Merry Fucking ChristMRSAa

[patrock]

On Friday night putzmeisterbear, Fogbear and I went to see The Musical Box. They do a faithful re-creation of the Genesis show "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" which is pretty remarkable. We started talking before the show about Putzmeisterbear's recent run-in with a MRSA infection which ended with him having a piece of toe amputated. I told them about my first major

Comments

[snousle]

Wow, that really sucks, I am sorry you have to deal with that. It's got to be especially hard since our kind of crowd normally enjoys so much physical contact. I hope you can find a lot of support and understanding, it's a hard thing to deal with in any circumstance.

I also hear you on the medical care thing, it really sucks. Doctors are very overworked and tend to burn out. Don't take it too personally, they kind of have to put up a lot of shields in order to keep going.

[patrock]

Since the very beginning of it all, I have been very conscious of physical contact and wether or not I'm "active" or the threat level at least. It's done wonders for my mental health. I am also sure it has made me seem "cold" in a lot of situations but it's difficult to explain why I might not let someone really hug me. It's like turning someone down sub-consciously.

I did take into account the work that Doctors do and expectations of them. My original Doctor was OK but still didn't give me much info to work with. In thinking about it, the five days I was at Davies Medical Center I honestly can't remember anyone explaining to me what was going, why I was there, what they were waiting for. I *was* really out of it in more ways than one but I can only remember nurses giving me menus and a doctor coming in to look at my lip after it exploded.

[holy13nation]

Jesus, you poor sod. I hope it clears up as fast as possible. I confess it startled me that you have had all this as I'm used to MRSA as an infection picked up in hospitals and that a doctor would be so casual about it. Outbreaks in hospitals here are reported in the National press whenever they happen. Then, looking into it, it seems that people in the US are 6 times more likely to pick it up than people in the UK - but there seems to be little in the way of a satisfactory explanation as to why. It is thought that there may be an actual 'community' strain in the US.
Not that this helps you in any way.
Just wish you all the best.

[patrock]

I remember talking to a guy I met who was a nurse. I told him about the level of care I was getting and he asked me wether or not a lab had confirmed what I had. It had been confirmed 3 times. He was shocked and told me to consider a malpractice lawsuit.

A couple of years ago there were a bunch of things in the media about MRSA infections. I think it was SFGate had a story about a "widespread outbreak" in the Castro gay community. The story had cited the San Francisco Journal Of Medicine as the source of information. The story didn't sit well with me, with the experience I was having at least and I wrote to the author. The story was followed up and a few months later it came out that the originator of the story in the Journal fabricated it for the sake of sensationalism, he also refused to retract it and since it was so vague it couldn't really be proven or disproven.... so information can be a tricky thing.

[holy13nation]

Well, the 'community' strain essentially just refers to any infection that is not recognised as having originated in a hospital Which hardly narrows it down. What was curious was that the same article mentioned that steps had been taken in the past decade to bring US healthcare standards up to those of other countries in the Wet. One measure cited was making it mandatory for anyone catheterizing a patient to wash their hands first. I find it hard to believe that this wasn't happening and, in fact, most likely, gloves were worn. It seemed bizarre to say the least given the likelihood of malpractice suits etc.

[danthered]

Eek. Oy vey. Yikes. Sorry you have this to deal with. :-(

[greatbearmd]

I was now boiling mad...Unintentional pun of the year

[holy13nation]

I'd go for the maggot therapy on legs or arms. Just not face or balls.

[broduke2000]

Wow!

*HUGS*