new MRSA diagnosis

new MRSA diagnosis

On my last admission i was told i was MRSA + and given a nasal cream and a body wash to use which i did religiously as told.

I then spent 3 days in RBH where i was swabbed again and they let my GP know very quickly that im still + despite previous treatment.

i now have a different body wash, body powder(which really irritates my lungs)and nasal ointment and have to be swabbed again 3 times in 5 days time.

I was told if this fails i will have to go in for iv treatment which im not happy about and im also not allowed to have an op on my hip til clear which has frustrated me.

What are peoples experiences of MRSA (good or bad) ?

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hi

Never had mrsa however the bug which is multi drug resistant in mrsa staph aureus ive had that 6 times this yr its a pain in the rear to get rid of in my experience. I had septicaemia from it 3 times over the last few months and can say that i had tried many oral antibiotics wit no success. Had a month of iv staph eradication which was successful. Been clear of the old staph now 4 3.5 wks which is great!

Its not the same bug and all i no about mrsa is its resistant to a lot of antibiotics. Keep doin wot the medics say and if they wanna give u iv's its prob the best way of gettin rid of the bug! It may seem frustrating but iv eradication of staph is often more successful in difficult to treat cases i think.

I hope this has helped a bit. Sorry if it hasnt. If u hav any doubts about anythin ur gp shud b able to help u more as they wil understand more than me about the treatment options etc.

Are there any other treatments u can take other than the powder as this will not be helpin ur asthma if ur sensitive to powders??

Take care and good luck with everything lv kat Xx

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Hi Hops,

From the treatment you've been given, i.e. topical treatment, it sounds as though you're colonised with MRSA, rather than infected. That means that it is living on your skin (and in your nose, groin etc), but not actually making you unwell. This is very common - many, many people out in the community will be carrying it and suffering no ill effects. Many people will never know, and never suffer at all from it.

However, there are 2 problems with this in somebody like you. Firstly, there is the danger that you will pass it on to other more vulnerable patients. If you are always going in and out of hospital, as you are, you are liable to pass it on to other patients, or to doctors who themselves pass it on. For this reason they are likely to isolate you, not to protect you, but to protect others.

The other problem with colonisation is that it can lead to infection if you youself become vulnerable, for example with an open wound. If you have this hip operation whilst still carrying the bug on your skin, it could well get into your wound site and cause an infection. The infection wouldn't necessarily be any worse than any other, as MRSA isn't a 'super-bug' in the sense that the newspapers tend to make out, but there are limited antibiotics available to treat it which is why it's developed this reputation. They'd almost certainly find at least a couple of antibiotics to treat it, but obviously they'd rather you didn't get an infection in the first place.

The other place that people like us can get MRSA is in our sputum. Sometimes, again, this can be just 'living' there - it shows up on sputum samples but you are not actually unwell. Alternatively, you can get an MRSA chest infection. Again, this wouldn't necessarily be any worse, although obviously it wouldn't respond to antibiotics it wasn't sensitive to, so if they didn't realise then you might get worse before you got better. The most common IV antibiotic for MRSA is vancomycin, although teicoplanin is also commonly used.

Try not to worry too much about it - the general public and the media have whipped everyone up into a frenzy but as long as the doctors know what they are treating then you really honestly shouldn't experience too many problems. I have had all of the above - colonisation on many, many occasions, plus an MRSA wound infection, and also MRSA in my chest, sometimes just as colonisation but sometimes as an infection. Sometimes the topical clearing treatment (nasal gel, washes etc) has worked but not always. I often find it clears as I get stronger following an admission anyway. I have also had IV antibiotics to treat it when I've developed an MRSA chest infection, but the wound infection and MRSA sputum colonisation have responded to a combination of oral antibiotics.

Wow - an essay. Anyway, the gist is, don't panic! Hugs, xx

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Second that

Don't freak out! Tons of people carry it and don't know!!

I've been +ve nasal swabs and groin swabs then had 3 clear swabs so officially clear then found to be carrying it again and so on and so on etc etc. The only impact it has had is that have to be housed in a side room if admitted to a surgical ward when their are no medical beds available but that can be good and when had my cesarean I had to be last on the operating list due to previous positive result. I was paranoid about being near my prem babies but the staff told me not to worry.

Medical wards here don't even swab you till you've been in over a week!

Interestingly my nan had a knee replacement when she was known to be MRSA+ve no problems whatsoever no post op infection at all. Obviously it can and does happen to some people but it may not be a completely shut door to the op going ahead.

I'd be much more concerned if i got c diff!

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In my recent admission I was swabbed for MRSA but luckily i was negative, but until the results come back had to use the nasal cream and body wash but unfortunately my skin didn't like the wash as I have eczema and have sores atm and it irritated them and the nasal cream irritated my nose to the point that it kept bleeding, so I do hope that I don't ever get MRSA cos god knows what they would do for me..

Hope you r feeling better though x

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Hi Hops

I had MRSA whilst at RBH (didn't get ithere, that was the present from the disaster called local costa)

Had my own room because of it - I did the body wash, nasel stuff as you have, for a long time thay said they wouldn't treat it with anything else (not that I was comfortable with that)

In the end I picked up another 'bug' in my lungs and RBH wanted to 'kill everything' I was on IV teicoplainin (spelling?) for the MRSA and another IV antib to treat the other stuff, that took 10 days of iv 3x day. Then another couple of months to swob clear as it was still in the back of my throat.

one thing TKS recommended was corsodyl SPRAY - not sure if it really worked but it was the last thing I tried and then got a clear throat swob.

you are most welcome to PM me and best wishes for a speedy improvement, are you in costa at the moment?

sarah