MRSA (Staph)

[Can_U_Help]

I have an abcess on the calf of my right leg and a culture of it tested positive for MRSA. I am alergic to sulpha and the bacteria showed sensitive to tetracycline so my doctor prescribed it and I have been taking it since 8-9. I finish the last 2 doses on Friday. The sore on my leg looks like it is healing but very slowly. If the sore is not completely healed by Friday should I go back in? I don't have insurance and it cost me $65 a visit plus perscriptions if necessary and I have already paid for 2 office visits over this. This is beginning to get very expensive but I want to get rid of this. This is the second abcess in about a year on the same leg so this may be something that has been around for quite sometime. Is it likely to take several more rounds of the tetracycline to get rid of this? Also, I have read a lot of posts on this forum were the doctors have recommended a topical antibiotic ointment in the nose to help with staph germs. Is this something I can do over the counter (like neosporin) and if so what are good products to use? I'm not really sure what to do I hate to spend out all of this money to try to get rid of this and stop to soon. Any help/advice is greatly appreciated.

[Can_U_Help]

Thanks for sharing. Sorry it has taken me a bit to respond. I've not felt very well for the past couple of days. I hadn't even been on the computer to check my email since Friday. I did end up calling my doctor back because the sore on my leg still has not healed and I have been on tetracycline since 8-11. I am 10 doses into my third round and she (the doc) said if it wasn't healed by the end of this dose I would have to come back in. But it looks like I will be going in to see her anyway. I had fasting labs done at the health department as a result of my annual check up and I had a missed call from the health dept friday afternoon but it was after hours before I seen the missed call so I was going to just give them a call back Tuesday morning when they were back in from the Holiday weekend. But I got a letter from them (health dept) in the mail Saturday and my cholestorol is 295 and my triglicerides are 1720. I HAVE to go in first thing Tuesday and follow up on this. I'm not real familar with all of this medical stuff but I have been told that these are very dangerous results and I really needed to follow up on it. So I'm going in first thing.

I hope you get things straightened out really soon. I now how awful it is dealing with this stuff. Did they do sensitivity tests on any of the abscesses to see if they are using antibiotics that the bacteria is sensitive to? I'm a little confused over this sensitivity test. It would seem that the tetracycline should heal this up since the bacteria was sensitive to it but it's just not going away. The last time I had an abscess (about a year ago on the same leg) I went to the doctor and because I didn't have insurance we didn't do a culture and she gave me 7 days of levaquin. The abscess healed up and nothing came up for a year. This just really throws me for a loop that the tetracycline isn't showing signs of being effective since it was sensitive to it. I hope we get this figured out really soon though. I can't afford much more of this and now with all these cholestorol problems coming up, all this could get very expensive very fast. I guess we'll just have to see what happens though.

Good luck to you also!!!

[yoshi26]

I've been battling Several MRSA infections for several months now. I've been getting them on my face, head, scalp, neck, and arms. The abscesses have been treated with bactrim and augmentin, and have some success. They would knock it down for several weeks after I completed the antibiotics, but then would come back and I'd have to get another run of antibiotics. Currently the infections/abscesses are back and I'm about to start my fourth round in less than 3 months. I am seeing a immunologist next week and hopefully will be able to figure this out along with all my other autoimmune problems.

Maybe you need to get a stronger antibiotic... I've been treated with vancomycin several years ago for a staph infection in my bloodstream. Was a pain the the rear, had a pic line in my arm that ran up my veins and into my heart. Had to shoot myself up with antibiotics twice a day. Hopefully your situation won't come to this, but I think it would be unwise to let it go untreated.

As far as the topical nasal antibiotics, I don't know if neosporin would do the trick. I'm on mysoporcin as a prescription. Haven't had too much luck with it, as I keep getting infections, but it might work in your case. Maybe you can call you Dr. and have him prescribe some meds without the office visit...

Good luck!