First time cat owner, rescue, tons of health problems, WORMS, help!!

Hello,

I adopted my first cat in early December. Her name is Reina. She's a 10 month old tabby, and she's quite the character. We found her through PetFinder, and we adopted her from a foster home. We didn't realize how poor the conditions were in the foster home until we picked her up. There were around 20 other cats and 7 dogs living in a small home, and the foster parents were frequently in contact with feral cats. When we got her, her fur was matted and she smelled like feces. Her third eyelids were swollen and red, she had very obvious breathing issues and a lot of chest congestion, and she had a considerable amount of eye and nasal discharge. She also had very dirty ears, with what looked like coffee grounds in them (I immediately suspected ear mites). She had fresh stitches from being fixed; they obviously hadn't had her fixed until we contacted them expressing our intentions of adopting her. We took her to the VCA Cairo animal hospital, and much to our relief, our veterinarian is absolutely fantastic. 
Over the course of a few visits, we discovered that she had ear mites, a bacterial and a yeast infection in both ears, herpes, and ringworm (which thankfully my husband and I have not caught, at least not yet). Her ear mites are now gone, her ear infection has improved significantly (she is still getting daily ear drops), and her herpes is still being treated. She is getting a weekly dip for her ringworm, although unfortunately we were unable to make the last appointment due to scheduling issues.

Her stool was checked for worms and the results indicated that there weren't any signs of infection at the time, but we were cautioned to keep a lookout because she still could have an infection.
I am now almost positive that she has worms, although I'm not at all sure which type(s). Her tummy has been consistently bloated. I keep finding what looks like tiny yellow grains of rice in her fur, on some of the furniture, and around her butt. Yesterday, I found what looked like a small white worm (about 1/8 of an inch long) with a darker head stuck to her anus. We intend to take her to the vet as soon as possible, but if the worms have different life cycles and sometimes be difficult to detect, how will we be able to identify what worms she has without missing a serious infection if she has more than one type of worm? 
Since many of these types of worms can be passed to humans, I am very concerned about becoming infected. I already have several issues (migraines, a mild heart condition, asthma, chronic widespread pain, anemia, depression, constant dizziness, and epilepsy, as well as a few undiagnosed issues), and I currently have mono and an active case of cellulitis, so my immune system is currently compromised. I've been experiencing lots of intestinal pain with little consistency lately.  I try to be as careful as I can, but it's quite difficult; we live in a small apartment with furniture that is nearly impossible to clean, and the cat gets litter absolutely EVERYWHERE (we haven't been able to get her to use anything other than clumping clay litter, unfortunately), and she frequently gets poo on her fur and paws and transfers it to random places. I try my best to grab her as soon as she gets out of the litter box and clean her off, but I can't always be there to clean her. I try to clean everything she contaminates, but it can be almost impossible to get everything!
What can I do to keep the situation safer for everyone involved (aside from treating her for whatever we can find)? What symptoms in myself should I be looking out for?
Any advice on how to keep Reina safe from future infections and improve her overall health?

Please help!

Ask the vet for some Drontal. That's a wide-spectrum de-wormer that takes care of all the common types of worms. 3 treatments 3 weeks apart each should get rid of all of them (it can take a while for the next batch to hatch out so don't do treatments too close together). Some vets will let you buy some without taking the cat in for a visit.

As for your own health, you should ask your doctor about it. But if you're careful about litterbox hygiene, cross-contamination with worms shouldn't be a problem.

From your description, it sounds like tapeworm, although only a vet or another expert (which I am not) will be able to diagnose that for sure. I "babysat" a friend's kitten who had tapeworms, and it was pretty much the same thing - the little things like grains of rice are segments that break off. This would also account for her bloating. Save a couple of segments in a plastic zip-top baggie to show them, and they should be able to diagnose that way. The good news is that they can give you medication to get rid of them, though it might take a few doses. Make sure you're washing your hands thoroughly after handling her, cleaning up dried up segments, and especially after cleaning her litterbox and before eating, and you should be able to eliminate most of the danger of contracting them (but you can always check with your vet/doctor if you're unsure). Once she's worm-free, if you can, you might rent a steamer and steam-clean everything — or at least deep clean as well as you can.

I've never had a tapeworm so I'm not sure what to watch out for as far as human symptoms, but your vet/doctor should be able to tell you. WebMD has a page, too: http://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/tapeworms-in-humans

As for keeping her safe in the future, the biggest thing is to get her problems taken care of ASAP, which it sounds like you're doing. I'm glad she found you guys to care for her! I think worms are usually from either exposure to cats that have them or from fleas of cats that have them, so if you keep her away from cats that may be infected and keep her on a flea treatment, you'll be ahead of the game. Again, aside from that, your vet should be able to advise you.

And if I were you, I would definitely be reporting that foster home to the organization it's affiliated with, that sounds like terrible conditions for pets to be living in.