MY MRSA NIGHTMARE
by
Linda Austin

My story began April 7th 2005 when I decided to have Breast Reconstruction Surgery. It had been attempted at the same time I had a double mastectomy in October of 2000, but the surgeon botched the job and left me lopsided and deformed. I finally decided it was time to do something about it since it was affecting my self-image and esteem so much, as well as keeping me somewhat depressed. And at this time in my life, I was probably the healthiest I had ever been, so I saw no reason not to go ahead with the surgery. At this time, I had been working part-time at a nursing home in the kitchen as a dietary aide. I'd been there over 2 1/2 years and had remained very healthy, not even contracting the flu.

On May 4th 2005, I went back to my surgeon to begin the filling stage of the reconstruction. Tissue expanders had been placed and partially filled on the 7th and now every week they would place 100ccs of saline on each side until the amount desired was reached, creating the pocket for the permanent implants. A small 1/4 in incision had to be made in order for them to fill the left side as the valve was misplaced. I went on into work that evening for my 4-8pm shift. By the next evening (Thurs 5-5-05) redness and swelling had begun at the incision site. By Friday (5-6-05) my side was hot to touch, sore, swelled, and beet red. Since I had an appointment to see the Dr. on Monday, I decided to wait until then to contact him. Over the weekend I started running a temp. had nausea, and headache. When I saw my Dr., he opened up the 1/4 in cut and drained over 1 cup of fluid from it. He cultured it and started me on Clindamycin. When the culture came back, I was only told that it was a very nasty infection that was resistant to almost all antibiotics.

I continued to get sicker and sicker to where I finally took a medical leave from work on 5-24-05. At this time I found out that we had 3 nursing home residents with active MRSA that was being brought down to the dining room each evening for me to take care of. So I had inadvertently compromised myself by going to work with that 1/4 in cut. The following week was when I found out that all the cultures, including the very first one, was positive for MRSA. I had been on Clindamycin for almost 30 days with no sign of improvement, and then developed an allergic reaction to it and became one huge walking hive. I was given a cortisone shot and a 10 day med pak to take care of the hives. My surgeon then put me on Avelox. He was getting very frustrated and I think the MRSA was over his head and he didn't know how to treat it. Finally, the end of June, my primary Dr. said I needed to see an Infectious Disease Dr. and that he would set it up. In the meantime, he order 10 days of IV Vancomycin for me to do. I went into the ER every day for them to do the infusion.

On 7-7-05, I saw the ID doctor for the first time. He said that my primary Dr. was on the right track, but the dosage needed to be twice as potent and given twice daily. I was sent for a PICC line (Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter) and was set up at home with everything I needed to do the treatments myself after Home Health did the first three treatments. I had a portable pump, and the meds and supplies were sent to me each week after seeing the ID Dr. After 4 weeks all three Dr.s concurred that the only way to get the infection cleared up was to remove the tissue expanders, take the Vancomycin for another 3-5 weeks and once the blood work showed no sign of infection, they could try to re-insert the expanders and start over.

This was the beginning of 5 surgeries, 4 PICC line placements, and over 30 weeks of IV Vancomycin within a 48 week period. The final surgery was on 1-24-06 at which time permanent implants were placed into the created pockets. Everything was going well and looked really good.. For the first time in a very long time, I actually thought I looked normal, and the implants looked fantastic. Then about 3 weeks later, I started seeing redness over the incision sites and what looked like small openings beginning to show through. By Sunday eve, the flesh looked like it was being eaten away at the incision site, and pus was draining from it. The ID Doctor was contacted and he ordered another PICC line for Friday morning. While I was there getting that done, I asked the nurse to take a look at the incision sites. By this time, the prosthetics were protruding out of my body, so the nurse called over to my surgeons building and I was told to go right over once I was finished. My surgeon wasn't in so one of his colleagues saw me, and he said that they would have to remove the prosthetics .He told me to keep my appt. on Monday morning (this was Friday afternoon) and we'd go from there. I lost it completely for a while. I was devastated and was just ready to give up the fight. I was placed on a medication for depression and anxiety. I just couldn't deal with it anymore. By the time I saw the surgeon on Monday morning, the prosthetics were protruding enough out of the body that they just removed them in the office. All the flesh looked like it had been eaten away and where skin use to be, you could only see the implant itself. He said they would have to leave the softball size holes in my chest that way so that it could heal from the inside out. So they packed the holes and they had to wind up using sanitary napkin pads to keep the drainage from getting all over everything. Home Health care came to me Monday afternoon after I got home and set everything up again, for the 4th time, and documented everything. They got me an abdominal elastic binder to use around my chest. These Nurses were very inventive and it was the little things like that that helped me get through all that, especially then, because I'd given up, at least temporarily. They even got me pain medication that worked! I thought I was dealing with the pain ok, but when they took my blood pressure, it was 155/135. My body certainly wasn't handling it. When they came back the next morning, it was 118/70. I was on IVs for another 4 weeks before the infection was deemed gone. That was on 4-1-06. It took until 10-26-06 before the holes were healed and I was released from the surgeon. Now I have all this excess skin from where the pocket was created that has to be ultrasound at least once a year for my protection. The Dr. told me that even if I waited a couple of years and then tried again, it would most likely start up all over again. So all I could do was get fitted for prosthetics.

I have been infection free for almost 17 months now, thanks to concentrating on re-building my immune system, and then maintaining that health and strength by using maintenance doses of the 4 most important supplements necessary to gain optimal health.

There were times when I was ready to pack it all in, but with the support of people like Lady K, I was able to regain a resemblance of normalcy, and finally regain control of my life. And in doing so, try helping as many people as I can along the way by sharing my knowledge about MRSA, as well as helping with alternative medicines and herbs, to which I earned a degree in, along with a certification in homeobotanical remedies. If anyone needs any help or advise they can contact me at laasda82@yahoo.com or they can post on the U.S. Forum at http://www.robprince.net/mrsa/forum-usa.asp?action=list I try to check it several times a week so that anyone new won't have to wait too long for an answer to their questions.