Topic : 04/01 The Superbug

I can only say what I have herd and what i was told to do,  I also had this my doctor said to take a bleach bath 2-3 times a week using 1/4 cup  for small baths.  this is not supposed to be any worse than the pool??  I have not tried this,  but hear tea tree oil as a possible help.

take care and good luck

I watched the show about the superbug and I and probably a thousand other people would love to have had a doctor also talk about the condition known as 'hydradenitis superlativa' which sounds eerily like what the blond gal has, although I have no medical claim to back that up, only personal experience. This is a condition that has no known cause, no known cure. Thousands live with this condition and antibiotics have proven useless in the treatment of it. It causes severe pain, open raw draining holes in the skin , and acute scarring. Like the superbug, many have never heard of this condition either. I have had this condition for approximately 30 years and was never correctly diagnosed, until about 10 years ago.

While the medical community, personnel like doctors and nurses are vital to saving lives and deserve  so much recognition for the extremely harsh conditions placed on them by short staffing, they should be ashamed at some of their daily practices.  I guess you have never worked in an Emergency Room where it was filled to compacity and several ambulances arrive and the people who where in the beds where put in wheel chairs, a sheet thrown over the stretcher and a new body (say a trauma victime) is put on.  The waiting room is filled and everyone is complaining that their problem is worse than anyone elses, so after the trauma victime dies they remove the body, a clean sheet is put on the strectcher and someone is gets on the very same stretcher.  This was not my practice but I have been laughed at by other staff including supervisors for disinfecting entire stretchers, as they commented on how "Idealistic" I am, and that is not the "Real World" in the Emergency Room.  The "Real World" in the Emergency Department is how many patients they can treat daily, as that is what counts.  The more bodies that are seen the more money they make.  In my opinion, the entire health care system we currently have should be ashamed, because it is not about giving the best care to individuals or treating them the way they themselves would want to be treated but the almighty dollar.

Yes ask about their rate of hospital acquired infections, like HA-MRSA, more than likely the person you are speaking to will not know the awnser but I would suggest asking to speak to the infection contril department at that particular facility. The CDC has on general information about rates of infection (without facility names), you may consult the CDC website for healthcare-associated infections surveillance at www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/surveillance.html. 

I am also am aware of medicaid changing policies and informing hospitals it will not pay for costs incurred when a hospital aqcuired infection occurs, I say WHAT A GREAT IDEA, what a way to make the hospitals take every precaution nescessary. I dont know how the little average everyday person could put a hospital on such notice when you know you will be recieving care there. Most of their preopperative releases do note risks including infection and we just sign away any recourse we might have had. You might do some calling and find out what hospital has the lowest rate of HA-MRSA cases and just make an educated choice.

  A mom whos daughter got HA-MRSA back east passed a bill requiring hospital in her state to post this information and make it easily availabe to the public. I think all states should pass similar lesilation. If resteraunts have to post their health inspection stickers on the front doors of their establishments so the public is aware of low scores, it lets the public make an educated dinning choice and forces dirty resteraunts to clean up their acts, Hospitals should have to do similarly!

Since 2003 I have had 5 MRSA infections and I've been told I am now colonized with it.  I believe I got them all from one doctor who had a wound on his hand that wouldn't heal.  (This doctor eventually killed himself as he had other patients who also got MRSA from the same procedure - implanting a pain pump.) 

Having MRSA has completely changed my life.  It has impacted my medical condition in ways I never dreamed of.  I've lost two knee replacements for my left knee due to infection and my leg is now fused straight with a metal rod in it.  I also had back surgery in the past but since my infections my back has gotten much worse (also because of my knee problems).  They say my low back needs to be fused but they won't do it because there's a chance that my MRSA could come back and that would, or could, be disasterous.  The doctors now want to amputate my left leg above the knee to see if it might help with my chronic pain, possibly increase my mobility, and take some strain off my back.  Anytime I have surgery I'm at a much higher risk for infection than the average patient.

I would give anything if I could go back in time to when I didn't have MRSA in my body but that's not possible.  Thank you, Dr. Phil, for having a show about this awful infection.  I don't feel as alone anymore.

I first heard of the bug when my daughter contracted it during a routine out patient surgery.  It was scary for all of us at first but she finally got rid of it. I don't really know if it's gone for good, but I do know that I was like the people on the show, very, very frustrated because I could not get the answers I wanted about MRSA. I am still in the dark about her future health, but she's had a baby since then and seems ok.  My advice to everyone out there, do not ignore any sore on your body, even if you think it's nothing. My daughter and I thought her sore was just a pimple on her leg, but we were wrong!