I ended up in the hospital

CitizenQ

CitizenQ

Joined
May 5, 2006
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This may belong in survival...if it doesn't I apologize and trust that a moderator to move it to an appropriate location.

I'm a reasonably healthy guy. Yeah I smoke a little, drink even less, and my diet could be better....but I've always had a terrific immune system, I don't get sick a lot, great healer...bandage only the bleeder wounds...and go to the doctor rarely...so I wasn't too worried when after cleaning out a spider/mouse/snake/insect infested house/yard I noticed a 3" x 3" circular pink patch just to the right of the base of my spine. It felt like a burn. Not a big deal. That was Monday. By Wednesday morning it had grown in size, had started to darken, and had gotten kinda leathery. Time to visit the primary care physician. She says "spider bite or Lymes disease, prescribes blood work and the antibiotic Dicloxacillin, and which I start to take Wednesday night. Thursday morning I turn lethargic, develop a headache, and by Thursday night I have a 104.1 degree temperature. The wound is starting to look nasty and it's still growing (it's a 5.5" x 5.5" circle now). Time for more doctors me thinks. The 1st guy I see is a dermatologist who takes a biopsy and says may a spider bite or maybe Lyme's but he sends me to an infectious disease doctor who is kind of an arrogant dick-type who says "there are no such things as spider bites!" I didn't ask WTF he meant by that because of what he said next: "We need to get you admitted to the hospital immediately and on intravenous antibiotics...I think this is MRSA."

So here I am, in the freakin' hospital. I haven't been admitted to a hospital since I had a small operation in 1978.

That house was nasty. At one point I walked into a spider web which enveloped me...it must have been 4' x 4'. Maybe a spider opened the door with a bite and then the MRSA crept in. The staff here tells me the MRSA test takes 24-48 hours so they are assuming it's MRSA and administering a course of intravenous vancomycin every 12 hours.

Now I just gotta wait to see if it is really MRSA and (if it is) hope that it is not a vancomycin resistant strain otherwise I may have to consider maggot debridement therapy. :eek:

The survival Lesson? MRSA IS SERIOUS STUFF. Learn about it and bandage all wounds no matter how small or seemingly inconsequential.

P.S. The nurse took a picture last night which I'm pretty sure you guys would want to see but unfortunately they're a tab technically challenged and could only give me a hard copy printout.

If I don't post tomorrow I died.

Q out!
 
geez dude. im really sorry to hear about this. hope you recover quickly!
please keep us posted to how yr progressing
peace
 
Nasty business. Quick pronto on the recovery then Q.

A friend contracted MRSA postpartum. That's put her off any further efforts down that route [or up it]. The legal stuff still hangs after a couple of years.
 
I am very grateful that you caught this early. MRSA can be deadly at worst, and will still mess ya up bad at best.
 
Yep, MRSA infection was the reason i had to have part of my foot cut off (it got into the bone, where intravenous antibiotics have about a 20% chance of working).
 
I still can't believe I got this...me...ÜberQ...I just don't get sick a lot. I guess it can happen to anyone. Lesson for thw wise IMHO eh.
 
read this

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/mrsa/DS00735

Antibiotic resistance
MRSA is the result of decades of often unnecessary antibiotic use. For years, antibiotics have been prescribed for colds, flu and other viral infections that don't respond to these drugs. Even when antibiotics are used appropriately, they contribute to the rise of drug-resistant bacteria because they don't destroy every germ they target. Bacteria live on an evolutionary fast track, so germs that survive treatment with one antibiotic soon learn to resist others.

Sincerely

Dr.Bill
 
Wow Q, that sucks. I'm glad they're taking this seriously, but maggot therapy? Yikes!

Get better or we'll raid your larder!
 
Sad to hear that. MRSA is a nasty bug. The Staphylococcus aureus is a "normal" part of the skin flora. It's the cause of pimples but when your body can't suppress it enough or you meet a resistent strain you are in trouble.
I would highly recommend the maggot treatment.
Although the fact that something is eating your flesh away is horrendous those little maggots only eat the dead or decaying flesh, and not the healthy flesh. The maggots are contained in a pouch that is placed inside the wound and they will do a fantastic debrisment of the wound. When they are done, the pouch is thrown away and a new pouch is placed in or on the wound.
You will not see the maggots crawling around but might feel them a little. The treatment is painless, and it is better then a surgical treatment, because a surgeon will need to cut away a much larger portion of tissue to be certain all affected tissue is gone.
So if you can place yourself over the fact that you know a local "clean team" is working in debriment of your wound the maggot therapy is great.
You see a lot of doctors going back to old school treatments for wounds like the use of honey in wounds ( effective against MRSA before a mayor onset), and the use of maggots.
This is because doctors have been subscribing antibiotics by the pounds in the past for every small illness, making the "normal" bugs resistent and turning them in superbugs.
I always use Silver sulfadiazine cream when treating cuts, abbrasions, etc.
These are considered "old school " but it's still used to treat burn wounds.
I have a big jar of "flamazine" in my fridge and every wound me or my family member have is treated with it. It is beeing rediscovered as effective against external MRSA infections
 
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MRSA,is always scary. Our ambulance director has it looks like she is going to lose a foot. Im hoping the best for you.
 
Sorry to hear this, Q. I wish you a swift recovery. Good thing you had the sense to go get the problem checked out when you did.

All the best,

- Mike
 
Hey, brother. Take care of yourself and think happy thoughts. We'll say a prayer for you at the table tonight. MRSA isn't fun.
 
I had a navy buddy who had MRSA 5 or 6 times within a year-we called him cockroach because he came so close to dying from it so many times, but it just couldn't kill him
 
Jim malone said:
...I would highly recommend the maggot treatment. Although the fact that something is eating your flesh away is horrendous those little maggots only eat the dead or decaying flesh, and not the healthy flesh. The maggots are contained in a pouch that is placed inside the wound and they will do a fantastic debrisment of the wound. When they are done, the pouch is thrown away and a new pouch is placed in or on the wound. You will not see the maggots crawling around but might feel them a little. The treatment is painless, and it is better then a surgical treatment, because a surgeon will need to cut away a much larger portion of tissue to be certain all affected tissue is gone...
Click to expand...

Yes, this is what I've read. Do you have any direct experience with Maggot Therapy Jim?
 
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