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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Lynda wrote:
> O.K., I've been the MRSA route.  Had these hive like, rash like thing
> going on.  Wouldn't go away, and wouldn't go away.  They were hot,
> were painful and they itched like crazy and nothing would stop the
> itch.  Then DH gets them and shortly there after youngest gets them.
> So, I head on in to the local clinic as that is what we've got unless
> you want to drive 2 hours, which I didn't.  Major hysteria.  OMG!!!!
> You have MRSA.  No tests.

And that doesn't sound even close to my symptoms, but I know there are
two strains of the stuff.



 Just a
> big speech about how she had worked in the jungles of whatever and
> had seen lots of it.

Luckily, the ER doctor, however competent or incompetent he turns out to
be(I will know when the culture comes back), did not make a big deal
about it at all...no lectures, nothing, just some paperwork and lit
about it.


 She gave me a script for an antibiotic that cost an arm, a leg
> and hocking half a kidlet!  Had to get an authorization from the
> insurance because it was EXPENSIVE!  Plus, she said MRSA could be
> highly contagious and that everything should be bleached (towels,
> undies, bedding).  Get the antibiotics home and the list of possible
> side effects were huge and nasty, so I didn't start taking them.
> Besides, I had spent a whole day washing everything and its uncle and
> I was just plain tired of all of it.

Yeah, whatever you got is probably my next antibiotic when the Septra is
done.  He said that there was one more before IV stuff.  Since I started
my own suspicion that it might be MRSA, I have self imposed the
bleaching routine and have been, for a couple of months now, all kinds
of stuff to take extra precautions.  There is no way, even if this is
'just staph' that I would want JRose to catch it...no way.


> He also said that MRSA is the "in" diagnosis and that NO ONE should
> believe it without a culture.  He said that so far about 90+% of the
> *supposed* diagnosis are found to be false when cultured.  He also
> said that doctors are going to create an even more super staph
> because they are all prescribing antibiotics for anything that even
> vaguely looks like it might be a "damn rash."

My PCP said pretty much the same thing, that it was the diagnosis of the
week.

> Now, as to the UTI, no one did a culture?  And I don't mean the spin
> thing in the office, I mean sent out and checked for sensitivities.
> If they didn't, again, they are flying blind and setting you up with
> unnecessary antibiotics.

Shoot, at the hospital we were lucky that they even found it.  I was
been discharged when I had to go to the bathroom and the urine was red.
 Even though I came in with kidney/back pain, they concentrated first on
the Keflex drug reaction and then on my liver/gallbladder/pancreas
workup.  The kidney pain got lost in the shuffle until I called the
nurse to see the red.  They quickly performed a UA, no culture, and
wrapped it up with a nice bow saying that it, too, was MRSA related and
that the prescribed antibiotics would also help that.
> And, yes, what you describe sounds like a kidney stone.  Been there
> done that and ain't planning on ever doing it again!  The pain is,
> IMNSHO <g>, much worse than child birth!  UTIs (kidney infections),
> on the other hand are merely annoying in comparison.

I have been very lucky to be almost 50 and to have never had an UTI.  I
believe that I did pass a stone, because there was a clear break in time
when I started to feel better and the pain eased, not to mention the
sudden onset of pain out of the blue.  I thought the pain of childbirth
was a little greater, but this was scarier to me because I did not know
what was happening or why and I felt like dying!

Get this..last night my best friend called..she had been unaware of all
of this...she told me that last Thursday, the day prior to my incident,
she got a call from our other neighbor, C, and when she got to C's
house, found C on the floor in pain.  Turns out C also had a kidney
stone.  I know they are rather common, but almost everyone around here
has had stones, so I think it might be all the calcium in the water.  We
have very hard water here, everyone is on a well in this karst limestone
valley.  We all may be getting a bit too much calcium and phosphorus.
I'm not sure right now what the solution to that would be other than
buying bottled water, which is a thought that is repulsive to me.  I
like my hard well water, my very own mineral water, and if those
minerals really are causing a problem, I need to figure out what I
should be doing.



> I think the last doc you saw is the go to guy!  Sounds like he didn't
> go to graduate stick up the arse school!

He's a great doc.  I've been under treatment for
hypothyroidism(Hashimotos) since I was about 15.  I can't tell you how
many endocrinologists I've seen in multiple states over that time.  No
one had ever been able to get my thyroid hormones stabilized until I
started going to him, and he is a simple general practitioner.  He never
felt constrained by the medical lit on the subject and not only did he
think out of the box, he prescribed out of the box, and as long as I do
what I am supposed to do, I feel great and have no trouble.

B



--
The true significance of Sacajawea's involvement in the Lewis & Clark
expedition is that it was the first documented trip in history where men
asked a woman for directions and followed them, allowing them to arrive
at their destination.