Piece #95 - Infectious Disease

I want to let you know right away that I'm NOT saying that my Asperger's is a disease nor am I going to try to gross you out, but this is a topic that has come up way too many times in my life very recently. A couple of times this year (2015) I have been getting MRSA or a staph infection. If you’re not sure what this is here is what the Mayo Clinic says: "Staph infections are caused by staphylococcus bacteria, types of germs commonly found on the skin or in the nose of even healthy individuals. Most of the time, these bacteria cause no problems or result in relatively minor skin infections. But staph infections can turn deadly if the bacteria invade deeper into your body, entering your bloodstream, joints, bones, lungs or heart. A growing number of otherwise healthy people are developing life-threatening staph infections. Treatment usually involves antibiotics and drainage of the infected area. However, some staph infections no longer respond to common antibiotics." Honestly, this is pretty serious stuff. Sadly, my wife has also had to deal with the same thing. I'll try to piece together how this whole thing came about.

The first time I contracted the disease it started out very slowly, where at the time I had a zit under my left arm, but that soon changed. My zit went from being a little red spot to a really large mass. My wife would try to get some of the infection out, but it doesn't could out easily. There were many nights when I had to put a heating pad under my arm to try to get some of the infection to come out. My doctor put me on an antibiotic called Bactrim. Jaimee and I felt like it wasn't doing enough because it had gotten really bad so I went to an Urgent Care clinic and the doctor there prescribed for me a stronger antibiotic and after just a week, the infection was pretty much gone. Later, my wife had an implant removed from her back and sure enough, she developed a staph infection on her incision site and had to be hospitalized because the incision was on the spine of her back! Thankfully, she got a strong antibiotic in her IV to help fight off the infection and she recovered.

This is what the Mayo Clinic had to say about symptoms: "Boils. The most common type of staph infection is the boil, a pocket of pus that develops in a hair follicle or oil gland. The skin over the infected area usually becomes red and swollen. If a boil breaks open, it will probably drain pus. Boils occur most often under the arms or around the groin or buttocks.   Impetigo. This contagious, often painful rash can be caused by staph bacteria. Impetigo usually features large blisters that may ooze fluid and develop a honey-colored crust. Cellulitis. Cellulitis — an infection of the deeper layers of skin — causes skin redness and swelling on the surface of your skin. Sores (ulcers) or areas of oozing discharge may develop, too. Cellulitis occurs most often in the lower legs and feet. Staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome. Toxins produced as a result of a staph infection may lead to staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome. Affecting mostly newborns and children, this condition features fever, a rash and sometimes blisters. When the blisters break, the top layer of skin comes off — leaving a red, raw surface that looks like a burn."

I thought that might be the end, but I was wrong. Out of nowhere, I got another pimple on my left lower leg and very quickly it turned ugly again. This time, however, instead of waiting around I went right to the doctor and he prescribed the same antibiotic as before, Bactrim. Since I caught this really early, the infection hasn't gotten as bad as last time, but it still is taking time to go down. Sadly, not just a few days after mine, Jaimee developed one on the left side of her cheek! Once again, because her infection developed in a dangerous place on her body, she was back in the hospital. The funny part about the hospital is that they have a policy that if a patient has a high contagious disease, there is cart outside of the room where people have to clean their hands with sanitizer, put on a yellow robe, rubber gloves and special booties that fit over your shoes. The funny part is that I had to do this before I entered Jaimee's room even though I already had the exact same disease!!! So it didn't matter because I wasn't going to get it again...I just thought that was rather amusing the hospital had me do this. The hospital did have to cut a hole in the side of her cheek and packed it with a special absorbing cloth to help suck out the infection. Thankfully, Jaimee is going better, but I have learned a lot more this time about how to prevent this from happening again. Basically sanitize everything!

I went through the process of either throwing away stuff or throwing everything in the washing machine. I usually don't always wash my hands when I need to and I could chalk that up to Asperger's, but I think it's a little more of laziness. If I don't wash, at least I will use hand sanitizer to kill the germs. My doctor did tell me that there is a way to 'cleanse' the body of Staph, but that would entail washing my body will a special soap and put a medical gel called Mupirocin in my nose. This process is to last nine days and there is no guarantee that this will even work. Just make sure you check yourself over and if anything looks really red and puffy, you might want to check with your local doctor.

I want to update this posting because I got the infection in my ear and I quickly got antibiotics to get rid of the MRSA. I decided to put the medical gel in my nose for about a month. I don't know if this will take care of the problem but, my Ear, Nose, Throat doctor told me that this is not a rare event to happen to people. Basically, the infection has been going around.

Song of Inspiration [Check it out on iTunes or Android]:

Song: "Infected"

Artist: 12 Stones

Album: Beneath The Scars

Here's the official lyric music video for the selected song: