Staph Infections

Filed Under Health, Natural Medicine |

This may seem like a strange article for this website, but the fact is that for the past year I have had a personal experience with a staph infection and I am hoping my experience will help shed some light on this rampantly spreading infection. This article is long, but I believe it contains material which will be informative of what to do if you get a staff infection and what to expect.

Staph infections used to be seen primarily in hospitals and homes for the elderly. In the past week Virgina has closed over 20 schools after a student passed away from staph infection, while schools all over the country are reporting more and more cases.

The early stages of a staph infection:

My personal experience started in July of 2006 when I awoke in the middle of the night with what I thought was a mosquito bite on the back of my leg. It itched just like a mosquito bite and looked exactly the same. I thought it was a little strange when the bite formed a small opening at the top and started oozing clear liquid, but I thought I would keep a watch on it.

Within two days it had turned black, it was still small but getting painful. My theory at this point was that I had been bitten by a poisonous spider, possibly a brown recluse.

With this theory in mind I began to search the internet for pictures of spider bites and matching symptoms. Almost all the pictures I found looked exactly like what I had, which only served to reinforce my theory.

The next question for me was what to do about it, at the time I did not have any health insurance and I was not particularly keen at the thought of a huge hospital bill. However, after looking at all the horrific pictures of what could happen if it wasn’t treated I decided to bite the bullet.

Treatment for a staph infection:

Six days after I had originally felt the itching bump I went to an urgent care center. By this time I was in excruciating pain and walking with the help of a walking stick.

The doctor told me that he too thought it was a spider bite, but that he would have to take a culture to be sure. He said I had two options: one, I could take antibiotics for several days and see if it goes away or two, he could perform a short surgery to drain the wound. He said the antibiotics would most likely not work, but I could try it if I wanted to.

I opted for the surgery option and the doctor gave my leg a shot of Novocaine, which I almost passed out from (apparently I can only take a small dose of the numbing substance). He then cut open the wound. I could feel nothing, but I noticed my significant other’s (whose hand I had a tight grip on) face turning what looked like a shade of green. He’s not the queasy type, but when he almost threw up and let out a “that’s disgusting”, I knew it must be pretty bad. He later told me it looked like a full tube of toothpaste being squeezed out of my leg. No wonder it hurt so much!

Afterwards the doctor gave me some painkillers and antibiotics, just in case there was any infection left and sent me home. When the Novocaine wore off it did hurt a little from the surgery, but it actually felt quite a bit better than the previous horrific pain I was in.

Diagnosis for a staph infection:

I think it was the next day I received an urgent call from the doctor. This was not a spider bite, he said, this is a very dangerous, very bad bug. What kind of a bug I asked (I still thought he meant something like a poisonous spider). A very bad, very dangerous one, you must come into my office immediately. I told him I could not come in until tomorrow, to which he responded if I absolutely needed to wait till tomorrow it would be ok, but that he must give me a new prescription of very heavy antibiotics and that if my nose turned black to call him immediately.

Now this sent me into an absolute tail spin, my nose turning black?! What the heck was he talking about, and was I going to be ok?

When I went to see him the next morning he explained to me that what I had was MRSA, a strand of staph infection that is resistant to all antibiotics except for three, two of which are oral and one of which is given through an IV. He gave me a double strength antibiotic, told me that as long as the MRSA remained in my leg everything would be fine, but if it spread to a different part of my body things would become much more serious.

I went home and over the next ten days finished the full course of the antibiotics. Everything seemed fine, my leg felt great, save a tiny scar, and as far as I knew the MRSA was gone.

Repeat staph infections:

About four weeks later I went on a beautiful hike in Zion National Park, little did I know that would be my last hike for a year and a half. By the end of the hike I had blisters on both of my heels. By night time my right heel was in horrific pain and by morning there were little black dots all over the bottom of my right heel. My left heel was fine, just a slight normal blister.

What you need to know is that my right leg was the leg that had the MRSA infection, the infection had now moved from my leg to my foot without showing any sign of still being in my body over the last four weeks.

I was in such horrific pain that I immediately went to the doctor, the problem this time was that the little black spots were not big enough to drain. I was given yet another course of double strength antibiotics. The little black dots went away, but the pain remained. I could not press down on my heel at all.

Complications from staph infections:

This pain remained for the next year and over that year I went to five doctors, three surgeons and an infectious disease specialist. After many test, examinations and a MRI none of them knew what was wrong with my heel and only the infectious disease specialist has a working theory to go on. His theory was based on my previous MRSA breakouts and he started me on a treatment of two double strength antibiotics to treat the infection. The thought was that by treating the infection with two antibiotics at once, if the infection built up a resistance to one, the other would still be effective.

The antibiotics did a little good, but not much, I was still unable to walk on my right heel, had little energy, and was gaining weight due to the massive amount of antibiotics I was on.

Seeking alternative treatment:

Close to a year after the initial infection I was still not able to walk properly and decided to pursue alternative forms of medicine. At this point I was willing to do just about anything to get rid of the pain and be able to walk (not to mention run) again.

I chose to seek treatment with a Chinese herbalist who had been highly recommended to me by a friend. He told me that the first thing we had to address was my digestion because he needed to make sure my stomach was strong enough to take the herbs I really needed for my foot. Loaded up with what felt like a million herbal pills, including one for the pain, I started my regimen of the Chinese thought.

I followed this plan for two months, the pain was less and my heel was about 30% better. It was comforting to know that something was making a difference, but the progress was slow and it was expensive. I decided to look for other methods of healing.

About that time a friend invited me to her home to participate in a healing session with something called Reiki. In (very) short terms, Reiki is a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing. It sounds great now, but to be honest, at the time I thought it sounded hokey. I don’t know why, but acupuncture and pressure are something I put full stock in, but this Reiki things sounded weird to me.

Never the less, I was exhausted trying to find out what was the matter with my foot and like I said, I was willing to try just about anything, so I went.

As the Reiki practitioner had me lie down on a massage table I remember thinking, there is no way that of all things this is actually the thing that will work. She put a small pillow filled with lavender seeds over my eyes, rang a loud bell over my head (I know that sounds strange), and then cupped her hands around my hurt heel.

As she did this my heel got really, really hot and very painful, the only thing that kept me relaxed was the lavender pillow over my eyes and the practioner’s soothing voice saying, “I know, I know, it won’t be long now”. And then, what seemed like all of a sudden, the heat and pain were gone. I got up off the massage table and actually, for the first time in almost a year, put my heel on the ground.

I couldn’t believe it, I walked around sort of gingerly, thinking I should take it easy. I could tell right away that the majority of what was left was a need for physical therapy to stretch my ankle and foot muscles out. They had not been worked in close to a year and they were stiff and sore, but the pain in my heel was about 80% better.

That was back at the end of June, I have not yet had another Reiki treatment and yet my heel has continued to get better every month. I now take a mile walk almost every morning and my heel is about 95% better. There is still a very small area that is slightly painful, strangely enough in the exact same spot as the original little black dots of the first MRSA breakout on my foot.

What you need to know if you get a staph infection:

The first thing to know is that the student who recently died from staph and all the recent breakouts are not merely from staph, but a certain strain of staph called MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). As I said above, MRSA is resistant to all but three antibiotics, two of which are oral and one of which is given intravenously (through a vein).

What not to do if you think you have a staph infection:

First of all, do not, I repeat do not, try to cut it open and drain it yourself! One of the reasons MRSA is so dangerous is because if you cut it open yourself it will most likely get into your bloodstream, from there it goes into your lungs and you can die within a matter of hours. This may sound extreme to you, but the simple fact is, if you cut it yourself it may be to late before the doctor finds the source of your problem.

Secondly, do not try to heal it with home remedies. Home remedies are great for minor problems, but there have been no remedies statistically proven to cure MRSA and even if you did find a remedy that appeared to work there is no guarantee it would work fast enough or get rid of the entire problem.

Lastly, do not sit around thinking about whether you should go to the doctor and waiting for the pain to cross your personal threshold that tells you it’s ok to go to the doctor.

What to do if you think you have a staph infection:

Go to the doctor, he or she may have to cut open the infection and drain it (as I mentioned above they numb you and it doesn’t hurt), make sure that when the infection is cut open a culture is taken and sent to the lab. Your lab results will tell you if it is an MRSA infection.

Make sure the doctor puts you on a course of antibiotics effective against MRSA and make sure you finish the entire prescription. The reason for this is because if you do not finish the prescription a remainder of the infection will be left in your body and will most likely come back.

Religiously go to every check up appointment your doctor says you need and do not change your bandages yourself unless you are instructed to do so.

If you have a very serious staph infection or a continuing problem:

If either one of these is the case, the type of doctor you need is an infectious disease specialist (otherwise known as an ID doc). In the United States we have Internal Medicine physicians and Family Medicine physicians, both of whom are general practitioners and can most likely help in normal situations. However, if you have a serious or on going problem a general practice physician is not educated in specialized fields, they are as their name would suggest, generalized. It took me months to find out which type of doctor I needed and the specialist you need with MRSA is an infectious disease specialist.

None of the opinions, statements, or any other information that I have shared in this article are professional advice or should be taken or used as such. I merely share with you my own personal experience and advice I have been given along the way. It is my intention that this information may help you should you have a staph infection and otherwise educate you in the midst of this rapidly spreading infection.

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