My Daughter's MRSA Infection, Diagnosis and Treatment

Like everybody else in the United States, I've been hearing a lot about MRSA lately. With the slew of deaths that have been linked to this super bug, I found myself feeling terrified that someone in my family would become infected. I began washing my children's and my own hands more often than normal. According to most people in the medical field, sanitation is the best way to ward off a MRSA infection (or any infection really).

What is MRSA?

MRSA stands for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aures. A MRSA (pronounced mer-sa) is a staph infection that is resistant to some antibiotics and can be very difficult to cure. While MRSA has been getting much press lately it is in reality not a new disease. Staphylococcus aures can actually live on the skin, in the nasal cavity or the back of the throat with out ever causing a full blown infection. This is know as colonization. When Staphylococcus comes in contact with a wound or broken skin an infection can develop. You can imagine my surprise when this happened to my nine year old daughter!

What does a MRSA infection look like?

My daughter came home from school one day with a small bug bite on her arm. I didn't think anything of it because 1) I couldn't actually see the bite and 2) we live in the South, and there are pretty much bugs everywhere. I asked her what type of bug had bitten her and she thought it was a flying ant, once again not something to get worked up about. However the following Sunday morning my daughter woke up complain that her elbow hurt. I glanced at her elbow and found a boil about the size of a pencil's eraser just above her elbow. The boil was white and surrounded by inflamed red skin. My first thought was that she had been bitten by a brown recluse spider. Terrified I rushed her to the hospital to have the bite examined.

My daughter's vitals were taken and the nurse assured me that my daughter wasn't "sick sick". When the doctor came in, she took one look at my daughter's arm and informed me that my daughter had a staph infection. At first I was relieved. I've heard a lot of horror storied about small children and animals dying from a brown recluse bite. But I quickly remembered the news broadcast from the evening before about the school boy who had died in Virgina due to a staph infection. The doctor assured me that this was not the type of infection that my daughter had but would lance the boil and put her on antibiotics just in case.

The boil was lanced (I have never heard my child scream that loud), drained, bandaged, and a strong antibiotic was prescribed. Before I set off for the pharmacy the doctor assured me once again that this was just a regular staph infection and nothing to be worried about. I found out five days after the fluid from her boil had been cultured that my daughter did, in fact, have community-acquired MRSA.

How does MRSA feel?
My daughter informed me that she actually felt fine except for the searing pain in her elbow. She didn't have chills, a fever or any nausea. Like I stated before she was in quite a bit of discomfort but nothing like what had been reported on the news. Her pain traveled from the skin surrounding her elbow all the way through the bone. In fact she had a hard time extending her arm because the skin, muscle and bone were so tender. She did say that her arm felt better after having her boil lanced, or after her minor surgical procedure as she refers to the lancing.

Antibiotics
While many types of antibiotics do nothing to fight a MRSA infection some do work. My daughter was given three different antibiotics. The first antibiotic was a skin cream called mupirocin. This helped to kill the bacteria at the site of the lanced blister. Secondly she was given a oral antibiotic that consisted of trimethoprim and sulfamethoxazole. These medicines did the trick and her infection was gone with in three days. She was prescribed 6 tablespoons of this medicine every day for ten days. This antibiotic mixture is considered heavy duty and can be very uncomfortable on one's stomach. It Unfortunately, on day 8 my daughter broke out in a rash and we learned that she is allergic to sulfa based medicines. All the same my daughter was lucky because we caught the infection before it could reach her bloodstream. Once MRSA has invaded the blood stream a slew of other health issues can arise such as pneumonia,blood poisoning and bone infections.

What I have learned about MRSA is that it is a curable infection if diagnosed early. I have learned that the staph bacteria is ever present in the air and their is little to do other than constantly washing your hands to avoid it. Most importantly I have learned that a MRSA infection, while extremely serious and not to be taken lightly, is not what the media portrays it to be. It's not an incurable and fatal disease. If everyone was to educate themselves on this "super bug" then it wouldn't seem so terrifying.