Staph is absolutely Not To Be Fucked With. One of my old Jiu Jitsu instructors caught antibiotic resistant super staph of some sort that nearly took his whole leg. When they opened him up to take all of the infection out, they first had to drain a half gallon of swamp goo from his leg through a little cut in his calf. He was pobably the hardest guy I have ever met, and its been years ago, and he's still not fully recovered. You bet your ass we took to cleaning the mats like it was something to strive for after that...
My wife just spent a week in the hospital on IV antibiotics as a result of MRSA. Evil shit. It's estimated that 20% of the US population has it, some are immune to it, others are not and will eventually get infected. They think she got it 6 months ago when we spent the night in the hospital ER extended stay with open wounds from a motorcycle wreck, and it was just dormant in her system waiting for the next wound, which ended up being a picked scab from a mosquito bite on her face. She was complaining about a little pressure behind her eye for a couple days, then woke up one day looking like the elephant man and one eye swollen shut completely. That sucks. She's fine now though, feels 100% great, back to normal, looks like a pretty girl again, elephant man is gone. She's gotta be careful from now on though, anytime there's an open wound there's potential for real issues. Here's the real bullshit - the hospital was so concerned about liability that they didn't tell her what it was until her 5th day in, that it was hugely contagious, and that the reason she was so "lucky" to have a room to herself is because we were in the quarantine area. Awesome> I spent the entire time with her, by her side, and I always have scabs and shit from crashing my mountain bike. It'd have been courteous to at least know of the potential issue even though I'm sure it wouldn't have changed my spending the week in the room with her. Wash your hands, scrub your wounds, coat & cover 'em.
There's also Vancomycin resistant Staph Aureus. My understanding is it's different than MRSA. I was laid low and spent 9 days in Piedmont hospital with pneumonia caused by staph and 6 weeks out of work in Jan/Feb of 99. It wasn't VMRSA but the doc said I was two days away from dying if I hadn't been admitted. There was a guy a few doors down in total isolation with VMRSA. Full bunny suits for anyone who entered. If you have MRSA and contract VMRSA on top your pretty much screwed. I was on two IV antibiotics and one oral. After they took hold I hacked up blood for about 24 hours. Good times. Good times....
Hey Throttle, in our facility we do not make family members gown up b/c you have already been exposed to it. You most likely already have it in your system, as long as your immune system continues to work, you'll be fine. It's when things get mucked up that you could have problems.
A lot more than some of the docs are sharing. thanks guys. even after hot showers, this stuff gives me the woolies
I got a staph infection when I had surgery on my elbow. They opened it back up and cleaned it out (which was way worse than the original surgery, that shit actually hurt) and then they put in a PIC line and I had to take IV antibiotics for 2 or 3 weeks.
Atspeed, a lot of docs will know only basic immunology. Not trying to play devils advocate, but that could be a very weak area for them. Just saying, they may not be talking much about it b/c *gasp*, they're doctors, they must be right. Not slamming on any one, just saying everyone has areas they are stronger in than others. Myself? I'm very very good at critical care stuff. I'm also very weak in areas like rehab. I have a low tolerance. <shrug> just not my cup of tea.
Gee, thanks. You said that purpose, didn't you? Now I went and watched it even though I had barely paid attention to this thread. This might be to foulest thing I have ever seen. And I saw the first minute of 2 girls 1 cup (I quit after that). I mean, what was that? Was it alive? I had my head turned sideways the whole time, watching out of the corner of my eye as if it would soften the blow. And I couldn't stop. I couldn't. I cringed, I might have cried a little bit, but I couldn't stop. Thanks, man. Thanks.
There are a couple of gram + drugs to use (Zyvox, Cubicin) mentioned earlier in this thread if Vanc doesn't work. Resistance is going to be a huge issue in the next couple of decades. We give out antibx like they're skittles either because we're misinformed or just to placate patients, and the problem is there really are no new antibx in the pipeline. What we've got is it, and when they don't work...bad shit will happen. For the OP, I'm not sure what kind of infection your parents have - skin, lung, blood etc.. If your father isn't frankly sick they will most likely take blood cultures and let him leave with oral antibx. If he does not improve or his blood culture comes back positive then he might need to be admitted to the hospital. Your physician can make a more informed decision than we can because he has all the details.
I appreciate the response, that's sort of what I figured and somehow I feel better hearing it from a pro. I guess I figured I've already got the shit too. I've always thought I've had a very robust immune system. It's strange because I've always jokingly attributed it to playing in the dirt, having open wounds down to the fat layer cleaned with gasoline and held together with electrical/duct tape (proprietary layered combo I invented), touching door handles, eating without washing my hands, flushing public toilets, the 5 second rule, etc. It's probably all been luck. I have those little alcohol hand cleaner things around the house now so i don't catch that grody shit.
A couple of these replies ended with 'wash your hands'. Is there any particular soap that's recommended? Any specific brand? Anti-bacterial, obviously, but are they all the same?
They gave us this shit in the hospital called "Hibaclens" http://www.hibiclens.com/athletes.html I loaded up on that shit at CVS. Probably overkill for daily hand washing but anytime you've got some woundage, scrub a dub dub with this stuff 'til it's no longer open. Otherwise I use Gojo (don't laugh) or the little alky hand sanitizer things if I'm wearing a shirt and tie and the Gojo seems inappropriate.
It's not so much that the soap is important as the technique and the duration for which you wash your hands. The recommended time to do it is a good 20 seconds or so of getting all the surfaces of your hands. It's harder than it seems; that 20 seconds seems to last forever. The antibacterial soap is not that much better than regular soap at killing the bacteria. The alcohol-based sanitizers are better than regular soap, but if your hands are visibly dirty, use sanitizer and water to get rid of the dirt - the alcohol stuff just kinda spreads the dirt around instead of physically scrubbing it off. Google it http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=hand+washing+technique
