Well, that didn't go as planned.

TrainChaser · Jun 26, 2017

Queen, how were they able to diagnose it as MRSA so quickly? I thought a culture took about ten days.

Queen · Jun 27, 2017

It was his best guess given my history of multiple positive cultures. The cellulitis was full blown in less than 24 hours, so he decided to treat for MRSA (usually 2-3 different antibiotics). I'll get the culture report in a few days.

Stargazer · Jun 27, 2017

Cultures take about 2-5 days. Getting the report from the doctor may take longer.

Some years back, Medicare and Medicaid decided not to pay for treatment of hospital acquired infections and the hospital was not allowed to bill the patient for same. Some hospitals then started testing patients prior to admission to avoid getting stuck with that cost if the patient had an unknown infection before being admitted. There was talk around the hospital where I worked to require visitors to be tested before being allowed in. That didn't happen but you would be aghast at how many visitors came in sick! What are they thinking?!

One of the reasons I prefer van/RV travel is I always wonder just how clean is the hotel room. Many disinfectants require a contact time of 10 minutes to work. Do the housekeepers spray the sinks, bathtubs, door knobs, faucets, etc and keep those surfaces wet for that ten minutes to allow it to work? I doubt it.

I had a MRSA infection in a wound, caught from a patient in the hospital where I worked. Had to stay home until I had three negative cultures, each two weeks apart. I've been swabbed and cultured several times since then and always had negative results. Good news.

I'd rather take a sponge bath in my van than risk a public shower!

jimindenver · Jun 27, 2017

I caught staff after cutting my foot at a public beach on Memorial day. It blew up like a football by the 4th of July and the doctor wasn't amused that I waited to get treatment. 6 months later I started getting the blisters filled with puss on my knees and had to take antibiotics again. It hasn't come back since then but I was told to never let it get going like that again if it did come back.

Queen · Jun 27, 2017

I can deal with the infection and associated grossness, no problem, it's the abject terror of it infecting this stupid knee implant that messes with my head. If the joint gets infected I'm well and truly screwed.

XFILE36 · Jun 27, 2017

P.S. When I first responded on this thread regarding the subject of how you received a culture in such a short time, I misspelled "culture". I can't edit it now, oh well, hence this post. But culture is what I meant. Still hope you are healing, and wondering if you considered my post of using Colloidal Silver. For others, colloidal silver has great healing properties, besides for healing/preventing MSRA.