According to a report by MSNBC, the antibiotic-resistant strain of staphylococcus Ares, is spreading throughout the nation at an alarming rate. This infection used to be mainly a concern for hospitals and doctor's offices, but now is a bigger concern for locker rooms, prisons, and 'poor urban neighborhoods'. I'd like to know what these doctors consider 'poor' and 'urban', from their offices on Manhattan Island.
In 2005, I personally caught a very bad staph infection; it spread into a small inset bite on my tummy. Then I caught another 'boil' on my shoulder. After less than three days, I was so sick I couldn't walk. I looked like I was pregnant in one side of my abdomen. My shoulder looked like someone had forced a golf ball under my skin, and both areas were an angry, hot red.
The doctor told me I had two insect bites that were infected; prescribed me some antibiotics, and told me to go to the ER if my raging fever wasn't gone within 24 hours. About two hours after my first dose of medicine, my shoulder became a little numb, and I felt almost a relieving warmth. I looked into the mirror, and discovered that the cyst on my shoulder had burst. There was a black hole the circumference of a pencil eraser in the middle of the red mass. Oozing from this disturbing black hole was the thickest, greenest pus you could ever imagine. I moved my shoulder in a little, and more puss poured out, thicker and faster. It was so disgusting.
My fever did not go down, and the other mass did not burst. I was so sick my boyfriend had to dress me for the hospital. The staph infection in my stomach was resistant to the antibiotics, and merrily spreading throughout my body. I had a cyst the size of a softball, at least; removed from my body. It left a gaping hole that I had to pack with gauze soaked in SALT water, and lowly pull out of the hole, three times a day. The gauze came out bloody and bright green, drawing the rest of the infection out of my body the way it came. It was so painful I screamed and screamed, returning to the hospital three more times in the next two days. I almost died.
After listening to my story, and taking into consideration the new reports on how fast these staph infections are spreading; makes you wanna wash your hands more, huh? But, alas- it may not help. Staph naturally lives on our skin and in our noses all the time. And if it begins to kill more people a year than AIDS, well, I think we have a true epidemic here, folks.
*Note: this is not a pic my staph hole, but it looks just like it, only smaller. After the mass is removed, this is what is left. Then you stuff it with gauze strips, and rip out the rest of the infection moving through your body.
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