Replies to '04/01 The Superbug'

Quote From: mommyrock

We had never heard of this super bug.  Or at least we hadn't heard it called MRSA.  My sister would break out in these open wounds.  We thought she was getting infections from cutting herself shaving or something.  She went to the doctor to have it drained and then back again and then more break outs.  That was 3 years ago and I just found out maybe 6 months ago while taking her to the ER for a wound on her leg that was so painful she couldn't walk that what she had was MRSA.  I guess she's known for a while that is what it's called, but the doctors never made a big enough fuss about it to cause her to think she should be letting her family know.  Here's the scary thing.  My sister gets very serious in grown toe nails and goes bi weekly to have pedicures done on her feet to have them dig out the in grown nails.  If they accidentally cut her while digging out the nail, the bug has not spread.  So if the next person gets cut with the same tool, they will be infected.  I'm sure most of us know that nail salons aren't always the most overly sterile.  But even if they were...hospitals are supposedly the most sterile places and that is where my sister contracted this bug.

We determined that my sister contracted MRSA in a hospital while having surgery on her wrist from a work related injury.  I have to be honest and say that I lived with my sister for a year and shared a bathroom with her while she had it and I never contracted it.  So it's hard to know how freaked out about this that I should be.

It's just frustrating that there is no answer.  The people who have it must feel like lepers or something.  And those who don't (like me) feel guilty for wanting to be hyper vigilant to make sure myself or my children don't get it.  My sister has no kids and loves having my daughter over to her house for slumber parties and every time the MRSA is always in the forefront of my mind.  If my daughter has any type of open wound, I make up some excuse that she can't go.  Because I don't want to come right out and tell my sister the reason why my daughter can't come over.  If the solution for prevention is really as simple as washing hands, then how are people getting it from hospitals?  So what is the solution for preventing it from spreading.  How do we keep our family safe without ostracizing one of our family members who has it.

On a more positive note, my other sister is a Licensed Vocational Nurse and she works in Folsom Prison.  So she deals with MRSA on a daily basis.  She just got finished telling me that the media makes a bigger deal out of it than needs be.  She said as long as the person who has it is keeping clean, covering the wound(s), and taking the prescribed meds then the risk of that person spreading it is minimal. 

Sorry, but I just don't think there are enough definitive answers about this and it seems like the power of whether is spreads or not is in the hands of those who already have it.  I'm only 29, so as long as I've known about AIDS, it's kind of been no big deal.  But I'd imagine that when the general public started to first hear about AIDS that what I am feeling right now about MRSA is what people felt about AIDS.  Those who have it have all the control.