My MRSA Staph infection - Part Three

In the first picture you can see the reaction I had to the tape. I switched to different sizes of band aids but this did not help. Everywhere I had the tape from the band aid and tape my skin would whelp and a rash would appear. The first two pictures were taken on June 1st, my trip to the doctor was on May 28th.

The second pic is a close up of my staph on June 1st. The redness is going away the hardness under the skin is slowly subsiding. Now the skin is starting to peel, I didn't realize that was going to happen. I don't think it's anything crucial so I'll just keep an eye on it.





The third picture was taken on June 7th it is healing well the hardness is also going away. It's about the size of a dime now and is only on the left side. The center is now just a small scab. I'm thinking it will be all gone by next week. I'm so glad it will finally be all over.


Through out the time I've had this I have been very tired and just feeling bad. I got really sick and had a high fever on may 29th. I wasn't sure what was going on. I had already been on medicine for 3 days, and shouldn't be feeling this bad. I wasn't sure if it was the medicine or the staph that was making me ill. One of my friends is nurse and she happened to be over visiting and she told me to take my meds and go to bed. She believed it was the staph that was causing me to be so sick. I did as directed and felt better the next morning. For the last couple of weeks I have noticed I get tired very easily. I'm just ready to have my energy back.

The reason why I wanted to post this is because when I went online to search for staph I always found these horrible images that looked nothing like what I had. I wanted people to have an image to compare theirs to. I would hate for someone to continue thinking it will just go away. That will NOT happen, staph has to be treated, if not treated it can turn into the flesh eating disease, or infect your vital organs. I hope that someone will see my post and think well I better go get this looked at. Even though mine did not look horrible it could have if not treated.

My MRSA Staph infection - Part Two

Before my doctor bandaged the wound she showed me how to clean and care for it. I was told only soap and water, no neosporin or peroxide. It looked like some one stabbed me with a pencil. I had a whole in my leg it looked pretty crazy. The first two pictures on the left are what it looked like when I got home from the doctors. I had gone to the pharmacy and to grab something to eat and went home. I was shocked to see that the whole was already closed. She told me to keep it open to drain it. I called her office and told her that the hole was closed she told me to soak in warm/hot water and then work it open. So i got in the tub and soaked it, I think the water was too hot and I was in too much pain, I started to get very woozy. I called for my sister, she helped me out of the tub I was ghost white, I immediately laid down. She called my doctor and told her what happened. My doctor stated the pain was too great and that is what made me feel so bad. She said to leave it alone and come back and see her tomorrow.

I arrived at the appointment and told her of a new found lump under my armpit. She felt it and stated that this too was staph. She was hoping the medicine would treat it before it came up as a boil. I then brought her attention to the main problem ... she stated we would have to lance it again and that she would need to put gauze inside it to keep it open. WOW this did not sound fun! I was right this hurt so bad!!! When I walked I could feel the pressure of the gauze inside my wound. I eventually got used to limping everywhere. The 3rd picture is the gauze sticking out of the staph infection.

While at this appointment I found out that I did have the MRSA Staph infection she added some prescriptions and told me to make sure and finish them.

My MRSA Staph infection - Part One

I'll start at the very beginning. For the Memorial day weekend my friends and I went to the Guadalupe River and Canyon Lake. We floated down the river on Saturday and relaxed at the lake on Sunday. I headed back home on Monday morning. Monday morning I noticed a small bite that resembled a mosquito bite, it itched so much I thought I was going to go crazy. By Tuesday that small bite began to look like a spider bite. It had the tiny black spot in the center with a dark red ring around it and then a pink ring around that. At this time the bite was the size of a quarter. When I awoke on Wednesday I noticed the "bite" had doubled in size. It was the size of a half dollar piece, warm to the touch and was starting to hurt when I walked. I was alarmed at how much it had grown and decided to make an appointment with my doctor. The appointment was scheduled for Thursday at 3pm. When I went in for my appointment at 3pm this is what it looked like (see pic). It again had doubled in size and the pain was even worse. I had to walk with a slight limp due to the pain. It was about the size of a tennis ball width wise. The center of the infection was very hard and painful. The skin was inflamed and irritated it was slightly raised above the area that was not affected. My doctor came in and immediately told me I had a staph infection. She said she would need to lance it and get a culture to make sure it is not the MRSA virus. I have to say that the numbing shot was excruciatingly painful. But once it was numb I was good to go. She opened the staph so it could drain and told me to keep the incision open but covered with gauze so I don't spread the virus. I left her office with the advice to call if there are any problems. She would call me with the results of the culture on Monday.