Staph Infection
Staph Infection
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I developed a pin head size red dot right above my knee, and i didn’t think much about it at first. As the day progressed , i noticed a little whitehead develop, the next morning, my knee had swelled, and the area became red, from the knee down it seemed as though my leg was swollen, even my foot.I purchased some over the counter remedies(none of which worked, by the way )the 3rd day, this little spot turned into a mound the size of ahalf dollar, still with the whitehead at the center.I went to a dermatologist, he took a culture,gave me a prescription for antibiotics, and told me to compress it, and come back the next day to see him.
The next day i went back to him, it looked just as bad as the day before, he said he didn’t like the look of it and i should go immediately to the ER. I did.They knew it was some type of bite,and were concerned about MRSA, they ended up cutting it open, draining it, and putting a Wick in there (which stayed for a week ) they sent me home with the wick in my leg, and told me to soak it as ofetn as possible, and while soaking it, they instructed me to sqeeze as hard as possible to enable any substance to come out. That was a year ago now, and i have a quarter size scar to prove it !!! PLEASE, don’t take any chances,it’s very dangerous,and should be treated ASAP !!
Glad to read this site. I was bitten by a common garden spider in my flower garden in May of this year. It went from what I thought were two pimples on my chin to a sore that when it broke looked like someone had poured acid on my skin.
my neighbor told me that there are brown recluses out here where we live and showed me this white little box that has glue in it and told me where to put it and gave me one but also showed me one that had some brown recluses in it to show me what they look like because I had no ideal what they look like even after looking at the spiders I couldn’t see the little fiddle on the it’s back up by the head so I came home and put the trap down and then went to a web site and found all about brown recluses and sure enough you can see it as plain as day so I ordered some of the traps and put them around our house and sure enough we caught about 25 to 30 and one trap alone caught 3 there worth the money
they also sell stuff you can put on it if your ever bitten and it work if your ever bit by red wasp too the web address is www.brownrecluses.com or you can call 888-recluse there is also a money back gaurentee anyway you can check it out for yourself God Bless and hope you never get bitten again even my 5 yr old granddaughter has seen them in the light globe and came and got me it sure was a big one I’m glad we did not get bitten.
This site has answered a lot of questions. My husband and I have experienced MRSA infections – we’ve both ended up in the emergency room with extremely painful wounds. My husband hauled hay for his father last Friday and came home with what he thought was a mosquito bite on his lower right leg. It was a little itchy at first, but holy cow, what has happened over the last 72 hours is very representative of a MRSA infection but without the intense pain. Our MRSA infections have been incredibly painful. This has lead us to believe it is a spider bite this time, possibly a Hobo. We live in Utah and it’s the right time of year for this thing. Our Dr. has started him back on Septra which works best for his strain of MRSA and we’re watching it. I’m sure we’ll be in to have it opened, packed and drained. Since this began a couple of years ago I have turned into somewhat of a germ-a-phobe. I have small children and don’t want them to aquire this nasty bug. I disinfect showers daily. No one uses the same bath or hand towels. I’ve even starting using hospital grade cleaners. It’s crazy. My Dr. says that’s all fine and dandy but probably won’t mean that we won’t have occurences. He says most people carry MRSA on their skin, but your skin is the protective barrier. Unless it has a way in it won’t ever bother you. I’ve been told that obsessive handwashing still remains the best defense.
Hobo Spider bites and Staph Infections – separate incidences
I’ve read all of the above. My comments regard multiple bites I’ve gotten in July, mostly on my lower left leg, two on my lower right leg, and two on my left arm.
55 yr old female,I live in Oregon, have a large lot, and love yardwork. I’ve also been building new birdhouses in the workshop in my garage.
The first bite was on my arm. Symptoms all as described for Hobo.
Subsequent bites almost daily..I have 14 of varying degrees (Male, Female, Juvenile?) Painless, most didn’t even itch, but I’m pretty pain tolerant. All went from red welt surrounding white center and tiny hole, to red welt turning to bruise. The holes developed into a leaking blister which became lesions (some up to 1/2″). Following the advice on your site, I applied ice and cortizone cream, but did end up at Urgent Care (after a month), and he prescribed topical and oral antibiotics, said they were all infected, but they looked like any of the less severe Hobo bites you’ve shown. I wouldn’t have gone to Urgent Care except for the warning of extensive repercussions you shared on your site.
Again, very little pain. HOWEVER, I’m also relating to your Staph article. All of this makes sense, that some people feel pain, others don’t.
I’ve had Staph twice (both contracted at hospital) and it’s the most painful thing I’ve EVER encountered! I’m imagining that the people who responded as having severe pain contracted staph early…it also produces a lot of discharge, usually clear. I had one infection under my chin, when I touched it, I could hear and feel the ‘goosh, goosh”…they had to put drains in that fed behind my ears. It was so invasive it caused massive scarring sores down my neck where the fluid drained out… I was one day away from IV antibiotics.
I truly believe that we’re killing ourselves with overuse of antibiotics, we’re creating this resistance within out own bodies with the antiseptic handwash, antibiotics for less than severe situations.
Back to the spiders: My neighbor has her house sprayed four times a year (found spiders in her bed) so I had them spray mine…that’s NOT the right thing to do. This spray kills (according to exterminator) 56 different bugs. Hobo’s are not very succeptible to spray, unless directly contaacted, but it does kill all the beneficial spiders, insects, etc. I believe I picked mine up in my workshop, as my bench cabinets are 4″ off the ground, rarely cleaned below, and I leave my house and garage doors open alot for the fresh air (recently found a garter snake in my bedroom!).
What a perfect place for a spider nest..and when I disturb them they attack? Makes sense to me.
I saw a spider about six weeks ago that looks like the Hobo, except it was high above my recessed lighting ledge in my BR. I don’t mind them and left it alone, that’s about the time the bites began.
Just another perspective…
8/20/08
Sorry I don’t have pictures, but here’s the story.
My brother was bitten by what he thinks is a mosquito on his leg and abdomen it look like a flat closed sore at first. The first siqn was a itch, by day two it was swollen and red and painful, by day three it was swollen, red , painful to touch or even move, very hot, he had flu like symtoms. Finally he went to ER the surgeon said the bite on the left side needed to be cut and drained. He went to the hospital Sat 8/16/08 he is still there,the culture results (MRSA) bitten by a infected mosquito according to the DR. the bug is very hard to kill and the MRSA might return that’s why he remains in the hospital on IV antbiotic . The two others areas that was not cut open looks like the pictures on this site a white pimple that has open (they drain pus and blood) which is a good sign according to the DR. as long as they drain on its on they will not have to been cut. I hope this helps someone seek Med. attention because according to the DR it is very serious.
this article convinced me to go to the hospital
and i found out i had MRSA i am sooo glad i went
before it got worse
The best way to rule out a staph infection vs. a spide bite is to get tested using an accurate test. I just saw this article for a new test that looks like it finally provide a quick answer to MRSA testing.
http://www.forbes.com/prnewswire/feeds/prnewswire/2008/08/04/prnewswire200808041044PR_NEWS_USPR_____CLM070.html
First Molecular Tem-PCR Test to Identify Multiple Forms of Staph and MRSA Obtains CLIA Certificate
08.04.08, 10:47 AM ET
HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Aug. 4 /PRNewswire/ — Diatherix Laboratories, an independent clinical reference laboratory located in the Hudson-Alpha Institute for Biotechnology, announced today it has received its Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment (CLIA) certificate* for its proprietary licensed testing process, Target Enriched Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction (Tem-PCR). This molecular differential diagnostic technology is the first Tem- PCR test introduced to the clinical market which is able to identify multiple pathogens, both viral and bacterial in a single test. In less than four hours Tem-PCR can simultaneously differentiate pathogens with Staphylococcus and determine their associated drug resistance. Tem-PCR can identify four types of Staphylococcus strains, including the increasingly important bacterium known as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that MRSA infections have doubled in the past six years. The ability to accurately identify these pathogens is important because, beginning in October 2008, hospitals across the country may no longer receive Medicare reimbursement for many hospital acquired infections.
Prior to the Tem-PCR molecular technology, it was not possible to quickly and effectively differentiate between hospital-acquired infections (HAI) and community-acquired infections (CAI) in a single molecular test. Unlike hospital acquired MRSA which affects patients in a hospital, community-acquired MRSA often occurs in healthy people who are not receiving medical care and hospitalization. The ability to differentiate between CA-MRSA and HA-MRSA may assist hospitals in preventing non-reimbursement for MRSA infections.
“This revolutionary molecular testing technology allows the healthcare provider a cost effective diagnostic tool which can identify multiple infectious diseases faster and with far more accuracy than any other test available,” said Dennis Grimaud, chief executive officer of Diatherix Laboratories. “Our Tem-PCR test can differentiate between the sometimes-fatal MRSA, Staph aureus, and other forms of Staph. This is important because non-MRSA patients can be treated with more effective and often less expensive drug therapies, and without the need for patient isolation. In less than four hours Tem-PCR can identify four types of Staph and three types of antibiotic resistance. Our test delivers accurate diagnostic information that will provide physicians the exact information they need to administer specific and effective infectious disease treatment. Tem-PCR technology is also an enormous benefit to hospitals from a business and financial perspective. In addition to identifying the most efficient treatment protocols, hospitals will now be able to determine whether a patient has an infection at the time of admission, thereby determining whether treatment is reimbursable. This will be vital information for hospitals if Medicare decides to deny reimbursement for hospital acquired infections after October 1.”
Jian Han, M.D., PhD, Laboratory Director of Diatherix Laboratories, invented Tem-PCR technology, which until now has only been available for advanced research. Dr. Han overcame the limitations of traditional Real Time PCR (RT-PCR) technology, a test that can only identify one pathogen at a time. Another limitation of RT-PCR is that it does not identify the differentiation between the pathogens and/or their various strains in a single test.
“Infections are a challenge for all hospitals, both clinically and in terms of financial reimbursement,” said Grimaud. “However, it is important to understand that MRSA represents less than 5 percent of total hospital infections. Massive attention is being paid to all infections, whether hospital or community acquired, because of the impending Medicare regulations. In addition to MRSA, healthcare facilities across the country are inundated with other infections, all of which can be more cost-effectively and rapidly identified through this new and exciting technology. Early, precise and cost-effective treatment can now be achieved with genetic accuracy. We can now provide Tem-PCR to medical facilities all across the country, and patients can start to benefit from this advance in genetic science. Later this year we will release our Hospital Acquired Infection Panel which identifies 16 of the most common hospital acquired infections and our Respiratory Panel which will test for 21 respiratory pathogens, both viral and bacterial, all in a single molecular test.”
Diatherix Laboratories Inc. is located in the Hudson-Alpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville, Alabama. Diatherix operates as an independent clinical laboratory providing advanced multiplex molecular diagnostic services such as Tem-PCR to identify infectious disease to hospitals and the healthcare community. Diagnostic Network Alliance (DNA), with representative offices throughout the United States, is the exclusive US distributor for Diatherix Laboratory. DNA and Diatherix Laboratories share corporate administrative headquarters in Brentwood, Tenn.
*Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) was passed by Congress in 1988 establishing quality standards for all laboratory testing to ensure the accuracy, reliability and timeliness of patient test results regardless of where the test was performed. The final CLIA regulations were published in the Federal Register on February 28, 1992. The requirements are based on the complexity of the test and not the type of laboratory where the testing is performed. On January 24, 2003, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published final CLIA Quality Systems laboratory regulations that became effective April 24, 2003.
Update 7/31/08
My doctor cut it open on last Monday. Little bit of yellowish pus came out. Now I have like a black hole. What the heck is going on. What is causing this. No pain right now but some redness around sore. Been puttin perxoide and alc. to clean it with neosporan and a bandage at night. If any body knows what this is or how to cure and maybe prevent it from reoccurring, please e-mail me at ryan8644 @ gmail.com
Please help… is it a spider bite or MRSA??? I recently went to the ER with a pimple looking wound that was red around it and hurt to touch it or apply pressure to it… the redness went down my arm and really hot to touch but never anyreal pus “head” the ER DR asked me if i ever had MRSA or was a carrier for it i said WHAT IS MRSA?? I really had only heard about it once and wasnt really familar with it at all so he touched it, pushed on it, and gave me 38 antibiotics to take ‘bactrim DS 800-160 MG (two taken twice per day morning and night for 8 days) i have been feeling ran down.. lose of energy and tired all the time and kinda flu like symptoms for a few years now I had some tattoos done awhile back also i have 3 photos i would like to email to post with my story
thank you!!!
Me and my son are getting these sores on a regular bases. I have one on my upper right leg now.
Wow! great site and great info. The video of that young man cleaning out his infection is just too much! but very real. It can happen to you too if you don’t heed the warnings here and get on antibiotics right away.
I too was recently bitten (I assumed – If I knew then that it was a spider, I would have looked for it and bit him back!). And my progress looks almost identical to the above photos and posts. I noticed a small clear bubble on the bottom side of my forearm one day and just picked it off with my fingernail and that is when I must have infected it. I am one of those 40 million americans that do not have insurance, so luckily a friend of a friend is a Dr. and I was encouraged to call him. A few days into this once it convinced me it would not just go away and was getting worse quickly, I described it over the phone and he had a Rx for me right away that night. I felt I had caught it just in time after reading some of these posts. I will send Jim photos to post. Mine got to about the size of a quarter to half dollar at it’s worst. It looks a little better now than the most recent picture as a scab is beginning to form over the “craters” – and I do mean craters –
I would clean the wound each morning and then again at night before bed. There was pus in the larger crater that I could not wipe out easily, so I got the tweezers (soaked in Hdrogen peroxide first) and tried to grab ahold of the pus sak in the crater – trying not to touch the red inflamed tissue around it – a lot like that old Milton Bradley game called OPERATION – no, my nose did not light up red when I slipped, but I sure did make a loud sound!
Anyway, I was finally able to pull out what I can only describe looked like a white slimmy grub worm! – it was the built up pus sak. (I had joked with a guy earlier that maybe it was a spider that bit me and actually laid eggs inside my arm! – now I was beginning to believe that myself!) I figured this all would have oozed out eventually and I was just helping it along. And now I could almost fit the entire tip of a q-tip (again, soaked in peroxide) down in that crater. And yes, another loud noise occurred and a little bit of a dance too. Eventually, I got where I could pour in a little of the peroxide and let it sit and bubble in the 2 craters. (obviously depends on where on your body this has occured and how contorted you have to get – mine was easy. I can’t even imagine what you would do if you got one of these near or between your butt cheeks and you lived alone!) (ok, NOW I guess we can all imagine it).
I would say I am at about day 16-17, so everyone hang in there and let it run it’s course, but part of your course must be to get anti-biotic, keep it cleaned and dressed as Dede wonderfully describes above. I too live in Florida and here we have Publix grocerystores and currently, they offer free antibiotics (still need a Rx), check their website. But of course there is the $4 Walmart and I have also been told that CVS will HONOR/MATCH the Walmart price if you bring with you the list of drugs covered from the Walmart website.
My additional advice – I found LARGE bandages worked ok at first, but as the inflamation spread, the adhesive was too much on the bandage and when removing it really began irritating the sore area around, so I just simply got some sterril pads big enough to cover the wound, place a little antiseptic ointment in the center of the pad, covered the wound, then rolled up a couple sheets of toilet paper for added absorption, then wrapped my arm with an ACE bandage wrap – no adhesive to further irritate my sensitive area, just the wrap around my arm and that held it all comfortably in place – even in bed. Plus the wrap is reusable and all you discard is the pad and the TP. It all depends on WHERE you get kissed.
I will try and clean under my fingernails more often, continue washing my hands thoroughly and often, and try and stop picking at things!
Good Luck!
hello my son has a bite on his right calf and he told me of his leg hurting and burning with pain and he was limping on it that was on the 5th of july and i treated it at home thinking from being out on the 4th of july it was just a mosiqtoe bite or chigger but the next day it was swollen red,hot, and hard as a rock on the back of his calf it was the size of a grape fruit, and had a leision the spot of the bite.
i took him to the hospital on the 6th of july where they poke it open and got out green and brownish stuff and took a culture of it but now on the 8th it is still swollen and red purple blackish and the wound is alittle bit bigger and he still complains that it hurts and i have killed several brown recluse spiders just the other day i killed one that was crawling up the wall and have found several in there room but i have never seen a spider bite but i was wondering what they first start off like thank you
I’m stuck in a similar situation, but it seems to be in the very early stages. I noticed Thursday morning that I had what looked like a pimple on my forearm about 2 inched below my elbow, and didn’t think too much of it. Friday I noticed that I actually had a bump on my other forearm in the exact same spot (which seems a bit odd..). I thought it was just a narly spider bite and kept an eye on it. Today, I saw my parents and showed the bumps to my mom (who went to school for a while to become a nurse, but never finished up, but still knows a lot) and immediately she said it looked like a staph infection. I think I’ll be going to the doctor tomorrow to get it checked out.
They just look like pimples, and do not have a large red area around them, but I would rather try to nip it in the butt before it can get any worse. Hopefully it doesn’t get any worse, but I’ll update when I wake up with some pictures.
I had the same thing happen to me. Please let me know what you found out at the doctor.
I actually rubbed the tiny black spider off of the top of my foot when I just got in the car. It was in my shoe, and I thought at first it was a pinched nerve, then I pulled my foot out of the shoe. I rubbed it off with my hand and ignored it. A couple of days later it had a pus sac on it and stayed that way for about 5 days. I became annoyed with it one night and used a needle to open up the sac. It let out a little pus.
I used peroxide alot and let it go for about 4 days, then, when I came home from work exhausted, last night and fell asleep on the bed and awakened with my foot itching like a bad mosquito bite. It looks like the pic from Teri P. Now I wonder, is it from the bite or from me opening up the pus sac?
thanks for sharing this information on here.i have a 14 year old daughter that had a red spot come up on her upper leg kind of like a mosquito bite,it got bigger and redder,with a pimple in the center of it.we decided to pop it and now it is bigger and has a red streak running from the side of it. i told her she needed to see a doctor and she didn’t want to,but seeing this on here she has decided to let me take her in the morning to see a doctor.so thanks for all your information.
christy hopper
lexington,tn
I got my ‘bite’ in Holland of all places. I woke up after one hell of a heavy night (so I was obvlivious to any bite during the night), and I was immediately aware that something had bitten or stung me.
This didn’t hurt too much at first – just a little swelling. However, upon my return to England 24 hours later, the area at the top of my leg had begun to swell and it was becoming increasingly painful. Of course, being a man I thought it would heal itself and that I would need nothing more than some cream that contained Hydrocortizone and Crotamiton….it didn’t help a bit. The wound had swollen up and little white pimples as described by others above had appeared on my sore too. The pain was excruitating and I attempted some DIY lancing with a needle. I guessed that once the swelling could be reduced, I would feel a bit better – ha! When I had inserted the needle about half a centimetre into the swelling and I wasn’t feeling any pain, I decided to stop. It was now obvious that some professional help was going to be needed.
The following morning the wound had started to leak a bit. Looking at it, I could see a gaping oozing hole had appeared and it was time to get to the doctor.
The lesson here is to get a medical opinion straight away. Once I was on the antibiotics (Flucloxacillin) and having the wound cleaned and packed with Kaltostat every day, then slowly (three weeks) it began to heal and has now cleared up leaving a scar to remind me of the happy event.
I still do not know if I was bitten, or if the swelling was as a result of a bite. Either way, seeing an infected wound on you own body should be enough to spur anybody to get help as soon as possible. Enjoy the pics!
I had a spider bite last summer in Florida. I didn’t feel it when it happened. I must have been sleeping.I just noticed a sore on my butt that looked like a boil in the morning. I had never had a boil before so I assumed it was a spider bite because we were camping and sleeping outside. I didn’t do anything about it but showed a few people that had been bite by spiders before. They told me to go to the hospital, it looked like a spider bite. I didn’t go because i was afraid so hoped it would just go away. In the matter of one week it went from looking like a small pin dot boil to the size of a silver dollar. And it hurt !!!.
It felt like there was burning acid on my skin. I finally went to the hospital after I couldn’t stand the pain any longer. They had to cut it open and remove the poison from inside it. Then they put packing inside the hole and I had to go back in a week and have the packing removed. It had ate a large piece of my skin and left a large hollow place in my butt. We did find the spider in my car. It was a brown recluse. Next time I will go to the hospital as soon as I notice something that looks like a boil if I’ve been outside in Florida.
hi Jim,
I’m sendikng a picture of this bite I got a couple days ago. It’s getting very painful and resembles that of a spider bite? I work A LOT and don’t have time to go to the dr.
A customer where I work happened to be a nurse and when I was showing my infected bite to a coworker she informed me to clean it 2-3 times a day with hydrogen peroxide. It stung so much I ended up visiting the doctor in the ER who put me on Bactrim for 10 days and was told to keep it clean and dry (hard to keep it dry though, since I live in the south, have no AC in my car, and it’s in my belly button). It wasn’t improving, so I did a follow up with my doctor and he said it had gone from a bite to a full blown staph infection (it was oozing through it’s gauze pad, although I’d just cleaned it an hour beforehand). He gave me Altabax, this great antibacterial ointment. After a few days of using it, it would sting really bad after applying. But on day 5 of using it, I look so much better today! It had started spreading but most of the new spots are normal skin looking now! The main hole has scabbed over and the new pustules are smaller. Since it’s in my belly button, I can just pour a little hydrogen peroxide in it and let it sit for a little while. Seems to work pretty well.
I had a spider bite last September ( yes I saw the spider), I of course scratched the living day lights out of it and then immediately contracted a staph infection. My knee looked JUST like the pictures above. It stayed an open sore for 3 months.
I am terrified now because yesterday I had what I assumed was a mosquito bite on my leg. It was itchy and was red. When I woke up this morning I had a small white blister on my leg with a red swollen area around it going out about 1 inch each way. I can not handle another huge hole in my leg I still have my massive purple scar from the last one.
I immediately took my cipro ( anti-biotic) and I hope and pray that it will just shrivel up and die and not turn into another huge painful and costly experience for me.
I felt a bite in the middle of the night and remember scratching immediately after. It’s summer now and my dog gets fleas outside every now and then and she was infested. I was meaning to buy bug foggers to fog the entire house and give her a flea bath; which I did…after I was bit (Don’t know if it was a flea or a spider).
I felt pressure. It looked like a pimple and the pus was noticeable. I’m a popper, so I popped it and nothing would come out but I felt pain and hardness around the pimple. Shortly after, I noticed two more smaller pimples appearing about 2 inches below the main bite. I continued to squeeze my skin (I grabbed a hold of the hardness that surrounded the wound and squeezed as hard as I could handle) time and time again and eventually from 1-10 of pain, I began to experience a terrible 30.
I had pus, blood and clear liquid ooze out. The area was red, hot, hard and painful. I began to cry because the pain was so intense and I could feel a throbbing sensation. I then applied a heating pad but put a cloth in between my skin and the pad. I asked everyone around if they had any healing suggestions.
My sister told me of my nephew’s experience of staph and how he applied a slice of bacon and the gunk inside came out. So, I applied a slice of bacon. I tried heating an aloe plant and placing it on top of the wound as hot as I could stand it (four times). My wound turned into the size of a head of an eraser. I had a little hole. I only covered it with a bandaid because my clothes were irritating the sore.
Although, the majority of the time it was not covered. Gosh, it hurt to bend. I’m a very active person but began walking around for a few days as if I was a little old lady. I did go to the doctor about 4 days later and was told I had a staph infection (no culture done) because it was already healing. I was instantly put on a 10 day course of antibiotics along with pain medication. I continued to squeeze the pus and by a little over a week I saw a major difference for better. I am free of pain, closed wound and still taking my antibiotics. I have a little hardness where the wound once was that I am questioning the doctor when I go back for a follow up visit.
Although, you must know that my boyfriend,also, after a couple of days of my bite developed a bump on his stomach. He thought that this was something different because he did not have a pus pocket. It was red,painful, as big as a quarter and hot to the touch. So, I sterilized a pin with alcohol and poked an opening in it to try to squeeze the pus out.
The redness around the area of the bite was about 6 inches across, from one end to another. The only difference in his treatment is that we did not try bacon. We are having trouble controlling his infection but he too, sought the same physician as myself.
At the first visit he asked to be drained. So an incision about 2 inches across was made and 2 cc of drainage followed (includes blood and pus). A culture was sent to the laboratory and yes, Positive for MRSA. He was prescribed some stronger antibiotics and has had his follow up visit just recently. He requires another visit in two weeks. I’ve been doctoring his wound about 3 times a day. As soon a I see it soiling, we put a new dressing and clean it with 3% hydrogen peroxide.
Right now what hurts more is the tape that’s used to keep the gauze in place. Have purchased several. Also, bending over or sitting is hard to do. He takes his medicine 4 times a day and slowly is improving. So, I do know that every person has a different reaction.
Our bodies fight differently and you should seek medical advise immediately. Disinfect constantly. Use gloves during change of dressings. Discard trash after every change of dressing. Use a pill dispenser to help you keep track. Make sure you take all of the antibiotics.
For those without insurance, go to Wal-Mart and check to see if these medicines fall in the $4.00 range. You can call around and compare prices with all pharmacies. You will be amazed at the difference in prices.
MRSA (which is short for “methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus”) is a nasty little bug that’s been around for over 30 years. It’s not a single organism but a family of related germs, all of which share an immunity to an antibiotic called methicillin and its relatives (something we call “cross-resistance”).
MRSA is most often contracted in or near hospitals, where sick people gather and can’t help coughing, bleeding, having their sores and other skin lesions pop, leak and suppurate.
Once a few individual MRSA organisms have set up a happy home in your skin (maybe from the spider itself. maybe when you presented at the ER wth that spider bite, maybe when your mailman sneezed on you the day before that, you can’t tell without expensive DNA typing to identify the specific strain of MRSA that got you and compare it to that of other people’s MRSA infections) then they immediately start growing and reproducing.
As they do this – inside the cells of your body – they create little capsules of protein called “plasmids” which contain the actual genetic instructions for MRSA to produce chemicals called beta-lactamases which are the actual things that make MRSA resistant to so many antibiotics.
This biological “strategy” is so successful that the human race is beginning to experience waves of different strains of disease organisms, all of which, like once antibiotic-resistant Staph. aureus, no longer die as efficiently as they once did when your family doc gives you an antibiotic.
I’m going through this process with an sinus infection which used to die just fine in the presence of clarithromycin, and before that penicillin, ampicillin, and a number of other chemicals. Now we’re trying an antibiotic I’ve never heard of. Big fun.
Please feel free to blame the pharmaceutical industry and the FDA. Not being happy with sales of perfectly good antibiotics to the medical profession, Big Pharma decided it would be great to pick up a few extra bucks by selling these same antibiotics to farmers, ranchers, poultry raisers, whatever to put in their animals’ food – so these agribusiness guys save money on the labor it takes to keep animal pens clean enough not to serve as giant incubators for germs by putting relatively inexpensive antibiotics in the animals’ food and water.
Problem with that approach is that the big, filthy, urine and feces-swarming animal care facilities at your local chicken/beef/whatever farm now become incubators for germs which share resistance to the latest antibiotics placed in the animal feed. A plasmid which evolved randomly to give resistance to one antibiotic can, swimming in the sea of urine and feces our food animals wallow in, move on to other disease germs, and eventually reach us through our food, or through dirt on the shoes of meat plant workers, or run-off from the animal pens into our fresh water supply… there’s a hundred ways for antibiotic resistance to spread.
The Food and Drug Administration, which is controlled by Congress, which takes bribes from Big Agribusiness, allows this crap (literal crap, teeming with new and even more resistant strains of MRSA, thanks to Big Agro, Big Pharma, FDA and Congress) to go on and has done so for decades.
We flatter ourselves that things have changed from the time of Sinclair Lewis, whose magazine articles on the abuses prevalent in the meat packing industry a hundred years ago caused Congress to create the FDA in the first place. They haven’t – except for effectively getting worse, because the widespread use of potent antibiotics in agriculture and meat packing has spread the problem Lewis documented farther and deeper in our society while allowing us to kid ourselves that there’s no longer a problem.
Every now and then, Nature tries to correct this self-deception of ours by sending out antibiotic-resistant strains of E. coli that strike with ferocity, getting past the porous web of sanitation surrounding our fast food and supermarket industries to invade someone’s hamburger or taco and – if the victim is a child or someone with an unusually poor immune system for a number for reasons we know about only too well – that person dies.
Sometimes the sanitation web around our food supply allows fogs of resistant organisms to enter our food supply and we then read about epidemics of resistant E. coli or MRSA taking down dozens of kids (whose songs about grimy gopher guts and mystery meat at school cafeterias are vindicated after all, at least for a short time).
Cure? Find out if your Representative and or Senator voted to weaken food safety regulations. If he or she did, fire him or her, or educate him or her with an Email or FAX explaining what I just told you. Then come the next election, make sure that this becomes a major campaign issue – before ALL of our antibiotics become useless against killer germs.
Get ‘er done, folks!
we assumed my husband got bit by a brown recluse last week, but now we are not sure, after researching it looks like it could be mrsa. the sore on his are is still getting bigger and he says it is very painful. it got the pus pockets on it, and i poked them with a needle. it oosed some. today he went to the dr again and he lanced and packed it, and also took a culture of it. he sees the dr again on monday, but cant return to work until further notice because of it being contagous
I am curious as to how to protect myself and the kids from getting it from him. i am disinfecting alot, and using a lot of precautions, but i have herd it can be airborne. does anyone know exactly how it can be spread??
i don’t have any pictures yet of my bite but i got bit by a brown recluse last week and just went to the doctors today and they said they cannot tell if i was bitten by a brown recluse but I’ve looked threw pictures on the computer and it looks exactly like them. it’s so disgusting.
Wow. I had a friend who had a bite that looked just like that on his leg… I feel bad for who ever gets a bite like that!
Yeah thanks for the help. I’m in the early stages of this and i believe it’s from a recent tattoo. i too lanced mine and loose plasma and pus emerged.
Thanks for all the very important information! I had this appear on my chin while on vacation in Germany, it really knocked me off my feet the entire 3 weeks. Wasn’t sure I would survive the plane ride back home.
When I landed, I was immediately admitted in a hospital and told it was MRSA. It took weeks to recover and I was flat on by back in bed.
It was very frightening….
I just wanted to thank you for the time you have put into these article. I also leave in GA and was bitten the same weekend as DeDe and I have not gone to the Doctor but pretty sure I was bitten by a spider. It started out as a small water blister on my side. I rubbed it and it busted (didn’t meat to bust it , it just happened) from then it kept getting bigger and finally to the size of a quarter. I really don’t have a photo as to the beginning stages but it finally has stopped getting bigger with a scab around it. Its about the size of a quarter now and I believe it to be getting better. The only pain that I have had is when I was cleaning it. The bite is beside a scar from a surgery that I had several years ago and some of the nerves in the area have never repaired so I don’t have feeling in the area of the bite. Its located almost to the back of my side so I did not realize it was there initially. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you thanks for all of your blogging this is a big help and I wish everyone well in the spider bite world.
Hi,
I had these very same symptoms when i was bit about 3 weeks ago and was instructed to go to the ER by the nurse at my job. I was bit on a Friday and by Monday the white pimple has spread and was oozing pus. I was very afraid. The ER dr. prescribed an antibiotic and instructed me to elevate my leg (that is where the bit was. By Thursday the area had increased in redness and the pus area had expanded.
I returned to the ER and the doctor immediately started and IV for antibiotics and I was admitted into the hospital. Around midnight my dr came by the hospital and told me that i had been bitten by a spider. He told me that I would have surgery the next day to cut the infection out and that both the surgeon and the infectious disease dr would be coming by to talk with me.
The next day I had surgery and received loads of antibiotics around the clock. I had developed MRSA as a result of having an open wound. Four days later I was released from the hospital. I left with a whole in my leg but it will heal and the pain is gone. I was released with 15 days of antibiotics by mouth and I am close to finishing those.
I feel so much better. So I can definitely relate to your story but I am surprised that none of the doctors you have been to have admitted you to the hospital. My wound was very similar to your’s and the doctors i saw took this matter very serious and addressed the issue immediately because of the possibility of MRSA.
Thanks for sharing your story.