[airics]

Has anyone experienced this? I must have contacted something to get this infection.. Went to the doctor and am now on antibiotics however i am nervous.

[guinnessjim]

sorry to hear, man.

do you know if it is MRSA for sure or just a nasty staph? how has it manifested?

what ABs did they put you on?

[airics]

well i dont know how this happening, not in hospital or around people..... just some redness on the lower right leg between knee and ankle.. happened on thursday, very red on saturday.. doc on saturday prescribed 800mg ibuprophen, 500mg cephalexin, 500 mg bactrim (may have spellings wrong).. today little less red, still swollen and scared sh****ss. went to different doc today, thinks it is staph, not mrsa.. have followup appt. next monday.....the bactrim pill is very nasty and hard to swallow... this has turned me from happy to be here to VERY depressed.

[airics]

oh, no open wounds at this time, just redness and swelling... it was weird on saturday, went to quickcare, no doc, just a p.a ... looked at it, said "do i need an ambulance?" (not kidding here), then walked out of office for a couple minutes, came back with the scrips told me to contact on monday (today) if worse.. i chose to go to the different doc

[kimba01]

Not every staph infection is MRSA, I am sure you already know that. Nonetheless, they are scary and can be dangerous. You did the right thing by getting the proper care. I would watch it and make sure it is getting smaller. Did they do bloodwork? I think they can tell by that.

And the Bactrim is nasty to take. You would think they would make them smaller and have you take a couple rather than those big horse pills. My daughter had to take them and she would sit and stare at them for hours!

So sorry that you have to deal with this, but good luck.

[guinnessjim]

Originally Posted by airics

well i dont know how this happening, not in hospital or around people..... just some redness on the lower right leg between knee and ankle.. happened on thursday, very red on saturday.. doc on saturday prescribed 800mg ibuprophen, 500mg cephalexin, 500 mg bactrim (may have spellings wrong).. today little less red, still swollen and scared sh****ss. went to different doc today, thinks it is staph, not mrsa.. have followup appt. next monday.....the bactrim pill is very nasty and hard to swallow... this has turned me from happy to be here to VERY depressed.

good to here they don't think it is MRSA, although as pointed out by kimba, any bacterial infection can be dangerous.

here is the thing....S. aureus is part of the natural flora associated w/ human skin. you don't necessarily need to be around people or at a hospital to pick it up...you may have been carrying it your entire life. our skin (and everywhere else) is colonized by many types of microbes...often w/o complication.

the fact that the redness has decreased w/ the start of treatment is a positive sign that the ABs and your host defenses are working to deal w/ the infection. be sure you take the full course of ABs EVEN if it appears to be completely gone....one of the origins of Ab-resistant organisms is the improper usage of ABs....you don't want to make your population any stronger than it is.

understandably spooky, but you should be ok (esp. since it doesn't sound like you have a resistant strain). keep us informed.

hoping 4 the best.

[airics]

here is a little bit of an update, the swelling has gone down alot, the red is mostly gone, however there is still a bit of pink and by my knee, it is bruised (purple).. itches a bit... i wonder if they are wrong and i hit my knee against the rocks while i was fixing the landscaping.. but would i bruise... and still --> i hate this medicine, the side effects are nasty.

[guinnessjim]

Originally Posted by airics

here is a little bit of an update, the swelling has gone down alot, the red is mostly gone, however there is still a bit of pink and by my knee, it is bruised (purple).. itches a bit... i wonder if they are wrong and i hit my knee against the rocks while i was fixing the landscaping.. but would i bruise... and still --> i hate this medicine, the side effects are nasty.

keep in mind you are killing off a lot of your natural flora w/ the ABs. do your best to eat a lot of stuff w/ active cultures (aka yogurt, etc.) or maybe take some probiotics as you near the end of the meds to replenish your guts microbes.