Hi:
For the past 10 years or so, I would get a pretty nasty staph infection in or on my nose. Bactroban did nothing,
so I would end up on Bactrim, Cipro, etc. The round of AB's usually took care of things.
I began to notice that these breakouts happened whenever I got a lot of sun.
These infections happened only 2-3 times a year and I didn't usually worry about it. My doctor sent me to an ENT, who was pretty useless (she just told me to keep my nares moistured..???) He actually mentioned that I might want to talk to a plastic surgeon to explore having the part of my nose that "harbored" the staph removed.
Fast forward to today: For the past 2 weeks, I've had horrible stuffed up and runny nose due to the incredibly high pollen count where I live. One day, my left nostril developed a pea-sized red bump just at the opening. Very painful. I I ignored it, until the entire side of my face started aching and my glands under my face swelled up.
Last Friday I went to a walk-in clinic. A very young girl there, (Physician's Assistant) told me it was cellulitis and had the presence of mind to draw blood and run a CBC. WBC was 5.7, so she told me it wasn't systemic, and prescribed Bactrim 2X/day for 10 days.
Within a few days, the glands went down, but the bump stayed, and still hurt.
TODAY: I woke up with an ache in my left eye are (same side as the infected nostril.) My lower eye lid looked a tad swollen. Within 2 hours, it had turned red. In another hour it swelled up down to my cheek.
My doctor is on vacation this week, so I went to a hospital ER, where they saw me right away. The doctor there looked about 12 years old, but he did do an examine and draw blood. (CBC and Chemistries, all normal). He told me that whatever I had was resistant to the Bactrim, and prescribed Clindamycin.
I asked him if this was MRSA. His answer was "I don't' know and it wouldn't matter anyways." (Huh?)
Then I asked if it were possible to culture ANY fluid from the affected areas (I didn't care if they aspirated from my face; I'm pretty tough.) Again, he said "it is impossible to ever do a culture; we are all covered with staph and a zillion other kinds of bacteria. We wouldn't know which one is causing the infection."
By this point, I'm getting frustrated with this dude. My final question to him (before just giving up, and wondering if he REALLY was a doctor) was "Is this dangerous?" His answer: "Hey, eating a peanut can be dangerous."
Ok, doc, whatever, I give up. Got my script for Clindamycin, and left.
So: my questions:
1. CAN I find out what bacteria this is?
2. Why did this spread from my nose to under my eye, and cheek? It has never done that before, ever.
3. How can I prevent myself from having these recurring staph infections?
4. If this is MRSA, can one ever be totally cured from it?
P.S. He was watching me pack up and leave and his parting words were "You should probably look into alternative healing stuff."
Hmmm..like what? It's so had to sift through the mountains of info on the 'net, which claims everything from oregano to hydrogen peroxide cures whatever ails you.
Thanks,
NeverAgain