MSSA Infection
86MSSA Infection
MSSA infection, or Methicillin-Sensitive Staphylococcus Aureus, is a particularly scary disease for two reasons. First, because it often is contracted while inside a hospital, and second, because it is resistant to powerful drugs. This is a bad combination for people needing to go to the hospital, whose immune systems might already be compromised by illness. There are many testimonials of this exact situation, the most famous of which is the actress Leslie Ash, who was left partially paralyzed after the MSSA infection attacked her spine from an epidural shot at the hospital. For this purposes of this article, I'm using MSSA and MRSA interchangeably, because most people get the two confused. MRSA stands for Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, and is actually the real term for the infection.
Staph infection can invade the body through a number of channels. Most commonly, it inhabits the soft tissues of the nasal cavity, the respiratory tract, as well as open wounds. Depending on the area infected, staph will often manifest itself as red bumps which ultimately grow into painful boils. Fever and rashes often accompany the boils. When MSSA infection is introduced into wounds or somewhere inside the body due to shots or surgeries, the symptoms and effects may be far greater. Paralysis of the lower half of the body is very common, along with lasting pain in the area where the infection occurs. Once MSSA infects an area inside the tissue, it's very difficult to get rid of. Often large portions of tissue must be cut away and heavy doses of antibiotics.
Killing Staph and Germs
If you're worried about MSSA, MRSA, Staph, and germs in your home, I recently stumbled across a really amazing new technology. It's an air purifier developed by NASA that actually attacks germs in the environment. It sends out activated hydrogen peroxide molecules that land on surfaces and kill germs and bacteria just as if you sprayed hydrogen peroxide from a spray bottle. I've been checking out this technology a lot recently and it's really amazing. The air purifier even purifies the air of things like mold spores, allergens, and particles. Check it out.
Do You Have MSSA Infection Symptoms?
If you're sitting at home and think you might have an MSSA infection, go through a checklist to see whether or not your symptoms line up. MSSA and MRSA often hideout in hospitals, so the first question to ask is have you been to a hospital within the last 2 months? If the answer is no, you can still contract MSSA through a range of other sources. If the answer is yes, what did you go to the hospital for? Was there surgery involved? If yes, then the MSSA will probably be inhabiting the area where the procedure took place. If you went to the hospital with an injury and the injury isn't healing well, you should seek immediate medical assistance. There are a number of other risk factors besides persons who have been recently in the hospitals. Persons who have an increased risk factor are:
- College students living in dorms
- Persons swimming in coastal waters
- Prison inmates
- Soldiers living in close quarters
- People around livestock
- Children and the elderly
** Note: MRSA and MSSA infections are extremely dangerous. If you think for any reason that you might have it, seek immediate medical attention.
Natural Medicine vs Antibiotics
In the old days, when an infection set in, people would take natural medicines that wouldn't necessarily fight the disease directly, but would boost their immune system and their body's natural defenses in order to more quickly overcome the illness. Nowadays, we go after the disease directly, taking powerful antibiotics that shut down the reproductive capabilities of the disease, allowing the body to make quick work of it. The only problem...it's not 100%. Every so often, some of the bacteria are resistant to the antibiotics and manage to survive, reproducing in place of all the others that weren't resistant. The result? A superbug, one which generally likes to hideout in hospitals. Is this going to get worse? Most likely yes.
People don't like taking their health into their own hands. They think that there's nothing they can do to prevent being overcome by sickness and their only hope is to run to the doctor for antibiotics. That simply isn't true, and the eventual result of such a mindset is a strain of superbug that probably no one can escape from. Let the MSSA infection be a lesson to us that before we go running for antibiotics, try to be healthier and boost your immune system naturally. I myself haven't been sick in years and I don't plan on it anytime in the near future.
This article is meant to add to your general knowledge and is not meant to be taken as medical advice.
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Thanks! That's very kind of you to say.
Thanks for great piece of work on how to staph infections.
Thanks!
I have just finished a course of dapromycin due to MSSA in my blood through having my bursa in my knee removed. Unfortunatly MSSA got to my heart and i now have left sided endocarditis. I still need more surgery on my knee due to a torn cartlage but unsure if they are going to do it. I was told that this infection goes to 2 places the heart and the discs in your back and my back has been agony since i had the infection. What are your thoughts?
Thanks
Man that sounds rough. I'm sorry you're having to go through all of that. Staph unfortunately attacks the really important parts of the body. That's one thing doctors never tell you, the risk of staph infection from surgery. It's sad because it's becoming more and more common. I hope you recover fully without too much impact.
Thank you for your reply I hope I do too.
I was recently diagnosed with MSSA. It's not resistant to powerful drugs as stated in the article. It's sensitive, unlike MRSA, which is resistant. MSSA is treated with antibiotics and possible surgery to clean out the area. I have a wound vac attached to my surgery site, no big deal!
I have put my email address if the site wanted to reply, but probably best to leave it off if being posted. Thanks
I contracted MSSA about 2 1/2 years ago soon after a leg operation. Fortunately, I was in Oxford uk and was admitted to the Nuffield Orthopaedic Hospital, Oxford which has, I beleive, the only bone infection unit in England. It took approximtely two or three months to get rid of the infection. As the metal plate from the original operation had to be removed I had to have a mono fixator and, later, a Ilizarov cage for a further six months, waiting for the bone to grow across the operation gap. I am left with a "stiff" knee with about 90 degrees movement. I cannot squat like I used to, but dance most nights (Disco {House, Trance}, Modern Jive), so that keeps my sanity! Can walk reasonably, but pain coming down hill. Cycling is with difficulty. Gone through a great deal of pain and worse off now than before the High Tibia Osteotomy operation, in another British NHS hospital. The NHS Nuffiel Othopaedic is smallish but beautiful with excellent staff! Thankyou David Stubbs (surgeon) and his team! I'm now 65 reasonably slim and fit but do not tell the ladies as I am only "25"!!! Compared with some who have had this, I'm probably better off than many.
My daughter is in Children's Hospital with MSSA in her right hand. She did loose some tissues due to this infection and has had 4 surgies in 6 days. This is awful! She was just sewn up yesterday with over 100 stitches in her little hand. Still not sure if she will have any permanent damage or not. I wish more people knew more about Staph! Thank you for this great article!
Pam, I'm really sorry to hear about that. That sounds awful. I hope everything goes smoothly from here on out. Staph is just a horrible infection.
I ended up with a staph mssa infection one month after breast aug surgery. My surgeon left my post op care to a clinical assistant who missed the infection, despite my bringing up concerns that I thought I had an infection. I never got to see my surgeon post op. I ended up with mssa in my whole system. It's been almost a month since I've been out of the hospital. I'm still very concerned that this mssa might reappear or cause other problems. I'm still on antibiotics. This article has me concerned that my doctor may not have taken enough precautions to ensure that this infection will be taken care of completely.
That's the worst, when you know something's wrong but no one wants to listen to you. Staph infections are a known problem in hospitals. They just won't acknowledge it or give it much credence. It's sad. Sorry you had to go through that. I hope you heal 100%
Hi i posted a few month ago rwgarding my knee surgery and contracting mssa. The update on my saga is i have seen the cardiologist and he has given me the all clear to have re surgery on my knee providing i have antibiotic cover before and during the operation, I now have to have yearly heart scans and I have to be very aware of infection even if i scratch myself. I have got over the very worrying stage where i just wanted to wrap myself in cotton wool and have come out the other side with a different outlook on life. I have had another MRI of my spine as i have not felt the same since I had this infection. I tire very easy but i am learning to cope with it. It is just a case of been very aware and not leaving any infection to fester. I have been told if i think i have an infection to get streight to hospital to have aggressive treatment of antibiotics.
Lastly as the above comment states doctors need to be aware i thought i had swine flu and tried to ride it out until after new year but i ended going into hospital on new years eve i was told if i had left it another 2 days i wouldnt be here. I had rang my gp and had to insist on a doctor coming out to see me as the advise i was give was to stay in bed and drink plenty fluids!!!!!!!!! worrying to say the least.
Man, that sounds awful. I'm really sorry you had to go through all that. It's so sad that hospitals are breeding grounds for such horrible infections. I really hope you get better. I'm glad the infection got taken care of at least and that the antibiotics worked. To get swine flu on top of staph is really bad luck. Thank you for sharing your story. Hopefully it will encourage other people out there who are going through some rough times.
My husband had a colonoscopy in January and was very healthy, but the week after this he got chills and fever. He would come home from work and fall asleep right away. They put him in the hospital 2 weeks after that stating an infection. Treated him with 5 different antibiotics not sure what kind of infection he had but they were working on finding the problem as stated by the doctor. They sent him home a week later, he told them he was having back pain and the doctor told him it was from the bed, but he could hardly walk. After 2 weeks of this I took him to get another opinion from a different clinic, they did an MRI and found an infection in his spine that had festered for 3-4 weeks prior. Placed him in another hospital for a week, was told he had MRSA. They told him it was on his skin and that everyone carries this infection on their skin and it just enters the body through an open sore?? Are they sure or just covering their own butts??? Went for IV antibiotics for 67 days, the pain got worse so took him back to doctor, they found the infection was now in his hips and spine with numbness down his legs. Back in hospital for a week still thinking this was MRSA. After 3 days they told us he did not have MRSA that it was a typo error on his chat. Instead he has MSSA. No in nursing home that allows animals to roam freely all over. I feel this is not healthy for someone with an infection that needs all these antibiotics. Called to find out about transfering him to another facility but they state that the facility will be inspected and let us know. In the meantime he could get worse. He has been battling this now since February and no one seems to care if he gets better or not. He is getting very depressed. Can you tell me for sure how someone would get this other than through the hospital?
I'm sorry to hear about that. That sounds awful. It's true that staph is everywhere, like they said, on the skin and many surfaces. But MRSA is a special kind of staph that's resistant to antibiotics. To say that MRSA is everywhere is just untrue in my opinion. It festers primarily in hospitals and clinics.
A person generally only gets a bad internal staph infection when there's a deep wound, like surgery or a puncture, which then gets closed over, depositing the staph inside the wound where it grows and spreads. I've not heard of anyone contracting MRSA or MSSA from anything other than surgical procedures at hospitals but there are probably other ways of getting it. I'm not sure how else a person can contract it.
I contacted MSSA from ankle surgery in March 2011. The doctors didn't listen to my concerns about an infrction. Finally 3 wks ago they ordered a surgery to take out all the metal (plate and 6 screws) out of my foot and to clean up the infected areas around the bone. I'm 37 and healthy. Now I'm worried about this infection spreading in my body. Taking Refampin and another antibiotic 3 times daily. Is this curable or just wishful thinking?
hi , im due to have surgery on wednesday but was called in today as swabs have been returned showing i have mssa .... after reading up on it im now terrified and am worried about going through with the operation. Any advice please :( .... i have been given some gel for inside my nose and a foam to apply all over my body known as prontoderm but am worried this isnt enough.
N.A. -- Wow, so you've been putting up with an infection since March. That's a long time. If only your story were an isolated incident. For some reason, doctors just don't want to hear about infections caused by surgery. It's definitely curable, and thankfully it hasn't spread. The ankle should be a somewhat easy spot to clean up. Much easier than the spine, where a lot of people get the infection. Hopefully the surgery will let them get all of it.
Sharon -- I'd be encouraged that they're taking such precautions before surgery. Did they test and find MSSA on your skin? Or did they find it somewhere else? Now that they're aware of its existence, hopefully they won't preform any procedure on you unless they're sure it's 100% safe. Staph is fairly easy to deal with as long as it's outside the body. Once it gets inside a surgical incision and get's closed over, that's when you really start having problems. So as long as you can keep that from happening, you should be alright.
It showed up on my pre-op swabs so i have been given this treatment to use beforehand. They have assured me all will be fine so her goes ..... wish me luck ! Thankyou for the advice xx
Sharon, best of luck! I hope everything goes well.
so far so good :)
Excellent!
I have been diagnosed with mssa from a surgery 2 weeks ago. im a little freaked out @ the comments ive read! will i always have this infection or flareups? ive only been out of hospital for 3 days now. im doing everyting ive been told. i have a nasty open wound, unfortunately i wasnt a candidate for the would vac. what should i expect?
Gina, sorry to hear about that. The good news is that they've caught it somewhat early, which is a big benefit. Knowing what to expect depends a lot on where the infection is. Having a staph infection in your spine is a lot different than having a staph infection in your leg. Depending on where the infection is located, they may be able to clean it up surgically by scraping away all the infected tissue. That's a good solution. Otherwise, it can take a long time to deal with unfortunately. But it shouldn't be permanent.
my husband just recently joined an academy and got trench foot. he just went to the doctors again today for a follow up and the doctor told him that that he has mssa. The way he made it seem was that it was no big deal but after reading more about it i am really scared for him as he is still in the academy and working out am to pm. The doc explained to him that it is some kind of skin disease but i dont know if i trust that doc..what should I do It seems like something a lot more serious than what the doc is portraying it to be.
Karen, MSSA is no big deal. It's a form of staph that is sensitive to antibiotics. MRSA on the other hand is resistant to antibiotics. Most people get the terms mixed up when they're searching. If the doctor specifically told him that he has MSSA, then he's right that it's probably not that big of a deal because a quick round of antibiotics should easily take care of it. This article is a bit confusing because we talk about both MSSA and MRSA, and I've used the two somewhat interchangeably for people who don't exactly know what they're searching for, which I tried to explain better at the beginning of the article.
At any rate, I hope it'll be no big deal and he'll stay safe and healthy.
3 weeks ago my aunt had surgery and was opened from below the breast area to above her privet area to remove cancer. 2 weeks after surgery her operation split open an now has a huge whole. the hospital said they can not operate her because they found MRSA and said it was serius but curable. i did some reseach and found that its life threatening an contagious. when i called to question they told me they made a mistake and that its MSSA that she has. I would like to know if MSSA is contagious also? Should i get tested for MSSA to be safe? when i go see her i hug her and kiss her can i get MSSA?
Ketty, here's some basic information. MRSA stands for Methicillin resistant staph. It's resistant to methicillin, aka antibiotics. MSSA stands for Methicillin sensitive staph, and it's sensitive to antibiotics, meaning that it's easily killed by antibiotics, and very curable. MRSA can be curable as well, but treating it depends on the strain and where it's located in the body.
Staph is everywhere. Most people come into contact with staph on the skin on a somewhat regular basis. The reason the staph doesn't take hold is because there isn't an open wound for it to get inside and infect. So to say it's contagious is true, however, it's generally only considered dangerous if you have open wounds or sores. Still though, if you hug your aunt and then proceed to get an open wound of some kind, you can find yourself in a problem.
That's why surgery can be especially dangerous. If a person has staph on their skin and then goes in for surgery, the staph can get inside the surgical wound and then sewn shut, providing a perfect environment for growth.
hi, i have Mssa! I broke my femur 13 years ago being 12 years old and had an external fixator applied! for the following 5 years i had numerous recurrring infections and abcesses, without doctors officially telling me i had osteomyelitis! they operated each time removing infected tissue, before giving me an mri scan and realising it was in my bone. they then removed all the believed dead bone and infection.
Everything was fine and i was getting on with my life till january this year! I started vigorous exercise, thought i had pulled a muscle so eased off, a week went by and it had got no better so went to my GP, they gave me meds to help with pain and sent me on my way. another week and the pain was getting worse, so went back to GP. I told them i was a little concerned due to my past medical history but they weren't interested and sent me off with more pain relief!!! the next day i couldn't handle the pain any more and went to a & e, they weren't interested in listening to me about past medical history either, and started investigating for DVT, it wasn't that so they then decided it was just bad mucle damage!! after 3 days of returning to a & e i saw a really lovely consultant who was just about to discharge me with muscle damage, we started chatting about my medical history, he listened to my concerns and ordered a mri scan, which then showed up a abcess on my thigh mucle measuring 3 x 6 cm which was caused by a fraction of dead infected bone breaking away, and infection in my thigh bone! the doctors at that hospital removed the abcess but said that the bone infection was out of there expertise, and referred me to oxford nuffield!! i am now 6 weeks post-op, i have had all of the inside of my thigh bone removed and i am on long term antibiotics! i am now 25 and they can't guarantee that it wont come back, the diagnosis/prognosis is that it is a life-long illness.
After reading up on the infection, i am a little confused, am i infectious to other people with open wounds??? i am a care assisitant visiting the elderly in their homes and i have a 5 year old son, i am now wondering if i should consider a career change??? and maybe extra careful if my son has a open wound??? any further info would be great - thanks ashley
Ashley, that sounds like you've jumped through a bunch of hoops just trying to get your situation diagnosed properly. That must have been rough. So I'm assuming that your infection is purely internal, inside and around your femer? If that's the case then you shouldn't have any worries about it spreading to anyone else. It's all locked away inside your leg unfortunately. In this day and age, I'm always careful around open wounds anyway though, making sure they're bandaged and dabbed with antibiotic cream.
My partner had valve replacement surgery (aortic) in CA in April last. Two weeks ago he contact pneumonia and was taken to A & E. Since then he has MSSA on one of the other valves. Some has also gone to the brain, they are now doing surgery to do another valve replacement. Would he have contacted the MSSA in the A&E? or could it be a result of the pneumonia. He is very poorly.
Hmm, my best guess would be that he contacted it during surgery. Staph is transmitted physically, so some of it probably got in there when they were doing surgery. But that's a long time for it to lay dormant, since he had his surgery in April. I suppose it could have come from A & E also, but I don't know how it would have found its way into his heart and brain. The good thing is that they found out about it and are dealing with it. I hope it works out well.
I was wondering if you could tell me how long MSSA can exist in a person.
Hmm, you know it's tough to say. A lot of it depends on where it's located. If it's in a friendly area and begins to grow and multiply, it won't ever go away without surgery and/or antibiotics.
yes can you tell me I had back Surgey on july 21,2011 and by middle augabout 3 weeks after surgery my back swelled up and busted open drained for 3 days and was very painfull went to the doctor who did the surgery and she said it was infection which I alreadynew so she swabbed it and sent me on my way with a 10 day round of bactrim i went back for follow up like after 14 days and had antibiotic stop and then she said I had MSSA in my wound it still wasnt healed then she put me on 7 more day s of bactrim which showed it should get rid of it but it didnt after antibiotic it started to get sticky at the surgical site and it had gotten the size of a golf ball roun and firm poked right out on my back so she started my on levaquin now I am at the last day of it and a couple days ago my knee was starting to hurt but today i could barely stan on it and tonight and looked at my knee right above on outside leg have a big golf ball size or bigger knot right above knee and hurts to bend it or try to stand on could that be from the MSSA in my back from back surgery it firm like the knot is above my surgical site I still have a lump there right under the incision area there it still has expanded area from there it wont leave i know infection is still not gone can anyone help me I am thinking of going to ainfectiouse disease doctor do you recomend anyone thanks Lynn
Unfortunately, the knot in the knee could really be anything. When your body is dealing with a massive infection like the one from your surgery, your overall immune system gets really weak. So the problem in the knee could be from some other infection or problem. Staph doesn't usually migrate throughout the body, but you never know. If the antibiotics aren't working you're probably dealing with MRSA infection and not MSSA infection. If you have good medical insurance, you might want to just keep going into the emergency room until they do something major for you. A staph infection in a surgical site is no joke. Someone else might have some better info for you though.
I was diagnosed with MSSA about a week and a half ago. After going to the ER two times and both times being sent home and told to take a pain pill if I was in pain and to continue to take Bacterium. However, it continued to get worse, extremely worse, I couldn't even sit up on my own or with out crying. My entire left side from my armpit down was so swollen and tight that no matter what I did I was in pain. So I made my father take me to the Cleveland Clinic in downtown Cleveland and they admitted me right away.. They put me on IV antibiotics and three different kinds because they weren't sure at this time what the infection was. And three days later they realized that they weren't working so they did a cat scan of my chest and found a abscess and once the surgeon looked at the results she was back in the room within 5 minutes saying that they are doing an emergency surgery that day.. They ended up draining half a liter of puss out of my side and had to cut through my muscle to get to it. She made three cuts each about 3 inches long and a inch wide.. But she almost had to cut from my armpit down to my side because of the severity of the infection. I now have three open wounds with drains in them and a Picc line which all hopefully come out in a couple days. But I had a colonoscopy about two months ago and I wasn't sure if that may have caused it.. I have no idea how I could've gotten it. This whole thing has been a nightmare.. I'm a 22 year old healthy female and I just graduated from college and moved out and have been working full time until this happened. The surgeon told me that if I had listened to the dr at the first hospital when he told me to just take a pain pill if I was in pain and with seeing how severe the infection had gotten.. It had become life threatening and I got really lucky that I went to that different er when I did.
Kaylin, that sounds like a real nightmare. It's so insane how unwilling doctors are to treat this kind of infection. You most likely are dealing with MRSA, which is the resistant form of staph, which is why the antibiotics didn't work, but you had to have emergency surgery instead.
Are things looking better at least? As far as where you got it from, MRSA generally hangs out in hospitals. It's one form of a superbug that they don't want to admit exists. You could have gotten it from somewhere else though. Staph is pretty much everywhere, and the resistant strains are becoming more and more common unfortunately.
I have an appointment today with my surgeon and hopefully she will take the drains out. Then I have an appointment with the Infecious disease doctor on Friday and I'm guessing since my iv antibiotics end Saturday morning that my nurse will come to my house and take out my Picc line. It was a real nightmare and it took a week for anyone to figure out what it was. And the pain I was in was by far the worst pain I've ever had in my entire life. I'm glad that's over with.. Now it's just going to take a while for the wounds to heal :-/
I really hope that everything goes back to normal soon for you. It's crazy how long it takes doctors to realize what's really going on. You could have died. It's no joke.
One thing you might want to consider is taking probiotics for your digestive system. Since you took such powerful antibiotics to kill the MRSA infection, they also probably wiped out all of the beneficial bacteria in your digestive system. Taking probiotics helps to restore them. Just a thought.
I have sat an read almost all the the comments I am so sorry to hear that you all have been through so much. I work in a hospital, and it is a major concern when dealing with Staph of MSSA and MRSA. It is a scary feeling to know you may contract the infection. I will keep all of you in my prayer.
Thanks, that's really cool of you to say. It creates a really hard situation when the antibiotics don't do what they're supposed to. Thanks for keeping your eyes open for the warning signals and for helping so many people.
I had a cervical discecotmyand developed a swollen fevered area at the entry area in the front of my neck. Had vancomycin but became allergic to it. Then had Daptomycin for 26 days at home with Healthcare. . Then oral Bactrim and then clindomycin which was also too strong for me. I felt pretty good until I got the bill. Since, I could not administer the IV's myself should not Medicare have paid for this?? Please help. $5000 is too much after Plan D paid.
That's a really big bill. I'm not an expert in insurance, so I can't really tell you a lot. But if you got the infection after surgery, then hopefully you can make the argument that the infection came from the hospital, and that you shouldn't be responsible for it.
hi i wrote a few months ago regarding my mssa in my femur. Since then i have now been diagnosed with colitis!! my gp believes this was most like caused by all the antibiotics i have been on for the last 9 months.doc says colitis will probably stay with me now but it can be eased with more drugs!! people around me keep telling me to put a claim in for all the pain, disruption, scarring and now lack of movement that has happened due to a broken leg thirteen years ago. any advice on wether i would stand a chance proving that the infection more than likely came from the hospital??? i have had to leave my job as a carer as i have severe lack of movement in my hip due to latest op and also have a hyper extending knee. so a new career for me. any advice would be great - thanks ashley
Ashley, that's too bad to hear. Sorry for all you're having to put up with. I really don't know how well you'll be able to show that your infection came from the hospital. Hospitals haven't yet admitted that there are resistant forms of staph growing in their dark corners for precisely the reason that a million lawsuits would come rushing in. You'll have to ask a lawyer about the likelihood of winning a case like that. I'd definitely encourage you to bring your case to a good law firm though. Most of them will offer a free consultation.
I have mssa bronchitis. I've suddenly suffering with acid reflux. Could the two be conected?
Hmm, I hadn't heard that MSSA was associated with bronchitis. That seems odd. The infection is somewhere in your bronchial tubes then? Maybe if the infection is migrating down your throat it's beginning to annoy your Lower Esophogeal Sphincter, which stops the acid from flowing from your stomach into your throat. That's the only thing I can think of though.
Diference between MRSA and MSSA?
Kaylin/Benjimester,
The original hospital you went to that told you to keep taking pain pills, was this by change SWGH? My son went through the same thing as you, he is only 19 and has always been a very healthy child. We also took him to the Cleveland Clinic where they found he had Staph Auceria now he had to blood cultures that came back yesterday and he has MSSA. I'm so scared for him and do not understand any of this. He has never had any surgeries. He did have poison ivy back in August and was out on predesone, which we found out if on it too long shuts down your immune system, he was then in a car accident in September, the doctors feel he may have had something going on and the car accident triggered this attack. He has been to the ER a number of times and they never did any lab work, until I took him to a spine specialist on Thursday and he sent us straight the The Cleveland Clinic, I'm glad he is there and someone finally found out what is going on with him and paid attention to us. As a mother watching her child go through this is the worse possible thing ever. Any input on MSSA would be great appreciated. Thank You
Hey Penny, did the hospital identify where the infection is located? That's usually a big deal for how they treat it. Staph is especially bad with surgeries because the infection gets deep inside the body through the incision and then closed over. So hopefully, since your son didn't have any kind of surgery, that'll make his recovery from the infection fast. But it really depends on where he has it. Since staph bacteria are all around us all the time, it's tough to say where an infection comes from. I really hope the doctors make good decisions and help him recover quickly.
I had relatively minor surgery on my neck a month ago. by the time I went back to have the staples out the wound had become infected.
It was draining from a small hole that had not healed. The staples were taken out and a culture done of the drainage. There is still some drainage, but it much better.The diagnosis was MSSA.
I am Keflex 500mg 4 times a day. Should that be the end of it?
Hopefully, but it's difficult to say. It's good that your surgery was minor, because that should mean that the infection isn't super deep. Definitely keep your eye on it though, and don't be afraid to go to the emergency room if things get worse. The medical community still hasn't acknowledged that hospitals are breeding grounds for MSSA and MRSA. So sometimes they're not as responsive to dealing with it.
My 75 year old mom was diagnosed 4 1/2 weeks ago with MSSA in her blood and spine. She has an abscess in the base of her spine that the doctors say is not drainable. She is on vancomycin iv infused once a day and rafampin twice a day. She can hardly walk and at times is in such excruciating pain it is heartbreaking. She is living with me and besides all the antibiotics she is taking percosett every 6 hours and motrin inbetween for the extreme pain. My only hope is that because the abscesses are not drainable that the antibiotics will clear it up. My question is how soon will we see any kind of improvement in her pain or walking? If anyone knows please help, doctors never give you a straight answer.Its always we have to let the antibiotic work.
JoAnn, that's really sad to hear. I'm sorry she has to go through all that. Hopefully someone with more experience will be able to give you some straight answers.
Thank you for the very informative and easy to understand information provided. I have been dealing with MSSA for nearly a month now and the Doctors have been very leary explaining to me what is going on. Just telling me I don't have MRSA is as elaborate as they have been, possibly trying to reasure me that MSSA is not as bad. Now that I have read this Iam going to push to be more proactive in my care. Thank you.
Valerie, that's a great decision. Staph of any kind is nothing to mess around with and it's crazy that hospitals are so unwilling to be forthcoming with information.
Had surgery back in December on my breast went for check up week after surgery explaining that didn't feel well and the breast was hard and lumpy they told me not to worry. And so went to my GP and there he told me I had an infection and two abcess so since I've had them drained and packed every day since I've had six lots of different antibiotics and now another abcess as appeared and there not mending Ive had swabs taken and I've got Staphylococcius growing and it's not mending so worried that it's MRSA and there not telling me
Jean, hopefully not. But if you've had 6 different antibiotics and aren't mending properly, then it sounds like you're dealing with some form of staph that's resistant to antibiotics. Hopefully because the infection isn't near your spine or vital organs, surgical removal of the affected tissue will be possible. Sometimes that's the easiest way to eliminate the infection. I hope things turn around for you and that you get some honest answers.
i was in hospital with acid reflux problems, got thatfixed out.imanaged to pick up mssa through i.v. drip in my left hand and in got cellulitis in hand.after 17 tries of trying to put ven flon in too which they only lasted up to 24hours at a time they eventually sent me home after 2 weeks with tablets to take. because of infections and tissuing family say to take it further but i say im a wee fish in a big pond
That's too bad that you picked up an infection just from a simple trip to the doctors for acid reflux. I really hope it gets worked out. You're right though. Most of the time, the hospitals don't take it too seriously because they aren't willing to admit that you got the infection inside the hospital.
my daughter who is almost 2 had a red bump on her leg. I hadnt thought nothing of it 3 days later it had turned into a boil. i took her to the dr. and he wanted me to come back the next day to see another dr. I respected the fact the other dr. had more experience. So the dr did a procedure in the office to lance the boil on my daughter and cut it open to release anypuss. He packed it with gauze to help drain it. He had taken a sample of the puss and it came back staph infection possibly MSSA or MRSA. The results will be back within a few more days. My daughter hasnt been in a hospital and reading everyone elses comments it came from a type of surgery? She hasnt gone through any of that. So im not sure if anyone else has had an issue similar to this. And what will happen to my 2 year old??? many questions few answer:[
Tabitha, MRSA and MSSA are forms of staph infection. Staph infection is pretty common, it's a bacteria that lives all over the place but it can only infect a person usually through open wounds. You can get regular staph from a lot of different places. But MRSA has been reported to grow in hospitals, and is resistant to antibiotics. That's why it's so bad when you get it during surgery, because it goes into the surgery incision, which is then closed back up, leaving the infection to grow and spread beneath the surface of the skin.
The good news is that since your daughters infection is just on the skin, it'll be easier to deal with than if it were inside a surgical incision. Hopefully they'll be able to give her some skin cremes and antibiotics that will help knock it out.
I had anterior and posterior spinal fusions July of 2010. Five weeks later I ended up with an infection and 8 days in the hospital. I ended up with a 5 inch hole in my abdomin, pic line and IV for 7 weeks. The doc thought the infection was gone and took the pic line out. Two weeks later I ended up in the hospital again with a bigger hole cut in me and 3 more days in the hospital. Two days later I ended up with 20 pounds of tissue removed, a wound vac and 8 more days in the hospital. The wound vac stayed for 8 weeks!! I had nurses at my house 3 days a week from July to January 2011. I was so out of it. Pain meds, IV meds, just tons of meds. My husband was juggling 3 boys, work and me. I did not find out until much later I had MSSA. In December I thought I was going to die. February 2011 I started with Parsonage Turner and severe pain and therapy for 12 months. I also develpoed a hernia in June 2011 due to all the tissue removed in my abdomin. I had surgery for the hernia November 2011. The hernia was 8 inches by 4 inched...HUGE! I am finally off all the pain meds after 22 months. I still have lots of pain but I am learning how to manage it with nerve meds and Cymbalta. I have permament nerve damage in my lower spine and am very deformed from my ribs down. I missed a lot those months I was out of commission but am trying to get back to life. Life is good!!
Wow, that sounds like a nightmare Barbara. I'm glad you're on the other side of it. That must have been super scary for awhile. Staph inside of a surgical wound is very very serious, as you well know. I wish hospitals would make people more aware of the dangers and what signs to look for with a possible infection.
My son is 29 years old and was diagnosied with mssa bactermia & vertebal ostemyelitis/abbccess He is severe pain from the abbcess on his spine, but the doctors won't give him any medication because he is in a methadone clinic.
I am desperate for any information, thank you
JohnCW 15 months ago
Finally great content about MSSA. People know about MRSA, but MSSA is different disease. Benjimester, thanks for great and very educative content here, from now I'll follow your work here.