Messages By: patriciainca

Please help me try to understand something.

Once you have an infection with MRSA, do you ALWAYS have it?  Does it remain in your system in some way? Does it 'lurk' waiting for a chance to come out again?

I had an infection on my inner thigh that turned out to be MRSA in July 2005. It developed & progressed very quickly. I went to urgent care, the doctor said it was an "infected spider bite" but thank goodness he had the insight to get a culture right away. It was a long process, the wound site had to be drained, but I did recover. I was off work for weeks, and on antibiotics (can't remeber which ones). I always thought it really was a spider bite, but since have heard that MRSA often starts out like this, but is not actually a spider bite.

I was not given any real info about the danger of it spreading to others and such. I took precautions just out of basic common sense. No one said I would have any type of predisposition to getting another MRSA infection. BUT..I am having SURGERY next month, and after watching this show, it makes me wonder if I am at an increasd risk. Do I need to tell the docs about the MRSA infection from 2.5 years ago?  My primary care doc knows, but has never ever mentioned it since the infection cleared. I have never had any follow up to it, or had any kind of swab done etc. Should I?

I appreciated the show, but feel it left many questions unanswered. I can't even find an answer to this question on the internet. Just keep getting teh same info over & over. Does that mean there is no increased risk?

Thanks for any help you can give!!!!

I just wanted you to know I got your reply. I will note the MRSA infection in all my future medical paperwork, and will tell the doctors.

I am also wondering about the ways MRSA is spread. If it is in your nose, would you only be able to spread it if you touch your nose?  So, for example, after I have surgery (to repair a severly degenerated achilles tendon, that will require a tendon transfer & graft-obviosuly not something I want to get infected!!)  would wearing gloves & washing hands be all I need to minimze the chance of being reinfected? Or is it that MRSA could be 'in' the body in such a way that I could end up with another MRSA infection even if we took hand washing & glove wearing precatuions? As in do you have to 'touch your nose & then touch an open sore/wound' to get infected? Or does it just lay dormant in the body until another flare up?

Just trying to understand the risks, given that I have already had an MRSA infection.
Thank you for the info...