Hmmm, interesting. I've been getting little bite-like bumps on my hands lately. My mom's been getting them too, but she says it's an allergy from some tree. I should probably get it checked out.

Thanks for the info.

Originally posted by Kruel
Hmmm, interesting. I've been getting little bite-like bumps on my hands lately. My mom's been getting them too, but she says it's an allergy from some tree. I should probably get it checked out.

Thanks for the info.

Yeah, maybe you should get it checked out. These days it seems as though everything should be checked out. Kind of scary when you think about it.

Could something like this be spread on purpose, or is it one of those "wrong place, wrong time" things?

This thread is a duplicate of a thread with almost the exact same title, just a few spots below this one on the front page...

I can absolutely 100% verify that this is neither a hoax, nor improbable. I almost lost my leg to a staph infection. Here is my story.

I woke up one Wednesday morning with an itchy spot on the back of my leg. I'd assumed I'd been bitten by an ant, flea, spider, or something similar and went about my day, scratching at it when it itched too bad to ignore. I think I may have even put some hydro-cortizone on it at some point.

Thursday I woke up, and the spot hurt horribly. It now looked like I had blackberries (the fruit, not the 2-way) stuck to the spot where I'd been "bit", and my leg hurt so bad I was having some trouble walking. Again, I pretty much ignored it and assumed it was some sort of scab and would go away.

It did. That Friday I woke up and the blackberries were gone, instead was a brown crusty hole that went down to the bone. At this point I could hardly walk, but for some insane reason I thought to continue ignoring it and went to work, where they finally took notice of my dragging my useless leg around and asked what happened. I told them. They told me to go to the hospital. I declined, as I didn't have health insurance, and it'd probably clear up by Monday, but if it didn't, I could make an appointment.

Effectively, they forced me into a car (wasn't hard, as I was minus one good leg) and drove me to the hospital against my will. When the doctor saw my leg her first words were "Oh my God!" Once she'd collected herself enough to speak she immediately hospitalized me and assigned a team of disease specialists to my leg. Seriously, they had seven doctors fascinated by my leg, each as baffled as the last. It went into some medical journal. Anyway, the only thing I knew was the grave warning that I'd probably waited too long and would most likely have to have my leg and testicals removed (the infection had spread up into the lymph nodes in my pelvis and into my meat and two-veg).

They decided to try treatment and surgery first, and would give it a few hours to see if there were any progress. Team after team of interns was brought in by multiple doctors to stare at the hole in my leg as they hooked me up to intravenous antibiotics so strong they leaked through the roof of my mouth. They cut out of my leg an inch radius of muscle and skin. They brought in more specialists, students, interns, photographers. They gave me more antibiotics. They waited.

After the allotted time was up, my doctor came back in and gave me the news that they wouldn't have to amputate my leg and testes after all. Needless to say, I was delighted. I was then given a lecture about going to see the doctor next time something freaky like that happens, and informed that, had I waited till Monday, as I'd originally planned, I would be dead.

So, yeah, this is a pretty serious threat, but fortunately one that is fairly easily avoided. If you go to hospitals, spray your shoes and pant-cuffs with Lysol before getting in the car or walking into the house if you didn't take a car. Hospital floors are the main source location for these kinds of staph. And if you get an itchy spot that begins to make your entire leg hurt, for chrissakes go to the doctor.

theLibra - OMG!!
Thank god you made it through!
A couple quick questions for you.
Did you ever figure out how/where you contracted the infection?
How long was the "allotted time"?
Do you have any lingering symptoms?

MRSA is a resistant strain of bacteria. Staphylococcus aureus is the original strain but has mutated to become resistant to methacillin. Hence the name Methacillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus. When it becomes resistant to that particular antibiotic, then it is only a couple of more antibiotics that can be used to treat it and they have to be monitored when given to a patient due to their toxicity if given in too high a dose over a certain time.

Originally posted by lombozo
theLibra - OMG!!
Thank god you made it through!

Thank you. I know a few people would rather I didn't, but all the same, thank you.

Originally posted by lombozo
Did you ever figure out how/where you contracted the infection?

No, and a part of me still wonders if it couldn't have been a brown recluse spider bite, but the doctors emphatically denied the possibility. The only thing I can think of is that I had a habit of wearing ripped up jeans at the time and sitting down in public places to have a smoke or talk to people. It's entirely possible that I picked it up from sitting on the floor at a mall.

Needless to say, I don't sit on the floor in public places anymore.

Originally posted by lombozo
How long was the "allotted time"?

To see if the hole in my leg could be treated vs. amputated?
I'm not sure, as there wasn't a clock in my room, and I fell asleep at one point.
I think, however, it was only a matter of a few hours.

Originally posted by lombozo
Do you have any lingering symptoms?

Just a wierd looking scar where they sewed everything back together, and a fear of staph. It's amazing how much scarier staph is once you've contracted it.

Staphylococcus aureus is a normal bacteria found on your skin and inside your mouth and nasal passages. It becomes an infection only when it has the opportunity to invade your body via some trauma (breaking the skin, pore getting clogged with the bacteria in it) or by inspiration ( inhaling the bacteria from your nasal passages deep into your lungs). It is an opportunistic infectious bacteria.

thelibra - man oh man. Yeah good call not sitting on public floors anymore.
Now how about these anti bacterial hand soaps - do they do anything when it comes to staph. Will it kill off the infection before it finds an entrance through the skin?

Originally posted by lombozo
thelibra - man oh man. Yeah good call not sitting on public floors anymore.
Now how about these anti bacterial hand soaps - do they do anything when it comes to staph. Will it kill off the infection before it finds an entrance through the skin?

I honestly don't know. I'm not even sure the staph I got was penetrated through the skin. It may have just started eating through the surface on contact.

Now, to be fair, the human body is a miasma of bacteria, the vast vast majority of it is benign, and the bacteria that isn't is usually crowded out by the bacteria that is. I personally don't bother with Purell and anti-bacterial wipes unless I've just gotten through handling raw meat or the trasht (even then, I'll just wash my hands with hot soap and water if its available). The reason being is that if you kill off the good bacteria, there's more room for the bad bacteria to take root.

Hope this helps.