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March 12, 2009 at 6:34 pm #61577AnonymousInactive
you may need IV antibiotics to truely get rid of it. Find an ID doc like the ladies above said, and they will know what to do. Vancomycin will def. be the best choice from what I’ve seen, but I am totally not a doc…………
Let us know what you find out…March 12, 2009 at 8:18 pm #61581AnonymousInactiveugh- Christine, I’m so sorry you’re still dealing w/ this. What a nightmare… 🙁
March 13, 2009 at 2:08 am #61596AnonymousInactivethe gal i know that has been having problems with MRSA uses bactroban—but her skin is colonized and they say it won’t go away. i’m still hoping that mine is just a random case—especially since it is pretty much the same spot—and, it didn’t flare into an abcess really fast like the original infection did. i think we caught it fast enough that it won’t abcess. when they cultured it, septra was one of the things that it showed susceptible to, so hopefully a 3 week course will kill it off this time.
if it keeps giving me problems, i will probably have to go to the ID doc. my doc did mention, when he lanced the original infection, that if the oral meds didn’t work, i would have to go into the hospital on IV antibiotics—but it seemed to respond pretty fast to the clyndamycin and bactrim. i’m glad not to be on the clyndamycin again—-it is pretty harsh stuff.
March 14, 2009 at 10:34 am #61618AnonymousInactiveI don’t know too much about using vanco to treat MRSA. I might PM Ann Marie, as it sounds like she knows about this. I just know that in our hospital they don’t do it- concerns about overuse and VRE. Before using it, I’d personally talk to your doc about it. Vanco is pretty much one of the strongest antibiotics. They try to reserve it for cases when you need it the most, because if you use it too much, your body will develop resistance. It tends to kill off everything, and often leaves you with superbugs that are resistant to vanco.
March 14, 2009 at 3:03 pm #61623AnonymousInactivei think there is a vancomycin resistant strain of staph, also. mine is not resistant to vancomycin, though. there were actually a number of antiobiotics that would help the MRSA infection that i have. they were all listed on the report i got from the lab. i’m not sure why the doc decided to give me only the bactrim this time instead of the combo that i used before. so far, the inflamed spot is holding steady—it is not getting worse, but i don’t think it is improving very fast, either. it’s kind of wierd because it goes a little bit numb in the area of the infection. as the original abcess was going down, if i cleaned the area with a q-tip, i could feel that the edges were numb. that slowly went away as the hole got smaller.
my doc said that usually people will break out again in a different spot. he seemed to think it was strange that my original infection flared up again. i think it might be because he only packed it once, instead of several times, so it didn’t get the chance to heal from the inside out. i think it might have healed over on the outside while there was still infection inside. just a guess. i think that normally the docs will pack and drain and repack several times. when i took out the packing my doc did, there was a lot of yuck that i had to push out of the abcess, which means there was still pocket of infection in there. i hadn’t been told how to take care of it, so i just kept putting ointment on it and keeping it covered. it started to scab over once and i thought that was good—but then it was hurting a little, so i put ointment on it and once the scab softened, it started to drain again.i just hate having to worry about infecting other people.March 15, 2009 at 8:24 am #61635AnonymousInactiveI’m not sure what your health care system is like there, but in Canada, if we have an active wound that requires packing/draining etc. we are eligible for home care to come in and care for it. They send a nurse. If that’s an option for you, then I’d ask for it.
About infecting others, I know how you feel. When I had c-diff when pregnant, I was terrified about spreading it to everyone in my house. With MRSA though, it’s so prevalent in the community, that they’ve likely been exposed to it already. Most people don’t colonize unless they’re immune compromised and even then, most don’t show active symptoms of infection.I REALLY suggest finding an infectious diseases specialist. They know all kinds of tricks for erradicating these things that regular doctors don’t. I saw an EXCELLENT guy here in Toronto and it made a huge difference. His treatment recommendation included another course of antibiotics, he knew which ones to use, along with a naturopathic treatment which is actually what got rid of things.Most importantly, get to the doctor quickly, someone you can trust. Sometimes we see signs of the infection on the surface, but the actual infection runs much deeper, and you risk getting septic among other things. You have suffered from this long enough.Good luck.March 15, 2009 at 8:02 pm #61650AnonymousInactiveyesterday i got out of the shower, and when i looked at my face, i could see that the infection was spreading on my lip—but still only on the surface. my neighbor is a doctor and i asked him about it yesterday. he seemed to think i was ok to watch it for a day or two. the infection seems to have backed up to it’s original spot, which is just holding steady, no better and no worse. .
there is no open wound this time. my lip just got red and inflamed at the bottom of where the original infection had been. when it abcessed before, it went from a tiny spot to a nickel sized abcess in less than 2 days and the left side of my face was swollen from the cheekbone to down under the jawbone.it’s kind of weird because it is a little sore when i move my mouth—-but it is also numb when i take a drink and the cup rests against it.kevieb2009-03-15 20:06:28
March 15, 2009 at 9:26 pm #61653AnonymousInactiveHi guys,
I am totally not an expert in this area, but there were two instances where MRSA was suspected and Vanco was the treatement. The first was with Dylan. he was colonized in the NICU so he was isolated. We had the carseat in the room and we were getting ready to go home. I was hesitant, something just didn’t feel right. Within an hour, he was on life support and non responsive. He had caught meningitis, but before the cultures came back (the spinal tap and bloodwork) they suspected a MRSA infection because he was colonized already. They started him on Vanco immediately thinking that was the issue. When the MRSA was negative and the meningitis sepsis showed up in the tap, they changed him to a more appropriate course of antibiotics.The other instance, is at 27 weeks, I was admitted to the hospital when pregnant with Carter for shortening cervical length. I was monitored weekly as we had the prematurity with Dylan, so it had shortened so fast, they thought there might be an infection. They did an amneocentesis (sp??) and then on day 5 in the broth MRSA grew. The wanted to start me on vanco, but then gave me the choice to deliver immediately or not. I knew if they were giving me a choice they believed it was contamination from the lab as it wouldn’t be a choice if they thought Carter was septic and I were septic, so I refused. They repeated the amneo, and it was negative and finally determined lab contamination, but vanco was going to be the course of treatment.In both instances, there was never any discussion of any other course of action besides the vanco, so, I just assumed when it was a methacylin resistant strain of staph, that Vanco was the way to go.Again, just our experience, but not sure what should be done. Not sure why they aren’t giving you a nurse to go ahead and clean and pack for you, but also, I would 100% agree with Lori, ID doc is the way to go…..Good Luck and hang in there!!!!Ann MarieMarch 15, 2009 at 11:34 pm #61655AnonymousInactivei don’t have an open wound anymore, so there is nothing to pack—-it seems to be staying just barely under the surface—more like the skin is inflamed and it hasn’t been able to settle deep into the tissues like before. vanco is one of the meds that the culture showed would work for my infection, but i was started on the meds before the culture came back and i think that clyndamycin and bactrim have been effect for it so that is probably why they gave them to me.
i wonder if they didn’t want to use vanco unless they had too,since there are starting to be strains that are vancomycin-resistant.there is a gal at church that has been having MRSA problems for quite awhile and has been to the ID doctor—so i’ll know who to go to if i keep having problems.March 16, 2009 at 4:54 pm #61663AnonymousInactivei talked to myorthoped today and said this infection is just holding steady, no better, but no worse. he called in clyndamycin to add to the bactrim and told me it can take about 6 weeks to get it out of my system and that i was about half way there.
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