The guy working the drive-thru window had (what appeared to be) a gnarly stye. What would you do?

I totally misread this Q, and thought you were talking about style!

Aug: Ha…I might like that question more.

The person at the drive-up window itself, doesn’t always handle the actual food, but rather the paper bags.

Don’t eat the bags.

Jack: Good point. That’s what I was hoping.
Except he handed me my drink and ketchup which I Purell’d the crap out of.
That and how it makes you wonder about what is going on in the back.
Then again, fast food is so awful anyway. A stye should probably be the last of my worries.

They can also be caused by poor nutrition, so he probably got it it from eating too much fast food at work.

Realistically they are probably no more contagious than acne and if you stopped eating food served to you by spotty teenagers you’d starve.

Also Staph. aureus (the bacteria that causes styes) is found in the noses of about a third of the population and more frequently on the skin so if you do get a stye you most likely infected yourself anyway.

To sum up I wouldn’t worry about. Also stop eating fast food

First time in months that I’ve had it!
Probably wasn’t the best incentive to go back.

Thanks for the added tidbit about how it’s usually transmitted.
Didn’t think they were that contagious either (until my friend said otherwise).

What is a gnarly style?

lol, oops, I can’t read.

Are you sure it wasn’t a Chalazion ?

Hmmm…could very well have been.
Is there a way to easily (visually) distinguish between the two?

http://health.yahoo.com/skinconditions-overview/styes-and-chalazia-topic-overview/healthwise—hw167059.html

Boo. It says No results found..

BAH!

I just googled “stye vs chalazion”.

I tried googling that and phrases like “distinguish between”, etc.
But it seems like you can only tell by feeling to see if there is a hard bump.
Don’t think the fast food guy would be down for that.

If I didn’t pay, I would just pull off…

a food service worker with an open or draining sore is in violation of ServSafe guidelines which local health departments hold food establishments accountable to.

No, because the elephant is the way.

According to iVillage, Styes are not contagious.
However, Johns Hopkins says that the bacteria can be spread to other people by sharing towels, or makeup.

So, as long as you didn’t ask the guy if you could borrow his eye-liner, I supposes you don’t run much of a risk of growing a stye in your belly.

———
I read it as style too and was trying to figure out what Bacteria and Style had to do with each other. I figured it was a question about Grunge bands.

LOL.

I thought for a moment the OP had an issue with dreads or something.

How funny, I thought it was “style,” too!! I was crafting a great response about how to get noticed by him! Haha. Stye? Bleck. I hate seeing any kind of growth on anyone, especially if that anyone is handing me food. Ick. Leave the food, contact the manager.