Anyone have experience with MRSA?

[Ronda93]

Anyone have or know someone well who had MRSA? Did you have a fever? Describe you symptoms? How long did it take you to seek medical attention? Did the affected area feel warm?

Thanks in advance.

MRSA info

 

[NeverlandClub23]

I had MRSA about three weeks ago. I first got a bump while we were at Disney and then when we got home it got bigger and bigger and it hurt like crazy. Then about a week and a half later it drained itself (but it was horrible pain for about a week but I didn't have insurance at the time). I thought it was over and a couple of days later I had three more bumps appear. They looked like ingrown hairs at first but they were really hard under the skin. I had a fever for about three days before I went to the Urgent Care place down the road. By this time one of the bumps had gotten really painful and more were appearing. So the doctor gave me a shot to numb the area and cut it open to drain it. She then gave me two different antibiotics to take for ten days. Slowly they began to go away and I haven't had any since. But now I'm paranoid when I get any kind of bump and I wash my hands about 20 times a day. The doctor said I had a mild case of MRSA (she never said anything about staying away from people as I've heard MRSA is highly contagious) and that I probably got it from the tanning bed. So I no longer go to the tanning bed (I'm sure my skin thanks me to) but I'm still worried about getting it again, because apparently it is very easy to catch. Good luck...I am so glad that I don't have anymore of those bumps, it was horrible.

 

[Ronda93]

Thanks. I'm not a usually a worrier about these things, but a fellow I work with spent a week in the hospital last year recovering from it. IV antibiotics, surgery to drain the abcess on his leg. Bad news.

 

[RachelEllen]

Hi...

MRSA's not a disease, it's a bacertium that can cause all sorts of different diseases. And any disease that it causes can also be caused by its cousin plain old Staph A. So you'd never know your problem was causes by MRSA until you had the bug cultured. For example, it sounds like the previous poster had MRSA follicultis and developped an abscess. But other bacteria can do the same thing.

Many people are just colonized with MRSA. It lives happily in their nose along with many other bacteria. When it gets someplace it shouldn't, it can cause a wide range of problems from localized skin infections to meningitis and sepsis.

Any staph infection needs to be treated, however, whether it's MRSA or not. MRSA will just be more difficult to treat.

 

[SueM in MN]

Hi...

MRSA's not a disease, it's a bacertium that can cause all sorts of different diseases. And any disease that it causes can also be caused by its cousin plain old Staph A. So you'd never know your problem was causes by MRSA until you had the bug cultured. For example, it sounds like the previous poster had MRSA follicultis and developped an abscess. But other bacteria can do the same thing.

Many people are just colonized with MRSA. It lives happily in their nose along with many other bacteria. When it gets someplace it shouldn't, it can cause a wide range of problems from localized skin infections to meningitis and sepsis.

Any staph infection needs to be treated, however, whether it's MRSA or not. MRSA will just be more difficult to treat.

Here's a link to a good basic article about MRSA.
A lot of people are colonized with MRSA and never develop an infection from it. MRSA usually is not more likely to cause an infection than plain Staph aureus and it usually doesn't cause worse infections - it's just that because the MRSA is resistant to many of the usual antibiotics used to treat Staph infections, there are less choices for treatment.

Interestingly (since today is Super Bowl Sunday) one large group of people who are at risk of colonization with MRSA is athletes, probably because they tend to share things like towels, sheets, clothes, workout areas, uniforms, helmets or other sports equipment that can become contaminated with MRSA if they are used by someone who is colonized (and not cleaned thoroughly afterwards). Althletes also tend to get things like cuts and abbrasions that (if they have MRSA on the top of the skin), allows it to get inside the body where it can cause an infection.

 

[Dan Murphy]

It has the potential to be dangerous, nothing to fool around with, best to see a doctor.

 

[Ronda93]

Thanks for the replies.

Went to the doctor over lunch. It's shingles. Over the last 24 hours it's moved around my torso and started to get blistery. The doctor is hopeful that starting the antiviral drugs early will reduce the chance for nerve pain.

If I hadn't thought it was staph I would have let it linger for a while. Glad I went to get it checked out.