Mathilda,
I have no recollection of what prompted them to take a throat culture on me at that time. I was so intubated with catheters, IVs as well as constantly having blood drawn for analysis, it must have got lost in the wash. All I remember is them whisking me out of the room I was sharing and quarantining me in a private room with a great view of the Charles River that I could scarcely enjoy because I was so miserable.
As far as I'm concerned, I had no symptoms.
MRSA is running rampant these days. Most people who carry it don't even know they have it. From my experience, I'll go as far as saying that most doctors don't even seem to take it seriously enough to administer a test and prescribe the proper medication for it. I was told several times to "not worry about it"; that is, until I hooked-up with the GP I have now, who prescribed the proper drug, "Mupirocin" for me. I was incredulous when he said that it would decolonize it because of what everyone else had been telling me. It worked and that doctor won my trust and confidence.
I know of one elderly woman that died from a MSRA related infection in Florida. She had been treated for breast Cancer, had a mastectomy and had received chemo. She did well for a year and then began to deteriorate, evincing stroke-like symptoms. She was diagnosed with pneumonia and hospitalized. While in the hospital, it was determined that her pneumonia was in-fact MRSA-related. She slipped into a coma and never regained consciousness. I suspect that her age and chemo-induced, weakened condition conspired against her, giving the MRSA free reign. Where and when she picked-up the MRSA is hard to say.
Another person I know of is someone that I used to work with over ten years ago. I recently bumped into him at a local supermarket. I apprised him of what I'd been through over the past few years with my AN experience. He then began to tell me his tale of woe.
He said that while crawling about in his attic one day he received a very light cut on his kneeâ€â€light enough to not even require a band aid. Within a day or so the cut began festering and his knee and leg ballooned out, filling with fluid. He went to a hospital. At that point I said to him, "That sounds like MRSA!" He looked at me as if to say , "How did you know?" and I told him of my bout with it.
He went on to say that he had to receive IV administered treatments of special antibiotics for days-on-end to the stop the infection. That form of MRSA is different from the respiratory version that colonizes in the throat and nares.
I'm sure you've heard of that nasty "flesh-eating" strain of bacteria that was getting attention in the media over the past few years. That is another version of MRSA as well.
Hope this helps, Paul
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