If that's what you heard go ahead and click that for me and let me know if that's what
you know or that's what you always heard as well.
Okay not to start off with a trick question, but that actually is kind of true and false.
The true part comes in the fact that, yes, toxic shock syndrome is rare.
It is rare.
But you don't only get it by using a large tampon.
That part is false.
Toxic shock syndrome can also be a condition that men get.
It can also be a condition that men get.
I know that one in itself can be pretty eye-opening because you think it relates to a woman and
her period, but no men can get it because toxic shock comes from a bacteria.
So toxic shock syndrome is actually caused by staph or strep A. Staph lives in our body,
it lives in our mouth, in our skin.
Alright so next question.
So next question.
Is toxic shock something that we don't, you know, really need to worry about.
We may get a little ill and then we, you know, get some antibiotics or something and we'll
be alright or is this something that we need to treat as an emergency and get ourselves
on to the emergency room?
What do you think?
Go ahead and answer the question for me right here.
Alright, so the answer to that one is we definitely need to get to the emergency room.
I am going to go on to tell you what the symptoms are for toxic shock and they sound a lot like
the flu.
It sounds a lot like the flu, but it ain't the flu, girl.
It ain't the flu.
You need to be standing about yourself as soon as you can and getting yourself to that
emergency room because toxic shock is life-threatening.
I mean, you can die.
So I want to go ahead right now and show you a clip from Tiffany Haddish.
You may know her from Girl's Trip, she's an actress and comedian.
So she actually contracted toxic shock syndrome when she was younger.
So she's going to tell you about it.
She was actually in an interview with the Breakfast Club.
So just go ahead and watch her speak on it and then I'll be right back.
Now did you really get a toxic shock from a tampon?
Yes!
I got toxic shock.
Yeah, so people can die from that!
[crosstalk 00:04:07] I'm lucky I lived.
You had in too long?
No, I was using a big one.
What happened was..
What do you mean a big one?
I don't know about nothing about no
[crosstalk 00:04:16] They always tell you that the danger of tampons [crosstalk 00:04:18]
Yeah, see?
See?
[crosstalk 00:04:20]
Okay, so, so, so this is like my third period, the third period I ever had and it was, there
was no maxi pads and nothing in the house.
Nothing to use but underneath the sink there was these super absorbent tampons.
So I was like forget it.
I put it in.
So I put it in and I only had it in for about four or five hours, but as soon as I took
it out it started itching, started scratching, and my mom was, my grandmother there, my mom
had come over and my mom was like, "Just give her some Herbalife, that's all she need."
But everything I ate I kept throwing up.
Every time I drank water, throwing up.
My tongue started to like, like I got a big tongue, it started to shrink.
And like..
What?
And then it got so like swollen and little that it was choking me.
I was choking on my tongue.
I had scratched holes in all my skin.
Oh my god.
You know how you go outside chasing the ice cream truck in the summertime.
You know if you go barefoot you burn your feet a little bit?
It was like that all over my body.
Goodness gracious.
Just burnt.
And my grandma was like, "I got to take her to the hospital"
And my momma was like, "Don't take her to the hospital!"
And my grandma was like, "This is why you don't have custody, Leola!
This baby is about to die.
Look at her eyes!"
Like my eyes was sunken, like I was completely dehydrated and so my grandma took me to Children's
Hospital and then the lady, she was like, "Are you having sex?"
And I was like, "No, but I want to!"
She was like, she was like, "Well why are you using tampons?
Are you using?"
She asked me if I used tampons, I said "Yeah, I used one."
She said, "Why you using tampons?"
I said, "Because there was nothing else to use."
"Well are you sure you not having sex?
How did you get it in there?"
I was like, "It took a long time and it hurt really bad, but I got it in there."
And I had put the thing, look [crosstalk 00:06:01]
Look you probably did the same thing I did the first time, cause I don't know how you
knew how to use a tampon [crosstalk 00:06:05]
Oh my goodness.
You put the whole thing in there?
Just put the whole thing [crosstalk 00:06:07]
I did the same thing.
[crosstalk 00:06:09]
It was so uncomfortable [crosstalk 00:06:12]
That's why I was like this sucks.
It doesn't really work.
Yeah, it was so uncomfortable [crosstalk 00:06:14] and then I was like, dang it was hard to walk
and stuff.
I was like, this, I don't know why [crosstalk 00:06:20] girls like this?
And I looked back at the directions like, oh okay.
[crosstalk 00:06:23] And then they make you put one foot up on the toilet, how do I put
it in?
[crosstalk 00:06:29]
Yeah you feel all weird [crosstalk 00:06:29]
TMI.
Then you sit down with the mirror and you're like okay I got to figure out..
So how did they fix it?
How did they fix the..
So, so how did they fix the toxic shock?
So, I ended up having to stay in the hospital for like three days.
They put, they hooked me up with all these IVs and stuff.
It's like, I was 13, got my first PAP smear.
They basically broke my hymen.
They put like fingers in all your holes [crosstalk 00:06:50].
It was the worst [crosstalk 00:06:51] and they was like [inaudible 00:06:53] it was
the worst.
And the lady was telling me, she tell me, "If you ever use tampons again, it will be
like committing suicide.
The reason that you so sick off of the tampon is cause they put a chemical in there that
is the same chemical they put in rat poisoning.
So the bigger the tampon is the more poison is in it so you bleed more.
So, your allergic to this poison and that's why you're sick.
That's why you have the toxic shock.
[crosstalk 00:07:18] Now you can't use, if you ever use it, it's committing suicide.
So I guess if you want to kill yourself, you can use a tampon [crosstalk 00:07:23] you
have to"
Hey you all!
I am so sorry to interrupt, but if you are enjoying this video, consider subscribing
and joining the Q'munity by clicking that red subscribe button under the video and then
tapping the bell right beside it so you notify every time a new video comes out.
I appreciate you and thank you so much for watching.
Now let's go ahead and get back to the video.
Okay so let's go ahead and go to the next question and that is, okay, I already told
you that using a tampon is not the only way that you can get the condition, but is it
or does it put you at a greater risk.
Are you at a greater risk if you're using super plus tampon and you're on your light
day.
So your cycle is very light, and you use the super plus tampon, does that put you at a
greater risk of contracting toxic shock?
You know what to do.
Okay, so the answer is, yes, it actually does put you at a greater risk.
You definitely need to use a tampon that is appropriate for the length or appropriate
for the amount of your cycle if that makes sense, you know what I'm saying.
If this a light day, you need to wear like a regular tampon or is it a light tampon?
I don't know wear tampons anymore, but you need to use a light tampon.
If you're having a super heavy day, then that's the day you wear super heavy.
Not on your light day, don't do that.
If you are using a larger tampon then you need to be using, then that is also helping
to create an environment for bacteria to grow.
So, the bacteria grows, it releases the toxins in to our blood, and that's when the symptoms
come and that's when we are in trouble.
So you might be wondering, is it contagious.
Like, am I going to get it if she got it?
Here you go.
So the answer is no, no.
It's not like an STD and it is not contagious.
Just because I got it does not mean you are at risk of getting it at all.
So to break this down as far as what it is, I want to be real clear, as to what it is
and how you get it.
So, we already have staph and strep living in our nose, in our mouth, and on our skin,
but what happens is if you're wearing a tampon or if you're already sick, if you're wearing
a tampon, that just causes a nice place for all of the staph and stuff to just, you know,
hang out, produce more and more and more of the staph and the strep, and then it's having
a party down up in there and it's like releasing toxins in to your blood, it's like woo woo,
you know releasing all in to your blood and that is when you get sick.
So if you already, let's say you're not even on your cycle.
Let's say you're a man.
If you're a man and you have an exposure to the staph bacteria, so let's say you was ill
and you might be recovering from a wound or surgery or burn, something like that, that
can still trigger toxic shock syndrome because all it is, is the over growth of that bacteria.
So I hope I explained that good to you.
If not, I am going to link some articles where you can go and read about toxic shock syndrome
on your own.
So let's go ahead and talk about the symptoms so you will know what to look for: fever,
rash, and the rash is not just a regular rash, if often resembles a sunburn on the soles
of your feet and the palms of your hand, skin peeling, abnormally low blood pressure, vomiting,
diarrhea, severe muscle pain, mucus or discharge coming from the vagina, the eyes or the throat,
feeling disoriented and changes in your consciousness are all symptoms of toxic shock syndrome.
So if you suffer from any of those things, ladies and men, then make sure you get yourself
on to the emergency room promptly.
To recap, toxic shock syndrome is a complication of a bacterial infection.
It can be in men and women, and tampons are not the only cause.
You can also have that happen if you have a burn, a wound or some type of skin infection.
So to simply put it, toxic shock syndrome is a complication of bacterial infection.
Staph and strep live on our bodies, in our noses, in our mouths every day.
It's there all the time, but what causes us to have toxic shock syndrome is when there
is an over growth of the bacteria.
So, yes, if you have a tampon on, you're creating an environment that, although that staph and
that strep is just loving, it's just down there pooling and, therefore, it makes you
more susceptible for it to release the toxins in to your body, but this can also happen
if you have a wound, if you have a burn on the skin as well.
All those toxins can, you know, everything can pool, and then they release the toxins
in to your body.
And that does not the only complication of this, I've also seen stories of women and
men having to have their limbs amputated because of having this.
So it's life-threatening and it's also super serious in the fact that you could actually
have to have a part of your body removed.
I appreciate you so much for taking your time out to watch this video.
Hope you enjoyed it and I will see you in the next one.
Don't forget to give me a like and share this with somebody that you think it may be able
to help.