Just thought id ask if anyone else is struggling to det rid of this 'superbug' or if anyone had successfully irradicated the bugger?
Im a brittle asthmatic and nurse ( had to retire on health grounds due to severity of asthma) and dont know if i had itbefoe but had it multisited on my first admisssion to itu 5yrs ago. Since then dispite nasal ointment, washes and various antibiotics i still cant get rid? Have been told that because have had it so long and as in costa alot am prob never gonna get rid? this doesnt bother me ( it means i get a nice cubile on addmisssion) but also means some nurses treat you like you have the plague!! The only way its bothering me is now its on my chest and effecting me badly when i had just began to do so well, my doc says it is sensitive to some antibiotics but unfortunately i cant take alot of them!! had vancomycin nebs which cleared it but only for a few weeks yhen it was back again!!
Would br greatful for any remedies, even tried tea tree oil!!
RBH found it in my sputum when I was in on a lengthy admission end of 05/06. They first thought I had 'caught' it in lcoal dump of a costa, but now the thought is that I have had it about a year since a spate of chest infections which no Anti B would touch when asthma flared up big time in Jan/Feb 05. It did clear up short term in hospital and I was 'free' of it when discharged, but it is now back with all of the same sinus issues and pain and gunk of a horrendous colour, but chest so far is still OK so I am not going to make an issue of it. Not likely to get rid of it easily or quickly though, with our compromised immune systems.
I, too am allergic to most of the useable Anti Bs but found OxyTetraCycline to be the most successful and Bactroban ointment by the lorry load up my nose using a Q tip so I get get it as far up as possible.
Tea tree is a no-no as it sets my asthma off very very quickly!
I just try to keep very clear of anybody with any germs! and try to boost immune system with Ecchinacea etc.
Sus xx
I was just found to be colonised and I am really worried about it. It was first found in my surgical wound and it is already gone from there but it was also discovered on my skin and up my nose. I was given an antibacterial wash and antibiotic to go up my nose but I am wondering how effective this stuff will be. I am really scared that it will presist and I will have problems with placments (I am a medical student) not to mention going back to work (nursing auxiliary). Plus being treated as a lepper by some helthcare workers is really upsetting. I wonder how many of them have it themselves, they are just not swobed and identified.
I was really freaked out on my last admission because i've been carrying MRSA in my nose and on skin for 2 years and when couldn't shift chest infection they started to murmour about resistant bugs but they swabbed me twice while in this time and they both came back clear as did sputum (apart from strep and H influenzae!) I have to have one more clear swab to be offically clear of it but it looks like the bactroban and wash (and major hand washing because of babies) have done the trick for now.
Hi Wheezyab/ Andrea
Don’t want to put you or anyone else off their tea or supper but this is my experience of MRSA and how I got rid of it…
I ‘caught’ the MRSA bug during my fourth Caesarian section.
I seemed to make a good recovery from the op. but approx eight days afterwards started to feel very ’blue’ – crying all the time which is not me- and tired to the point where I was literally comatose but the pain round the scar kept me wide awake! I won’t go into details but the end result was very much like that scene from the first Alien film where John Hurt’s stomach bursts open!
All the obstetrician/gynae doc kept saying was how lucky I was to have survived this infection and that the infection had found a way out of my body! Yuk!! Better still was his remark about how well my immune system worked! I found that comment SO ironic! Spent weeks back in hospital in isolation on an antibi drip, and the following TWO YEARS taking oral antibi,- Erythromycin.
This is the only antibiotic I can take without severe allergic reactions. LOL.
Was tested then and later for MRSA but fortunately negative. It took two years for my youngest son to be pronounced clear though.
So I don’t know if erythromycin might or could make a difference to MRSA. But it certainly helped me.
Mia
Mia-you have had a terrible experience. Gosh, I had no idea. And here am I wingeing about my continuous snotty green sinus infections!
It was all such a science. My Consultant drew up a list from the computer of possible anti biotics to combat it. There were only 2 on the list I could take. One I was already on long term anyway for chronic sinus infection and it hadn't made the slightest bit of difference (Azithromicin) and the other was your Erithromycin, to which I am violently allergic, ditto Clarithromycin and all Penicillins basically.
So we went with the Oxy Tet which I then had for 4 weeks orally in such a massive dose it really did my insides in. Plus Vancomycin down my IV. That, I think is generally the most extreme treatment they give for respiratory MRSAs. Tends to be a last resort depending on your colonisation. Didn't know it was nebbable though.
2 years?! I feel doomed... I realy want to belive that I will get rid of it quickly with the wash and topical antibiotic.
I guess I am lucky that my wound was just colonised and not realy infected. It clreared itself within a week with iodine dressings without a need for any systemic antibiotics. I was realy worried as I have a pin in my leg and if MRSA was to go into the bone... I don't even want to think about the consequences.
Erythromycin is not working for MRSA. The whole reson why they make so much noise about it is that it is resistant to antibiotics apart of vancomycin and teicoplanin. The problem with those is that they are expensive, can be given only by IV route (or nebs in case of chest infection but not by mouth) and can have some nasty side effects. No systemic antibiotics for colonisation so I am stuck with the wash.
Did anyone get any specific advice on the whole washing regime? Should I be for example changing my bedding every day or is it a bit over the top?
Thanks everyone, the wash thing seems to be prominent in some costa strick daily washing and changing of bedding, towels n pjs then in others its in a bay n do what you want so i dont think will will ever get rid of it as long as we ars in and out of costa so much. then when you go home its do what you want, one nasty nurse told me i couldnt fly or sjhould inform the airline!! made me feel spite, mum checked with public health n this not so , so i think the nhs needs to educate its employers and get standerdised careplans before insulting us as were the victims!!
Ive just finished a 14 day course of double dose erythromycin but feel even worse and no better for the jelly belly it gave me!! Doc wanted me to have vanc nebs again but couldnt as went away and needed to stay in costa to have as cause severe broncospasm, So just waiting for more swabs n soutum to see if done any good.
Andrea xx
Personaly I think that it is easier to pick up MRSA in the community then in hospital. Many people walk around hapily carrying it as it couse no problems what so ever to healthy people. Problems start when you are swabed and identified as a carrier. Then suddenly they start treating you as a lepper.
I was in hospital for a week then had 4 outpatient apoitments in the fracture clinic before they decided to take the swab along the line :Hmmm this wound did not heal for four weeks maybe we should swab it just in case even if it does not look infected. Next time I went to the clinic panick broke out when secretary brought my results. They didn't explain anything to me just started removing equipment from the treatment room to prepere it for cleaning living me sitting there for ages watching them. Nice infection control procedures but makes me wonder, if that is required to protect others what about my 4 other visits when they had no idea that I am a carrier? How many patients like that they see every day? If they want to make this sort of fuss they should swab everyone becouse otherwise it is pretty much pointless.
I'ts wierd how different hospitals have different policy's. On my 2nd to last admission i was on respiratory ward and they steam cleaned the side room when i was discharged.
The last admission, to a different hospital but same trust they put me in a bay with 4 other patients including one dumped surgical patient there due to lack of beds despite me telling them on arrival to the assessment unit and ward that i was a carrier and then went bed to bed doing blood pressure obs etc with same equipement. They only swabbed me again because i'd hit the you've been in for 5 days target. They told me that they don't routinely swab the patients on medical wards but until i have 3 clear swabs if i'm admitted for a surgical reason i'd be barrier nursed in a side room. I'm just glad for the other patients that i came back clear.
Swabs...
None of my swabs have ever been tested as positive.
I don't (or didn't) carry MRSA on my skin, in groin, in arm pits, between legs (lovely)or in my nose! But I do have it high up deep inside my sinuses, where no swab has gone before. How the BH do you get a swab that high up your nose to test it.
Only sputum samples showed that I was colonising it, so really, how much good are these swabs?
I will add, I knew something was up with my sinuses. I had the worst and grossest infection I have ever had. I'd had about 4 or 5 courses of Doxycycline and Zithromax and it was still there and was quite honestly the most disgusting shade of luminous green you have ever seen and the thickest wall paper paste consistancy. Yeuch, sorry for that!
The thing is that if you do not carry it only in the deep cavities of your sinuses and it do not even show in a nose swab the chance of you passing it to another person when nursed on the normal ward is close to zero. Swabs are done to identify people who are colonized on the skin (in alll those lovely places you had mentioned) so them can be barrier nursed.
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