its been about ten years for me. animate object
How long can staph bacteria live on inanimate objects? I have not been able to find information on this.
Just for context's sake I posted my previous post not knowing mom had gotten on here and posted.
She is at home/retired. She's very thorough and meticulous about covering herself up and preventing the spread of the infection and actually its working her to the bone because she literally does a FULL thorough cleaning of EVERYTHING she touches immediately following it. I don't see how it could NOT have been superficial as the pimples/wounds burst and drained continually. She is now healing up and gone 3 days without new pimple-like spots though we now have another problem.
I had speculated that mom got this from dad in the beginning and if that is true then for whatever reason he took longer to break out because now he has spots popping up at a very slow pace yet he has always had some questionable skin rashes/sores before mom got infected. Since mom couldn't take the Bactrim cause of her allergy to it we've started dad on it yesterday and today he is complaining of chills and being really run down and is now sleeping a lot. He's a very hard person to deal with for medical things. IE: Says he may have fever yet won't let us take the temperature. He's refusing to cover up the pimple spots and refusing to do ANYTHING that will treat the spots on the surface of his skin, but at least is taking the Bactrim. He's a very stubborn and belligerent man. Mom/dad are both retired so the best we can do is keep him using his own bathroom which him and mom share which is continually cleaned by mom daily sometimes multiple times daily. I almost think its too much cleaning as it never seems to stop and almost her entire day revolves around the cleaning and maintenance of this condition, but at least she is better. I'm worried though because of how dad is that mom will contract it again.
There were no tests done. The doc told mom that it wasn't necessary because he knew what it was and had seen it many times before. Folliculitis with furnacles and carbuncles.
If the Bactrim doesn't work on Dad we will probably see the doc about giving him Clindamycin which nipped it for Mom. I'm worried about Dad having this though because he has recently been diagnosed with a mild form of diabetes. Hopefully he'll let us determine if he has fever to determine the next course of action which would be the Clindamycin as it makes sense to me.
Hi, I am searcherrr's mom! Thank you for all the advice you have been giving to my son, who is searcherrr on here. I appreciate it very much. I read all your replies. I would like to clear up a few things that my son said on here. For one thing, my doctor did tell me that he thought it was folliculitis caused by a bacterial infection when this first began that could possibley go into something more serious like the other ones my son had mentioned. I have taken extreme precautions to prevent further outbreaks of my condition and am a extremely clean person with good hygiene practices. I have done a lot of research on my condition on the computer and told my family what measures I had to take to keep everyone from catching this and my son did more research to see if what I said was accurate. I know how to take care of myself and take care of all my own hygiene and have not let anyone touch me since I got this, as I am doing many things to prevent more spots from appearing. I wash all my clothes seperately from everyone's and sterilze everything in my path. I bleach all my white clothes, wash underwear seperately also. The reason I was so slow to respond to treatment was because I started treatment for this one week too late after the fact, as I didn't know what I had and kept thinking that it was some sort of insect bites. Also, I wasn't given the right antibiotic at first and was responding very slowly due to my age, along with just finding out that I am considered a mild type 2 diabetic. I was told that strick diet and more exercise will help the diabetes and mine was not that bad, but more blood test has to be done to determine this, sometimes this month. I am on the right antibiotic now which I am responding to very well. When I was given a second antibiotic for this a week ago, I was given a shot first to boost the healing process, which I don't really know what was in the shot and then given a prescription to get of Bactrim DS.. About 8hrs. before this I had my last dose of Keflex. I even asked the doc. if I could take another different antibiotic that fast, right behind another one like that and figured it was still in my system. It wasn't until about 4hrs. later when I took the Bactrim DS. and then felt almost immediately, my heart race, got very hot in the face, arms and legs and became very swollen and felt very itchy in certain areas. I figured it was an allergy reaction cause of how i was feeling and took benedryl right away, which later on I spoke to my doctor and found out that it was an allergic reaction. I also noticed that when this happened I broke out with new spots from the bacterial infection. When I had the reaction to this medicine I felt my blood race and I think the infection also got more activated at that point. About a couple of hrs. later I developed a few large whelps, which were hives around my knee and wrist and started to itch more. After taking the benedryl they disappeared, but I continued to feel swollen and they would occassionaly reappear and I kept taking benedryl. After a couple of days the finally disappeared because I took care of it right away. "I know the difference in a bacterial infection and the hives" and knew that the other spots were the hives! I had a delayed reaction to the medicine I became allergic to, which happened to me yrs. ago to Gantrisin when I had a kidney stone lodged in one of my kidney tubes with infection, which I now understand was in the same sulfur family of antibiotic meds.. When that happened I always wondered if I were really allergic to that medicine or if it was due to poor kidney function at the time that happened, as I had to be operated on at that time and I told that to my doctor I saw this time. That happened to me 31yrs.ago and the doctor I was seeing this time probably gave it to me thinking that since I no longer seem to be having kidney problems and since I needed this medicine for the resistant bacterial infection I had, that maybe it would work and I wouldn't be allergic. I don't really know why he gave it to me other than that because I told him I was allergic to it years ago, but never was really sure if it was due to my kidneys that happened or what. By the way, when that happened yrs. ago, I had total kidney failure and was put on a machine right away and operated on the next morning and after being in the hospital almost a month, my kidneys started to work again with the grace of God, which was a miracle to me! After surgery, my left kidney came back right away and the right one took about 5 days to come back to normal. I was told that my right kidney was a bad/slow functioning one and that the left one was good, but was doing the work for both a very long time, which was why all that happened. I drink a lot of water all the time almost every hr. and I didn't know why that happened or what was going on at the time with my body and never had anything happen like that to me in my life. This happened when my son was ten months old at the time and I complained of pain from the third month of my pregnancy in my lower back and right side, which would double me over with severe pain, which the doc. then kept blaiming on Braxton Hicks contractions, that turned out to be a kidney stone lodged in my right kidney tube that would not pass. I ran fever after my pregnancy and couldn't hardly urinate and finally I started to and they sent me home like that with a new prescription of gantrisin, which I became highly allergic too and then given another antibiotic right after that, which I also became allergic too. I often wondered if it was due to poor kidney function this happened with the allergic reaction to these antibiotics and if the second one I was given was more due to the first allergy reaction to the gantrisin at the time that was still in my body when I took the second one. The second one was a form of penicillin, which I took at that time previously for different things growing up when I was sick that I never had an allergy to at all until that happened. I will never know, but at least now I know I am really allergic to sulfur antibiotics due to my doctor's mistake now and am actually glad that this happened to find out. Although my doctor didn't do any test to determine what type of bacterial infection I have, he said by looking at my spots he knew what I have and has seen this many times before and knew how to treat it and is helping me.
I think I know how I caught this infection, but am not sure, as there are many things that happened that led to all this. It could of happened due to at least 4 or 5 different reasons that is so complex. It would be too long to explain, as I know I said too much in here already and don't want to take up more of your time. The important thing is that I am finally healing very well with the right antibitiotic, as I told my son and not to dwell on this anymore. He is worrying too much about this, although it is understandable and I appreciate all his concern for me very much, as he is very dear & precious to me and always will be. I am almost completely healed from this, probably by the end of this week. I haven't had any new spots appear since last wednesday. I know I will be alright and am taking every measure possible to prevent anyone here from catching this also. Thank you again for all your help!
Hi,
It is good to hear that your mom is improving. Is she at home right now?
Continue to guide her with all these. With her response to the medications,what she had was an infection.Help her out with maintaining good hygiene and also in preventing the spread of the infection.If this was a superficial skin infection,then this is contagious. However, in cases that this may be due to an underlying systemic disease, the underlying condition has to be treated first.
Were any tests done?
Doc gave mom this:
SULFAMETHOXAZOLE WITH TRIMETHOPRIM - INJECTION (sull-fuh-meth-OX-uh-zole WITH try-METH-oh-prim) - BRAND NAME(S): Bactrim, Septra - Abbreviated SMZ on the bottle.
Despite being told by my mother that she was allergic to sulfa drugs due to a reaction during a kidney infection about 25 years ago the doc still gave her that drug. She had almost an IMMEDIATE allergic breakout reaction of the folliculitis spots all in a band along her stomach crease. She took benedryl(s) to subside it. I found out that it was a sulfa drug thereafter.
She called the pharmacist and finally the doc back again and he ended up giving her this: Clindamycin - Apparently now within a couple days she is noticing considerable improvements and now the spots have seemed to "stop" popping up no matter how mild they were when they did.... the fact is they've stopped showing up in new places. I've never seen someone so sensitive to EVERYTHING in the realm of physical and mental like my mom is, but one thing is for sure she definitely knows her body cause that sulfa drug did cause an allergic reaction. She said her tongue felt swollen a little bit too and she felt puffy in various areas. Luckily I determined it was a sulfa drug and thats when she called the pharmacist and doc thereafter.
Hi,
I understand that this is dificult for you.This sounds like severe staphylococcal infection to me. Is your mom's diabetes controlled?Is she taking any immunsuppressants at the moment eg prednisone for any other underlying disease?It is important to have your mom assessed completely. I agree that a blood culture be done. Culture of skin scrapings from the lesions may also help.If this is folliculitis or staph infection,then this is contagious.For healthy people,the body may contain the infection and they may only present with the usual profile of the disease.
Your mom needs to be assessed by an internist (infectious disease specialist).An endocrinologist may have to thoroughly work her up with regards to her diabetes.She may need intravenous medications for the skin condition.
You have mentioned that the skin condition responded with the medications.Has she completed the course of antibiotics?
Just avoid direct contact with the lesions.I know this will be hard for you and your family.Your mom may keep the affected areas covered.However, it is best that she is referred immediately to an internist or specialist(infectious disease) for complete management.
Some have tried to break out on her face today. We're going to the ER tomorrow to have cultures done.
No HELP HERE?