MRSA

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Hello. I’ve had MRSA for five years now. So have my parents. I had five surgeries at different hospitals in 2018. My dad had two. I was living with them then. Somehow we all got MRSA.

In January 2019, my mom got the flu really bad and became septic immediately. She was intubated just two days later. At that same time, my dad got a diabetic ulcer on the bottom of his foot and became septic and had to have part of his foot amputated. He died for 3.5 minutes in surgery but was resuscitated and intubated. Both of them were in the ICU for several weeks and then in the hospital for another several weeks and then in nursing home rehabs for three months. At that time, they were both on antibiotics for MRSA for 2-3 months. My dad got rid of his but my mom did not. So I have seen firsthand how quickly when something goes wrong, MRSA can cause you to be septic and have the worst problems you’ve ever had in your life. I’ve also seen how bad the side effects of MRSA
antibiotics were for my parents. My dad has had diarrhea ever since.

Now that I’m having my total knee replacement on December 27, my knee doctor made me see an infectious disease specialist, who now wants me to take two months worth (!!!) of either Doxycycline or Bactrim to try to eradicate the MRSA. Both of these have very severe side effects, like major cracked skin rashes, eyes/teeth/skin/ discoloration, C-DIF (severe diarrhea) which may even be permanent, etc.

And taking them is not even a guaranteed cure of getting rid of MRSA, as my mom took those medications for months, and she never got rid of MRSA. Furthermore, she’s going to be the one taking care of me after my knee replacement so I feel like even if I manage to get rid of MRSA, given that I’m with her 2 to 3 times a week, I’m probably going to get MRSA again immediately. So I don’t know if I should bother. But if I don’t bother, then I may end up getting sepsis after my knee replacement, which one really doesn’t want to get. I don’t want to end up with only 48 hours to live like my parents had.

This is a real lose-lose situation. I don’t know what to do. I have taken Tetracycline before for UTIs, but only for a few days at a time. I don’t remember any bad side effects but again, that was a short dose.

I’d like to hear any stories you may have about MRSA, Doxycyline/Tetracycline, and Bactrim (Trimethoprim / Sulfamethoxazole). Or, if you’ve ever had C-DIF, did it go away and if so, after how long?

I have a friend who got C-DIF in a nursing home, and she continues to have it 10 years later. It has forced her to be homebound because her diarrhea never ends. There are only two things left she can eat without being fecally incontinent. I don’t want to be her; she has become a walking corpse and aged 30 years in 5 years.

Thank you.

 

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I have dealt with c diff and MRSA many times in my career. As you know it is hard to eradicate but the alternative of not trying is worse. A total joint has a lot of hardware and if it gets infected it is Utah’s to be removed. Best to have done all you can to eradicate it up front.

 

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Has. Not sure why spell check came up with Utah.

 

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@snow,
So sorry to hear this about you and your parents.

You asked about experiences with c-dif:
I had it after taking Clindamycin. It was prescribed for a root canal procedure as a preventative measure. I was admitted to the hospital and put in a room with another patient. Once they determined that I had C-dif, they quickly moved the other patient out. Then they quarantined my room. I was only in for 3 days and recovered quickly. No lingering effects.

May God bless you and guide you to make the right decisions.

 

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I'm a retired infectious diseases specialist, retiring in 2012.
Back then there were situations in which I would attempt to eradicate the MRSA carrier state. This was usually because of recurrent furunculosis (skin boils). The regimen I used was a combination of minocycline and rifampin. These had an advantage of better penetration into the nasal secretions where the MRSA hung out. There might be newer recommendations now.

 

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MRSA stands for methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, and almost nothing will kill it. See an infectious disease specialist for the current appropriate treatment. Double check with a pharmacist. Any time you are prescribed an antibiotic, take a probiotic such as Florastor with it. The diarrhea is caused by the antibiotic killing the normal intestinal microbes. I had c diff (clostridium difficile). It was cured by a combination of yoghurt with live and active cultures, acidophilus tablets, and Aunt Marion’s matzoh ball soup. The c diff had a chance to flourish because Zithromax had killed most of my normal intestinal flora in the process of curing a sinus infection. I understand that there is something called a fecal transplant that reestablishes an intestinal biome in intractable cases.

 

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@mel Thank you so much. I first found out I have MRSA because I started getting the boils five years ago. Ever since then I’ve been on one 500 mg tablet of Keflex per day and that keeps the boils away. Every time I go off Keflex for more than three days, I get several boils very quickly. I treat a boil outbreak by increasing my Keflex up to three times per day for 14 days. When I do that, it still takes about six weeks for the boils to go all the way away. They’re so painful, itchy, and leave big scars.

My dermatologist who I’ve seen for 13 years has been the one managing the boils with Keflex. He says the Keflex keeps inflammation down overall on the skin. At one point I consulted with a different dermatologist who told me I had Hidradenitis Suppurativa, but my first dermatologist said I don’t have that because I didn’t start with that as a hormonal teenager and most importantly, because I didn’t have it before I had MRSA.

I did have a positive nasal swab for MRSA again just last week, as in previous years since 2018.

My new IDS doctor prescribed Mucoprocin for inside my nasal passage, 14 days of bathing in Hibiclens, bathing once in bath of bleach, bathing my cat which I will not humiliate him with doing, and de-colonizing my condo by wiping as many surfaces as possible with bleach, buying seven new towels, washing them after every use, buying four new sets of sheets, and never using them for more one night - for the next two months.

I don’t have a problem with completing most of those decolonizing procedures, but I definitely have a problem with those strong antibiotics with such crazy side effects. My cat probably has MRSA at this point and my mom still has it, and she’s going to be the one taking care of me for the first week after my knee replacement. She’s even probably going to have to sleep in my bed that first night or two because I have to get up so often to go to the bathroom at night. I’ll be at a very high fall risk for the first couple of weeks after surgery, so she’s got to stay pretty close to me. At night I sleep (in a nightgown) holding my cat in his bed next to my pillow.

I feel like taking Tetracycline or Bactrim is not something I can do at the time after surgery because they would give me *severe* diarrhea at the same time when I’m going to be learning how to walk all over again and barely be able to move. I’ll be in severe pain - the worst I’ve ever experienced in my life. I think my doctors should had me take these antibiotics back in July or September, not for a month before and after surgery.

All of my doctors have known I have MRSA for years. It’s in my paperwork *and* I bring it up to them verbally. I broke my foot horizontally and vertically and had to get plates and screws put in via surgery two years ago, and that foot doctor didn’t care at all about my having MRSA.

Do you have any idea how likely it might be that I would end up with a staph infection after a total knee replacement? I know that overall, patients who get a total knee replacement have a 0.6-3% infection rate. I’m sure it’s higher for somebody with MRSA like me, but I’m not sure how much higher, so I’m not sure how to make my decision. I am open to any suggestions you might have and I don’t mind at all that you’ve been retired for 10 years. I doubt that much has changed since then.

The medication that worked for my dad to get rid of MRSA was six weeks of IV Vancomycin. My mom had about five days of IV Vancomycin then oral tablet Vancomycin for another 10 days. She got better from her illness faster than my dad did so they took her off of the antibiotic sooner and I think that’s probably why she never got rid of MRSA but my dad did. I bet my dad has already caught it again because they live together and share towels, even though I begged them not to do that. I don’t touch their towels.

The decolonization measures and dealing with these medications’ side effects are a lot to accomplish at the same time as having a total knee replacement, let alone on top of the holidays.

My mom will only take one week of work off to help me after the surgery so she won’t be here for the second week; nobody will be here except my cat! If I still need help getting to the bathroom constantly because of diarrhea, I’m really going to be in a big mess.

I don’t have any diapers of a strength that can handle fecal incontinence.

It just seems so stupid to take these strong medications when it’s not even a sure thing that they’ll work! Plus I could end up with MRSA when I stay the night in the hospital, or I could get it again from my mom or my cat. It’s everywhere!

@runningbarend Thank you for your advice. The hospital had both my mom and I take a pre-op class. They told us in that class that knee hardware in particular is kind of a sinkhole for infection. So I agree with you it’s ideal to get rid of MRSA beforehand if I can. The problem is I just don’t want to do both MRSA antibiotics and a total knee replacement together at the same time. But if I don’t get my knee replacement in 2023, my out-of-pocket max (OOPM) for my health insurance doubles next year because our company was bought by Microsoft and they have crappy health insurance. In 2023, my OOPM was $4,500 and next year it will be $8,500! I will not be able to afford to get my knees replaced next year That’s my rush for surgery this Dec. 27

@MezaJarJarBinks Do you have any memory of how they treated your C-DIF? Was it with a medication, and if so, which one? Sounds to me like they should just prescribe that medication at the same time they’re prescribing Tetracycline, Bactrim, or Vancomycin.

Thanks for your help, everyone.

@MezaJarJarBinks Sorry you got something as severe as C-DIF just from a root canal! I had a major emergency during the week of Thanksgiving, when two of my teeth randomly broke off and fell out, but I wasn’t allowed to have any kind of dental surgery for six weeks before, and six months after my knee replacement. Fortunately, my dentist was able to glue one of them back in and put a sealant on the other one that should last for six months until I can get it pulled out and implanted, if I can afford the implant, that is. Stupid Osteoporosis!

 

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@Diana That’s right; thank you for reminding me about probiotics. If I decide to go through with one of those strong antibiotics, I’ll be sure I drink an Activa probiotic yogurt drink every day and take a Fortify Women’s “50 Billion” tablet of probiotics combined with prebiotics every day. Even then, I’m sure I’ll still have the skin rashes, sensitivity to sun, and diarrhea. I *did* see an Infectious Disease Specialist last week, because my knee surgeon told me to, and it’s the new guy who prescribed the very strong meds. I want to know how likely it is that taking one of those strong antibiotics is actually going to get rid of MRSA. If it’s something like only a 50% chance of curing it, I really don’t think there’s any point in taking it. I’m sorry to hear you ended up with C-DIF just because you had a sinus infection. Until today, I thought it was something that was just contagious in hospitals; I didn’t know you could give it to yourself because of taking antibiotics. I understand that now.

@mel FYI, for assessing my risk, I’ll let you know I’m 47, don’t have diabetes, don’t have high blood pressure, don’t have high cholesterol, no circulation or heart problems. The rest of my bloodwork other than the MRSA test is good. I just finished a 10-day special full course of Keflex because of the teeth problems I recently had. Do you think since I’ll be on a lot of Percocet post-op that’s there’s any chance the opioids could reduce the diarrhea, given that they cause constipation? That didn’t help my dad. He was on stronger pain meds than I will be on, and still could barely get out of the bathroom because of the diarrhea.

 

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Snow all I can do is vote wish you well going forward.

 

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@snow Poor you - so difficult decisions. I don’t think I can give any good advices - I think you have lined out the options you have and as you said they are not great - but different.

I can only hope that you are sailing through without more complications. Having struggled with chronic diarrhea myself, it is not fun! But maybe still less serious than some of the other risks - but I know that you know - diarrhea and fecal incontinence in addition to the urinary incontinence is no fun at all.

I can only wish you the best with the preparation for surgery and hope that you for once are lucky.

Sending warm thoughts your way

 

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Hey there Snow!
I apologize to all for disappearing for a while, I think I mentioned I had those strokes due to a muscle relaxer & Gabipentin (both were in my charts as NO GO, I’m horribly allergic). Not the sneezing type, the seizure & arrhythmia type allergic. But I’m sure we’ve all had these know it all Doctors that think they are smarter than previous documented evidence & doctors notes. I’m still suffering through full blown seizures, the last one in August went on for 4 hours and I managed to dislocate my right elbow & shoulder, & tear the tendons & ligaments and blow the remaining discs at C3-4 C4-5 & L3-2 & L2-1, even though these are all fused and filled with arthritis. Right now I’m on the bench again as I woke Thanksgiving morning with what I thought was tendinitis, but by Saturday my leg & foot so swollen I can’t even fit a slipper on. Turns out my calf & foot have large blood clots, YEAH! Of course Cigna refused to pay for the meds, so I was kept in the hospital until i got my lawyer (Father in Law) to call. Our healthcare system is in SHAMBLES! I’ll shut up on that, but my three sisters are all nurses now making in excess of $250K a year, and i feel they deserve every penny after years of doing 90% of doctors jobs, then handling Covid as they did…
Sorry I got off target, but Snow I really respect you, I think you are 1 Tough Chick! I greatly admire how you navigated all of these issues on your own. I love your choice to move to Mammoth, I spent a lot of time skiing, mountain biking, hiking and snowmobiling up there. As beautiful as it is it takes a strong person to live there years round! You always come to mind when watching the X-Games! I wish you nothing but the best with your choice (Not really a choice) to finally get your knee replaced, I like you have continue to try to put off getting my knees replaced, but I know 30+ years of kick boxing does not go unpunished! I’ll be thinking of you on the 27th..
Happy Holidays to All!

 

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@snow

I can't comment on the MRSA but can on the antibiotics. While several antibiotics have sent me to the ER with serious reactions I was able to tolerate Bactrim back in 2017 when I had a serious, long term and still unknown lung infection. Quite few things failed but the Bactrim wiped it out. Had to pay out of pocket but it was worth it. Considering my general intolerance of many meds I was really concerned but came through fine. I do need to go back and see if they tested for MRSA. Oddly my Dad had it too, but no other family member got it.

And, as suggested, probiotics. They are your friend. Adding a lot of probiotic foods to my diet has been exceedingly helpful to not only my digestive tract but overall as well. So, much works better. Gut-brain axis is real.

Wishing you the best for the surgery and a speedy recovery.

 

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Hi snow,
Well that’s a bunch of different experiences for you and your family. I wish you the best. I can imagine how you might be wary of the antibiotics and such. Pretty good chance you won’t get any of those things too. However, they’re mostly treatable. Good that you’re doing your homework on this so to speak.
Be on guard as you can, and taking the pre med therapy prior to your surgery sounds like a good preventative measure actually.
What you will get however, is a brand new knee. I’d go for it a step at a time.

Nothing but good luck wishes for you from me.
Best,
Joe

 

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Hi Snow-- you are truly a warrior and I know you will also conquer this obstacle. I agree with all the others you actually have to do as you are doing, ask questions especially of your providers and others who have experienced having an infectious disease as MRSA and C-diff they are nothing to play with for sure. Probiotics and even consider Prebiotics may be considered. From my understanding the prebiotics feed the good bacteria in your gut and don't die off or isn't destroyed as quickly by stomach acid as the probiotics. They both have their place, but keep educating yourself and since it's (surgery) coming up quick, ask the infectious MD get you started on whatever pre-surgery regimen will be in your best interest soon. We are already nearly at end of the first week of December. Also just mentioning that with C- diff comes toxins being released from your system by the diarrhea. Better out than in. Not pleasant and even unfortunate but it's not ideal to take any antidiarrheal preparation nor will taking opiods. Need the pain medicines but still need to be cautious against the SE of constipation if there is C diff present. But your ID doctor will know how to handle that. So sending up pleads and prayers for your pre-surgery, surgery and post op period. Please when you are able let us know how you are doing. Hope your mother is still pretty well. Beautiful to have parents in your mist. Best of the Best to you starting now.

 

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Thank you so much to all of you for your love, support, compliments and advice. I’m so glad I brought up this topic because I knew some of you must have been through the same thing, and would have some tips. You are all correct in your advice; thank you! I scheduled a follow-up appointment with my infectious specialist for Monday and with my knee surgeon on Thursday to see if he really wants me to have severe diarrhea when I can barely walk. I will keep you peeps updated as I progress. I’ll talk to you all again before my surgery on the 27th, but I wanted to let you know that should anything happen along the lines of death, know that this forum helped me live through the past nine years of incontinence. This forum rescued me from suicide. Also, know that I’ve been fortunate to have lived about 173 lifetimes in my 47 years! I’ve had so many great friends, adventures, and occupational success. I packed my years with great loves. I’ve known spiritual peace in the mountains. I’ve had sooooooo much fun in and amongst the pain and trauma. I only have a couple of regrets which is a blessing. I think my future life will be filled with a lot of loss and pain, so if I slip away under anesthesia, know that I didn’t miss much and that I went away gently and unknowingly.

I’ll give my mom my login information in case anything untoward happens to me and then she can let you guys know. As soon as I’m back in my hospital room after surgery I’ll let you know that at least I’m alive, even though I’ll be in great pain! Thank you all again!

 

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@Sprung87 Wow, I’m so sorry to hear of your recent hellacious struggles! I have had seizures before, right after a couple of my traumatic brain injuries and also if I stop a medication quickly. I have to taper off slowly or I’ll take a seizure.

Seizures are absolute hell; followed by the worst brain fog and headache ever! I’m sorry you’ve suffered with some of those. My fiance when I was 27 died from a seizure so please be careful. He had epilepsy from sports injuries like football, hockey, and competitive BMX. He definitely loved me more than the man I later married at age 32. I miss him all the time. Now my ex-husband is dying of rectal cancer so when he passes I’ll be twice widowed at only age 47.

Anyway, take good care of yourself. Please keep us posted about the dissolution of your clots and best of luck with that recovery. I can’t believe Cigna wouldn’t foot the bill for medication because the consequences of not treating those blood clots would end up costing them so much more money.

Thanks for telling me you think of me when you watch the X games; that’s one of the best compliments I’ve ever had! Now I’ll think about you when I see the X games

 

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@snow Oh my gosh snow! It is hard to believe that you have had so much piled up on top of you. It seems like one thing after another. I agree with Newdaynow, you are a warrior! Then having to deal with your parents too, who have had their own plate full. I don't blame you for being leary of the medications. But, it does seem like you are stuck. Gotta do it now,because you can't wait until next year.

 

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@snow I don't know what happened, I wasn't finished. I think that we all understand you thinking of the final possibility. But, you have taught yourself the medical knowledge, you don't put up with any BS. You will not go easily into that good night - if only to spite all those doctors you have had to deal with these past difficult years. - Besides, we need you. - Pam

 

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@Pammy53 Thank you for your empathy, dear.