Honey, I'm home!!!

[ktfabian]

Welcome Home, Honey!

I'm glad you're back, Irish, and hope this will finally be the solution.  I'm glad you can handle the doxycycline - I was on it recently for a long tern infection and lasted exactly 3 doses before my tummy revolted and said, " no more".  Will the doxycycline kill the MRSA?  Anyone I've met with MRSA has had a PICC line with vancomycin, but they all had MRSA on they're skin, so maybe this is different?  Whatever it is, I'm glad your doctors finally know for sure and can treat it the way it needs to be treated to get rid of it.

We miss you when you're gone!
Tracy

[irish]

Tracy, I have had some really horrible infections over the past 15 years or so and many of them assoicated with bad root canals etc. I am totally amazed that I have not died as I have had so much infection in my nose, throat and anyplace between my eyeballs and my Adams apple. I slept on my side for 5 years as I knew that I had infection close enough to the brain that I worried about it spreading. Docs never seemed to worry but I knew what I was hacking out.

Anyway, pardon the graphics--no way to make this pleasant, I have had MRSA since heavens knows when but had some really wicked infections since 2001 after my septoplasty. Naturally, my low t-cells affect my bodies ability to fight off infection. All my cultures have come back with sensitivity to septra, doxycycline and vancomycin. My immunologist says that one must take the doxy for minimum of 4 weeks and many of my other docs didn't treat me that long.  I think their reasoning years ago was that I was a nurse and probabaly frequently cultured out MRSA.

My immunologist just hasn't made up his mind about treating me with the vancomycin. I think that he worries that I may have an allergic reaction as I had that bad one during one of my infusions that could have been life threatening. Sooo, I don't push it because if I can get rid of my infections with the oral meds I may be better off waiting til I get a really bad infection to use the vanco. I am allergic to septra now so that screws that up.

My ENT says that he doesn't even get excited over MRSA anymore because at least 50% of his patients in the hospital have MRSA cultured but are not always sick. I think that the bad MRSA is the community acquired that one gets at gyms, health clubs, etc. I don't think I would go near a public sauna anymore. I don't care what kind of disinfection they do, there is too much margin for error in disinfection techniques with the large turnover of help in those places.

This seige of infection this year has me quite suspicious of the place that I had my sleep study. I had the study and was sick about 24 hours later and it got to be a really bad infection. This was in July and I had the sweats so bad and of course thought it was from the heat. Ended up sick the rest of the year. I was suspicious about getting an infection when I stayed there as it just didn't look like it was as clean as it could be. Also, really hot with the air conditioner going and that makes for infection issues. Enough said about that! Irish

[lynnmarie219]

Welcome home Irish!

I'm sorry that I'm so late on this post....Ive been slow on the Boards lately.

Also so sorry that you are still dealing with all of this infection and everything else you have been dealing with over the years.....you need a break and a nice relaxing vacation from all of this for goodness sake!

Hang in there (like you always do), take good care of yourself and rest when you need it! You just keep on going no matter what and that inspires so many here...I know you inspire me!!

Lots of hugs being sent to you.....

[loulou]

hi Irish

Great to see you posting again, sorry you have been through the mill and still battling infections. Take it easy Irish, look afteryourself. Glad that the biospies results are good.

I used to have lovely teeth, but they are just crumbling away now, i have 3 crowns and had an awful infection that spread to the sinus and lord knows else where, and this was at the root of the canal, the dentist drilled through the crown and the smell was like nothing i smelt before, truely grose. I do worry though that this will continue to happen.

TAke care
loulou

[irish]

loulou, If you can afford it go to an oral surgeon (referred by your dentist) and get all your teeth pulled at the same time. They can give you IV antibiotics and send you home on antibiotics following the extractions. It is not the most fun in life, but it is such a relief to get rid of the infected teeth that break off when you bite into a marshmellow.

If you don't get your teeth pulled you will be fighting infections and paying out a lot of money to your dentist up until the time you do get them pulled. It is so worth it to have your teeth out when they are falling apart. The dentists don't life to pull them cause they want you to spend the money on the caps, etc. Just tell the dentist that having bad teeth like this can slowly kill a person when they have sjogrens. Bad teeth can contribute to lots of health problems from stomach to heart. Good luck. Irish

[pudmott]

Welcome home Irish,

good to see you're still kickin with us and raring to go. Lets hope those drugs do their thing for you

pud

[loulou]

Hi Irish

Thank you for your sound advice, i have apt soon with dentist and i will tell him that there is no point in trying to save the back tooth that is just falling apart. We have had 3 different dentist, and i am loosing faith in all of them.

Hope your fight in conquering your infections will happen, and your health will improve some. TAke care sweet.

loulou

[genko_b]

Hi Irish:

I've been slowly catching up on things here. It is possible to wander for days in one section of the boards and never get back out again! Glad to hear they may have sorted out this MRSA thing finally. Here's hoping you get stronger as spring arrives.

Genko

[ktfabian]

Hi Irish-

I was reading through your list of antibiotics that you're sensitive to.  I have many of the same sensitivities.

I think the first time I had a MRSA infection affecting the side of my face, nose and left eye in 2007, (when it was REALLY mismanaged by the Residents of the program my doctor was in charge of) they sent me home with oral Zyvox.  I'm not absolutely sure that was the name of it, but it was the only oral antibiotic for MRSA that I wasn't allergic to that they could come up with.

Unfortunately, I was already vomiting and had a headache when I left the hospital and the first Zyvox didn't make it all the way down before coming back up, so I was readmitted.  They thought I might have meningitis.  At the time, they still weren't handling the MRSA very well as they put me in the same room as a woman scheduled for brain surgery.  I was scared to death that I would infect her, but I seemed to be the only one concerned. 

I ended up changing doctors when the MRSA came back a second time about a month later. I do believe I got it where I took physical therapy.  They never wiped the equipment or mats down between patients and when you were on a table, the only thing protecting the pillow cases was a paper towel.

Now when I end up in the hospital, I get my own room just because I have a history of MRSA.

I really hope they get the right combination of antibiotics and keep you on the for a long enough period of time that THIS time, you get free and clear.

You're on my Sjogren's prayer list, Irish, a separate prayer list for my friends who've been given this special gift in life!
Tracy