A Public Service Announcement?

Two weeks ago, the front of my hip looked a little bruised. This is normal, I tend to bump into things like table corners and such. I looked at it, it was a little red, a little bump on it, but no scratch. The next morning, the redness had spread, the bump was getting bigger. In the next couple of days, more redness, more swelling - oh, and it was tender, it hurt. It was right at the part of your hip, the front, where your kids run up lay their head when they are hugging you. By Friday, the bump was about 3/4 of an inch high, the redness about 3 inches wide by 5 inches long. D wanted me to just pop it. Pop what? It was still just a big bump, one that was hot, swollen, painful, but there was nothing to pop. Friday night, feeling sick, the pain becoming more than unbearable, a friend stopped by with her doctor husband. I showed him - I was more embarrassed by my pajamas than showing him this part of my body ( not a bad part of my body but one that hasn't seen a lot of light since the pregnancy of '06-'07 and subsequent post-partum period). He prescribed an antibiotic, said it was most likely a staph infection and told me that if it doesn't look better in a day or so, go to a doctor.

Then on Sunday, the pressure was insane and then - here is a slightly graphic description - from nowhere it started weeping. Not tears, but pus. Gross? Yes. I went to visit my mom at the hospital and my aunt had told her about the sore. My parents both asked to see it, it was gross, they insisted I go down to the ER. Instead I went to an insta care.

The doctor at the clinic decided to lance it. She numbed it up, or so she thought. Then she took some samples of the ooze and then sliced it open! It was so painful. I thought I was going to pass out. I think I should have had an epidural, it was that painful. She pulled some more pus out, a lot of the infection wasn't at the sight of the newly sliced area, but under the skin around it. She prodded around it, then took an instrument and tore the skin away from the tissue under it so that there would be more places for the infection to come out. I don't know that I have ever cried so hard over physical pain. I felt like such a baby. I was sent home with a shot in the butt (a potent antibiotic, there is still a lump where the injection was), some prescriptions for pain killers and another antibiotic.

Why all the antibiotics? Have you heard all the news about the Super Bug staph? MRSA, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, is what it is called and it is an agressive staph infection. The culture they took from the pus was tested and it was staph, but not MRSA thank goodness. So here is my public service announcement portion.

Staph is everywhere, on all surfaces, on our surfaces. It only becomes a problem when it causes an infection. This can happen when the immune system is somehow compromised. The medical community has given some guidelines for what to look for and how to avoid it. This link from WebMD is a lot more informative than I am, it is MRSA specific but the guidelines are inclusive for all staph I believe, have a look. WebMd Staph Infection

Oh, and I was going to post a picture of the infection itself, but it was a little gory. And now I have gone from gauze and tape and now sport a Spiderman Band-Aid or a Strawberry Shortcake bandage.