number-comma-number formatting problem. Thousands, and string

Hi Guys,

I have imported a column of data into excel from MSProject and I want to add a particular integer to each cell.
I'll jump straight into my example, and bold the error.


eg: Add 5 to all cells.
Original data example (each line is a cell):
3
12FF+3 days
7SF+1 wk,68
5FS+23 days,7FS+23 days,6FS+23 days
52,97+1 day,9
2,109
12,890

The result should be:
8
17FF+3 days
12SF+1 wk,68
10FS+23 days,12FS+23 days,11FS+23 days
57,102+1 day,14
7,114
17,895


However
2,109 becomes 2114
12,890 becomes 12895
which are wrong

Excel is reading "2,109" as a number and not a string. And excel is also removing the "," from the cell. My macro uses commas to determine which numbers to add. Is there any way to prevent excel from automatically removing this comma?

Thanks,
Jimmy