Staff Infection

[Dawn]

I had a boil about 6 months ago, then I got another small one on the bottom of my breast,  those 2 went away ok, but them on the top of my breast I got what looked to be like a white head, but a little patch of them, one of them appeared to get infected and got to the size of a dime.  It eventually went down to about a 1/4" in diameter, but it has never completely went away, and it is even still red after 4 months.  I went to see my doctor and he concluded that I probably have a staff infection preventing me from getting completely rid of it.  I went to see a dermotologists who happen to be a skin cancer doctor and he concluded that it did NOT have the caracteristics of skin cancer, it had gotten smaller, not larger, it was red not black .

My question is, I am almost done with the regiment of medicine to get rid of the staff infection, and I have used almost all of the erithomycin that the dermotolgists gave me and hit seems to be stuck at 1/4".  It also seems to have the characterists of scarring up.  You know that different look of the skin.  But it is still red or at least pink.  
Do you feel this is anything to be worried about, is this the scar I am going to be stuck with from this thing.  My doctor said don't worry about it, it will eventually fade, but I just think it is weird that it has never went away completely.  Let me know your thoughts on this, I've already had 2 opinions.  It doesn't hurt or anything, but appears to have a couple small bumps under the skin like white heads that never got popped for lack of a better description.
Thanks Dawn Bishop

[Collin Gill]

My girlfriend had bbeen bitten by a spider. It seemed to go away, but came back and is now a red spot with a head on it like a pimple.  She has found five more since on her stomach (Red cystlike pimples)  She saw a physician and he said it was a staff infection, and gave her sulfer medication.  Does this staff infection have anything to do with her spider bite? Is a staff infection contagious?  Thank you fo your imediate reply, as I am very concerned.
                            Collin Gill

[uranamus]

sounds similar to something i had last summer. I thought I had scabies, but to cure it I sat in a sauna a few times a week with some tea tree oil. Sometimes before the sauna I would eat some garlic to give it a push. Another thing you can try is making a paste out of Golden Seal root powder, mix with water and tea tree oil and apply to the area once or twice a day.

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

Dawn:

You're describing a cyst.  This is a small ball under the skin.  Peple get them all the time.  They sometimes get infected with staph germs, but it sounds as though yours is no longer infected.  It won't go away unless you surgically remove it, but you don't need to, because cysts NEVER turn cancerous.  If you remove them from the chest, they scar pretty badly.

Best.

Dr. Rockoff