Teatopia

I Could Use Your Prayers

Yesterday was kind of a whirl-wind. On Wednesday afternoon, as I was leaving school, I noticed what I thought was a tiny bug bite on my upper right arm. It was pink, but I didn't think much of it. I could even see the little hole where I figured some bug had bitten me. I figured it would go away, no problem. Well, Thursday night, it had begun to get bigger, so I rubbed some cortizone cream on it and put a band-aid on it. The next morning I still didn't think much about it (I've had my share of outrageous bug bites from all my traveling). By lunch yesterday, my arm was on fire and getting red. I took the bandage off to see that it had filled with white pus and now looked like a boil. Everyone at school said they thought it was a spider bite and wanted me to get it checked out right away. The office staff wanted me to show the clinic worker at school and she encouraged me to go to the doctor right away. I made some calls and found that my OBGYN and regular doctor has closed already, so I decided to head to the urgent care place down the road from work. As I was leaving, the clinic worker at school came running after me with a pamphlet on something called "MRSA" or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. She said she didn't want to alarm me, but she had just remembered receiving info on an unusual condition that has been becoming more common. She said this was worse than a spider bite and thought I should ask the doctor. It's a boil that masks as a spider bite, and is actually worse than a spider bite in terms of danger. After waiting over an hour at the doctors and being told, "don't worry honey, I gained tons of weight with my daughter too" when they weighed me (gee thanks!), the doctor finally got to me. He took one look at my arm and said "not a spider bite, that IS what you thought, isn't it?" Turns out it's MSRA.

"The organism Staphylococcus aureus is found on many individuals skin and seems to cause no major problems. However if it gets inside the body, for instance under the skin or into the lungs, it can cause important infections such as boils or pneumonia. Individuals who carry this organism are usually totally healthy, have no problems whatever and are considered simply to be carriers of the organism."

Some important facts:
*It is often misdiagnosed as a spider bite
*Symptoms may include redness, warmth, swelling, pus, skin tenderness, pimples, boils, or blisters.
*MRSA-infected skin lesions (sores) can change from skin or surface irritations to abcesses or serious skin infections)
*If left untreated, it can infect blood and bones.
*The number of deaths from MRSA have doubled in the last few years.

My doctor explained that there was a rash of outbreaks a few years ago, and most were mis-diagnosed as a spider bite and treated as so, so people died. Then, the Center for Disease Conrol in Atlanta began reseraching it and sent an urgent letter to all physicians urging them to culture the pus and NEVER assume it was a spider bite.

My sister actually has told us about MRSA patients she has treated in the hospital (she's in nursing school) and that these patients aren't even aloud to be touched. Of course, they caught mine early, so I should be ok. They deadened most of my arm, and made a small incision to clean out the infection. He squeezed my arm so hard to get out the infection that now it's bruised, but I know it was necessary. He put me on 2 strong antibiotics (which are safe for pregnancy) and I have another appointment tomorrow (yep, on a Sunday). He said it'll get worse before it gets better, and that it could go 50/50. This could be all he has to do, but he said it's just as likely it'll have to be cut open and packed with gauze tomorrow. However, James changed the bandage a while ago and it looks like it's pretty good. I didn't see ANY infection. It hurts like hell (he even prescribed vicodin because he said it would hurt so bad, but I haven't needed it and wouldn't take it anyway despite it being ok for the baby). I called my OBGYN on call for mine and told him what's going on and he said the dr. who treated me at the clinic is wonderful and did the right thing. Oh, and strangely enough, since becoming pregnant, I am now allergic to band-aids, so the area around the infection is red and bumpy. My darling sister got me some gauze and tape I can use.

I stopped by my school yesterday afternoon after my appt to update them and get my things, and I was in tears thinking about the baby. I've never cried at work before. I was just so scared. The dr. told me not to worry about the affects of medicine on the baby because if I didn't take it, the infection WOULD go to my blood and hurt her. My heart broke thinking about the baby. It made me realize how much I love her already. I am getting teary thinking about her now. I would die for this baby and I've never even seen her. I can't imagine how much more powerful that feeling will be once I've seen her little face.

I am trying to rest and NOT freak out, because I'll be fine. Although it's not umcommon for this to become life-threatening, it sounds like that only happens to people who don't catch it. I didn't realize how serious this little bump really was! I know staph can be dangerous, but still . . .

I am taking it easy this weekend. As my friend Lisa said last night, my body is not only trying to fight a bad infection often resistant to normal medications, but it's also growing a baby. And I really haven't been feeling so hot lately anyway. The doc even said maybe no work Tuesday (I'm off Monday), but I'm hoping I can go. I acutally have a gestational diabetes test scheduled for Monday morning, so I guess I'll see what the doctor says about me keeping that appointment tomorrow.

I felt God's peace yesterday as I cried and worried, but I could still use your prayers. I need to be 100% so I can finish growing a baby!

Edited to add: this is contracted at schools (another reason NOT to stay until March 31). Here is a good article from the BBC if you are interested.

Posted by Hannah at January 14, 2006 12:43 PM