My student has an infection on his finger!

[pianobabe_56]

I taught some wonderful lessons today (I felt really good about them afterward), but one of the little boys came and showed me this ugly infection on his right pointer finger! It's caked with yellow all around the nail and swollen. He says it's really painful. Poor kid.

My question is this--is it contagious? He did touch my keyboard, and I want to find a way to disinfect it without damagin the keys, or at least some reassurance that I won't develop a sore before my competition this Saturday.

[cosine]

Just run over your piano keyboard with a Lysol wipe. As long as you don't have a cut or open wound on your hand or fingers you should be fine.

[galonia]

I always wipe down my keyboard at the end of a day's teaching.

If a student comes in with something like what you've described, I hand him a band-aid and tell him he's not touching the keyboard until the finger is covered up.  That's not to say there haven't been times when I didn't see a wound or something until they aggravate it during playing and there's blood on the keyboard.

[pianobabe_56]

That's a very good idea. This week he came back, and his nail was falling off. It's still swollen and inflamed. He's getting it checked out tomorrow.

[nervous_wreck]

That's not to say there haven't been times when I didn't see a wound or something until they aggravate it during playing and there's blood on the keyboard.

EWWWWW!!!!
i keep a bottle of disinfectent on my piano, and i also keep that hand sanitizer. i dont' clean my piano as much as i should, but i have a different piano for my students, so i don't play on that one...

[arensky]

That's a very good idea. This week he came back, and his nail was falling off. It's still swollen and inflamed. He's getting it checked out tomorrow.

Barf 


Why haven't his parents taken care of this? Poor kid... 

BTW I keep the keys clean too, I don't get sick days...