Welcome to The Patient Connection’s ResBlog or online research discussion into the contraction of Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections.


Since it MRSA discovered in 1961 it has spread from medical facilities such as hospitals and now can be acquired in a community setting as well. Often called Superbug because of its resistance to penicillin it has been a regular topic in the media.

We are interested in finding our more about the experiences of people who have contracted MRSA. I would be great if you could tell your MRSA story or indeed the story of being a family member of a person who has contracted MRSA.

• Was the infection caught in a hospital or acquired in the community often call CAMRSA?
• Did media coverage have any effect of your view of possible infection prior to contracting MRSA?
• Has enough been done to combat and prevent MRSA in hospitals? Could healthcare professionals do more?
• Do you feel that more help should be available to monitor / pre-empt MRSA?
• Is enough done to prevent/and or treat MRSA infection patients once they have left hospital?

That being said we are interested in every aspect of your MRSA story so please feel free to contribute your thoughts. Also do feel free to make any suggestions as to useful MRSA patient resources and share them with other ResBlog users.

To contribute all you need to do is to scroll down the blog. Type a nickname of your choice and the put your comments into the box. Your comments are anonymous of course!

I look forward to reading your stories and, of course, would like to thank you very much for your help.

Best wishes

Belinda

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PS Please fell free to share this blog with anyone who you think might find it of interest.

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Moderator | 27/04/2007 14:09:00

Thanks for coming by. I'm looking forward to your comments and stories about MRSA

jono | 27/04/2007 16:41:00

My father,82, developed a toe infection last summer. He ignored this until the pain in his foot became unbearable and he had to go to his GP. The GP took one look and sent him down to the casualty department at St James's hospital in Leeds. When the doctor at the hospital saw his foot they admited him straight away, for a course of ant-biotics. At this point their was no evidence of MRSA. The infection in his foot had been neglected for so long, it had become deep seated in 2 of his toes, again their was no evidence of MRSA. As the infection was not responding to the treatment, it was decided to amputate 2 toes, still no evidence of MRSA. After the operation he was put on a surgical ward, the standard of clnliness was not at all good, my mother visited him every day whilst he was in hospital. One of the ward toilets had a pool of blood on the floor, when my mother went back in the evegning the blood had dried on the floor and my mother was so inscenced she offered to clean it herself. My father was kept in hospital for 3 weeks because he had MRSA before his operation he did not have any MRSA. You have to draw your own coclusion as to where it was contrac ted, but the standard of cleanliness and the vigilance of the nursing staff, whose time is better spent tending the sick, has to make you wonder. In conclusion I feel that the NHS has been taken over by, clipboard holders, statistic watchers, an inept senior magnagement (The Government the health secretary in particular), and a falling in number and disolusiond medical staff. in conclusion my father faught off this ignfection and is infectiogn free.NOT EVERYBODY HAS BEEGN SO LUCKY.

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Diane | 27/04/2007 17:22:00

Our older daughter Zoe has had staph (MRSA) at least 4 times in the past couple years, and in every case it has looked like a few little boils on her bottom, and it has been easily treatable with antibiotics. We believe she contracted it from her daycare, as several kids have had this. In March, we noticed our 7-month old baby Geneva had a small abscess on the back of her leg, it was about the diameter of a quarter. This did not look like the boils that Zoe has had in the past. We took her to an urgent care clinic and I was sure we would be home within an hour with a prescription for some kind of antibiotic. Well, at the clinic, the doctor decided to try and drain the abscess, but the doctor realized the abscess was very deep and they felt she needed to go to an emergency room. So off we went. . . When we arrived at the ER, the doctor decided that yes indeed, the abscess needed to be drained, but they wanted to put her under anesthesia and because she had just eaten, we would have to wait for 4 hours. . . During that 4 hours, my happy, energetic little girl's fever spiked to 103.5 degF and she turned into a ragdoll. I kept nagging the doctor that something was wrong, but to be honest, there appeared to be a lot of people in a lot worse condition that day, and they kept saying "let your little girl rest, we'll get to her soon, she's okay." By now, her abscess had grown to nearly 5 inches in diameter. I felt something was very wrong and I was starting to freak out. I ended up just leaving – we went to a new hospital. At the new hospital, the new doctor took one look and basically confirmed my fears that we were now in a life-threatening situation. They drew some blood and soon discovered she was in septic shock. They wanted to rush her into surgery right away, but unfortunately there were fully booked and we would have to wait til Sunday morning. They started pumping her full of ibuprofen, morphine and heavy antibiotics. She was not conscious, but I was told she was stable for the night. . . I wasn't sure I believed them – but what could I do? Thankfully, we made it through the night. But believe it or not, this was just the beginning of a very horrible experience. They did the operation on Genie Sunday morning and she had a drain put in the back of her leg to help the abscess drain. Staying in the hospital sucked. They came to check her temperature and check the abscess about every 2 hours, around the clock, for 3 days. Genie was so uncomfortable – she cried almost the whole time. It was mentally and emotionally exhausting. To make matters worse, shortly after the surgery, the nurse noticed the IV in her arm was starting to leak, so it had to come out and be redone in another location. Poor Genie is a chunky little thing and after about 8 attempts by 3 different nurses, they concluded that her veins were just too hard to find. It was very hard to watch her being held down by these strangers while they twist a needle around in her skin over and over and over again. The doctor considered putting her under anesthesia again to have a special IV threaded through her arm to her heart, but thankfully, Genie seemed to be improving so much that they decided to keep her on oral antibiotics alone. I was so happy when they said we could go home. . . well, until the surgical nurse paid me a visit and showed me how I would have to pack her wound twice a day for about 2 weeks. Let me share with you this: packing her wound with gauze is absolutely the hardest thing I've ever had to do. We give her painkillers, but she cries and screams like we're cutting off her leg. After we finish, both my husband and I are just a wreck for hours. Part of our hospital stay involved a visit by an infectious disease specialist. She went down a list of things that we would have to do in order to prevent another re-infection. To be honest – much of it I have heard before – wash all the toys and clothes in hot water, sterilize everything with bleach, practice good hygiene, etc. . . this takes a lot of effort and hey, my husband and I work full-time and we have 2 kids. Up until now, we've been doing the best we could. And we consider ourselves pretty clean. But then this specialist told us that because Genie has eczema, she is likely to be re-infected and be back in the hospital in about 3-6 months with another life-threatening situation. In order to help our little girl, we would have to pull her out of daycare and become obsessive-compulsive about good hygiene. This was tough news to hear – we can't really afford a nanny and we are very fond of the teachers in the Infant room. Also, we are so tired at the end of the day. . . it's hard to have the discipline to keep things so clean. But it's our kid's health. I guess she's going to have to live in a bubble for a while. . . So this is what I have learned from the experience: 1. My family definitely did not take MRSA very seriously. We're more or less "healthy," but if you have any infants in your family, or grandparents, or someone with a chronic health condition – anyone that may have a compromised immune system, they are so much more susceptible to having a life-threatening situation like ours if exposed to MRSA. We've found religion when it comes to good hygiene. 2. When we first noticed a boil on Zoe, we took her the doctor and they asked us if we wanted to have it cultured. Well, we thought – why bother? Why put her through the pain when the treatment will probably be the same? Oh, do I regret that. After her third infection the doctor insisted we have one of her boils cultured and found out it was MRSA. This strain of MRSA is resistant to augmentin and even bactrin. We needed to have cleomyacin to really get it out of her system (although it may reoccur). But we had tried those other antibiotics and because they didn't work as effectively, she was still carrying the contagious staph around. I wish we had her cultured at the first visit to find out the sensitivities of our strain – then we wouldn't have wasted time and had her go through numerous re-infections. This also would have prevented more spreading of the germs. 3. MRSA is a big problem in our community right now – and it's only going to get worse. This bacteria evolves so rapidly. There are now strains in existence that are resistant to even the most effective drugs. It gives me chills to think that in 10 years, had this situation happen to us – we could be planning a funeral instead of trying to hire a babysitter. We need to teach ourselves good habits now – primarily, good hygiene. I personally have shed so many tears over this incident – this was the first time we had to deal with the possibility of losing a child. It's a very sickening, helpless feeling. Please, please, please – we all need to make every effort to nip this in the bud. I would not be surprised if stories like mine become more and more common. MRSA is preventable, but only if all of us are consistent with our good hygiene practices. Diane

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John Heavens: 27/04/2007 20.45 | 27/04/2007 21:00:00

My wife was admitted into our local Hospital about twoo years ago with Cellulitis. She was sent home a few weeks laterdiagnosed along with other things she picked up,MRSA. The treatment she received from the head dr.was truly awful.What an arrogant,ignorant woman. People keep blaming the cleaners.I do not,although the Hospital here is not that clean.The cleaner on my wife's ward was very good.Always cleaned her hands on the way in and on the way out of the side ward she was in. The medical staff on the other hand very rarely washed their hand or cleaned them with whatever was provided.This includes nurses,doctors and consultants. She has got it for life.We are both under a life sentence.I t has ripped us apart,and do the medics care?No they do not. I wrote several letters to various people over the next few months and managed to get a sort of apology from the consultant. They have forgotten two basic priciples of nursing,Hygene and Communication. I would like to see the true figures.I think a paper the other day had it as 55,000 I think that they should add another 0 to that.They lie worse than Politicians and Football Managers. Still thats my little rant over. They will not beat this bug until they lose a bit of their arrogance and realise it is the nurses and docors that push,poke and prod patients,not cleaners.

slfraley | 28/04/2007 00:55:00

Well, I'm not exactly sure where I contracted MRSA, I have numerous other medical issues I am also dealing with. My first MRSA outbreak happened in May 06, I was at that point hospitalized, and the boils were all lanced, I was given a PICC line and released, started on vencomycin treatments, and all during this time I was told I could only spread the infection if someone touched one of the opened boils, which turned out to be bull, since no one had touched any of the boils, but both of my kids and my husband also contracted it. An online friend of mine who works in medicine in the UK told me to start bathing in real teatree oil, the teatree oil took the boils away, and I still bathe in it because sometimes I still get outbreaks, but the docs here never mentioned this to me, they only told me I would be fighting it for the rest of my life.

Crook | 29/04/2007 06:43:00

First I heard of mrsa was when a coworker with a bad immune system contacted it an each time they tried to treat it the boils would disappear an reappear some place else . The coworker ended up with one of the pick lines going up her arm into her heart with a fanny pack she had to carry around all day an sleep with . At the time she was being treated a wife of another coworker contacted it when she went into the hospital to deliver her baby she gave it to her baby through her breast milk . While this mother was being treated she visited another coworkers wife at home two weeks later she contacted mrsa so yea its contagious if all the conditions are right . its weird it seemed the one coworker who's wife had the baby was the carrier . mrsa reappeared again the following year but when that cowork left for another position . There have been no out breaks since.

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jonesy | 01/05/2007 04:07:00

3 years ago I went into the hospital for a routine debridement of my knee joint because after years of soccer, the cartilage had torn and was causing some pain. A week later I was at the doctor's office after calling to say that I couldn't move my leg and it hurt so badly. My doctor tapped my knee and within minutes of placing the needle in, he immediately got his team in order and said that I needed surgery STAT. Cultures were sent out for STAT results as I made my way to the hospital with my doctor and mother and the results were MRSA positive. My blood counts were so out of wack that had I waited another day, I likely would have died. Since that surgery 3 years ago I have endured a total of 17 operations on my knee and many many rounds of IV antibiotics done at home for 6-8 weeks at a time. The infection seems to be finally gone but now I am left waiting to see if I am a candidate for a total knee replacement and if I am not.... I will lose my leg because of the severe arthritis that has engulfed my knee joint due to the infection. MRSA is scary and now everyone I know is paranoid and rightfully so. I am seen by the best of the best orthopedic infectious doctor and even he has been surprised by my case.

Wells | 01/05/2007 21:56:00

My mun was admitted to hospital on Friday 13th April 2007. We were told she had suffered a stem stroke and would not make it, she is only 54 years old. Mum has been in a main ward in ICU for two weeks, yesterday she was moved to a side ward for no other reason then she didnt need as much one to one care anymore (we were told).later that day we were told mum had the MRSA bug. The bug is in her groin.The nurse told us every patient is screened when admitted to hospital for MRSA. We were told mums swab came back clear. Today we are told mum may have been carrying this bug around for some time. Is this possible when her swab showed negative??? Some Doctors and nurses have different views on this, will we ever get the truth from anyone. Mum is being treated and will be tested again in 7 days to see if they have killed the bug. The hospital is around 4 years old, we have made a complaint about the cleaning and the staff who come and go without washing their hands and hope to see some improvement. Mums a fighter and i really hope she gets over all this bad luck.

Scott | 02/05/2007 03:21:00

I contracted MRSA in May 06 from being cut on the back of my neck when the barber shaved the hair off my neck with a razor. A boil developed on the spot where the cut was located. I had never had a boil before, it was small but I thought it was a pimple gone bad. I doused it regulary with alcohol and it went away. About two weeks after that I would get cellulitus everytime I shaved my face, I couldn't shave, my face would swell up and get bumps under the skin. They never developed into pimples or boils. I went to the doctors and they said I had cellulitus and they gave me antibiotics, clindimyicin. I never had drainage or anything, so the doctors never took a culture. About two weeks after the cellulitus cleared up, I got what I thought was a major sinus infection. My nose was so sore, I couldn't blow my nose. The inside of my nose was so sore, I couldn't even touch my nose. It started to swell and I went to the doctors again. They said I had sinusitis and gave me another dose of antibiotics, the Z pac. The medicine did nothing. Eventually it went away and my face started breaking out again. Then I developed another boil on my tailbone and it was hard to walk, sit, etc. I went to the emergency room and they diagnosed my face infliction as impetigo. They gave my IV antibiotics and they could not get a culture from the boil above my butt. I soaked in the tub for a couple days and finally the boil started to heal. I had 2 more "sinus infections" and with the second visit to the doctors, they finally took a culture of my nostrils and it came back MRSA. The germs were sensitive to Bactrim and Vincimyicin only. It was resistant to all other antibiotics. So the doctor gave me a prescription for Bactrim. It started to affect my kidneys and had to stop taking it. After the New Year, my nose swelled up and was sore inside and the outside was RED and swollen again. I went to a specialist Infectious Disease doctor and was told that basically there is no cure and there was nothing can do. Religious hand washing, preventive measures, new towel everyday, wash all my linen and clothes separately from my families items. I did not have an outbreak for about 1 month and it came back with a vengeance. I went back to my family doctor and he gave my Zyvox. I have had two doses and it does clear up, but then comes back. My nose is colonized with MRSA bacteria. I try not to touch my nose, but it is difficult and any type of stimulation to my nose, scratching it for an itch, anything and it's right back. I am lucky I guess because I haven't had any other boils. I do get some small pimples on my chest and shoulders. I use medicated soap that the doctor gave me a prescription for and use bactitracin ointment in my nostrils. But they don't seem to be working. I am really afraid that my family will get it and it scares me. When I have the outbreaks, I feel like crap and it;s hard to do anything, go to work, etc. I have missed some work, but again am I contagious enought to spead it to my coworkers?

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