Don't Touch Me. I Have MRSA.

My Workday
I just stepped away from my desk. You, my coworker, were answered a page over the loud speaker using the phone at my desk. This is the same phone I hold up to my ear for most of the day.
The call requires you get onto the company database. You use the computer at my desk and put your hands on the same keyboard I use for most of the day.
The call you just researched turns out to be great news. You are so excited that when I return to my office, you reach out and shake my hand before I have a chance to avoid a handshake. I just scratched an itch right before I turned the corner.
I have to use the restroom a few times during the day. You use the same restroom I do and sit on the same toilet I do.

My Grocery Store Expedition
I need to eat just like everybody else. I put my hands on the grocery cart that I will cling to for the next 20 minutes or so. I pick up a product and realize it is not what I want so I put it back on the shelf. You come in after me and buy that same product, and use that same grocery cart. I pay the cashier with money I had tucked into my front pocket, and with the warm weather, it's no surprise the money is a little sweaty.
Ironically, the bagger at the grocery store has MRSA also, but I don't know they have it, and they don't know I have it. They have just put their hands on every single piece of food I am bringing into my home.

Clothes Shopping
As I am walking toward the door of the clothing store, I wipe my nose without realizing it. I then grab the door handle to let myself into the store. I have several lesions on my body. Most of the wounds are covered, but a new one has appeared that I wasn't aware of. I go into the dressing room to try on several outfits, and I work up a little bit of a sweat doing so. I canonly find one outfit that fits/suits me, so the rest of the items I tried on are returned to the rack. You come in after me and find that the outfit I didn't buy is perfect for you, so you buy it.

A Night On The Town
I put on my new outfit and go to town for dinner with friends. I rest my arms on the table as we chit chat over the spinach dip appetizer we are all sharing. Not paying attention to what I am doing, I "double dip" (a sin when sharing food). I eat my dinner, and my dirty dishes are sent to the kitchen after I leave. Joey the dishwasher is feeling overworked and underpaid, so he just rinses my plates cups and silverware instead of putting them through the full sanitation process he is supposed to. He gets minimum wage and therefore puts out a minimal effort.
After dinner, my friends and I go out dancing. A man is coming on to me. I don't feel very attractive with this awful disease. I have spent the last few months feeling like a leper. Suddenly an attractive man is paying attention to me, and I am feeling good for the first time in a long time. He doesn't know about the MRSA scars that cover my body. He doesn't know about the huge abcess under my arm and on my thigh. He doesn't know I can't shave my legs because it increases my risk of infection. He wants to see me again, and I want so badly to be thought of as normal that I say "yes" and give him my number. He sneaks in a kiss at the end of the night.