southern_redhead
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2010
The backstory: My 14 year old stepson had what his mother thought was a brown recluse bite on his knee (she didn't, at that point take him to the doctor 
) and dealt with pain and swelling, etc... Finally, the places opened up and the skin blackened on his knee. By the time she took him to the doctor's office they had to cut large chunks out of his knee and they gave him (if I remember what he told me this summer correctly) a week of a strong antibiotic. They told him he had staph. We checked with them often about it but he said he wasn't having any other problems so we assumed it was a "normal" staph infection. Then this fall he sent me a picture of his face and it looked like he had been punched in the eye, very swollen and black. He told me he was going to the doctor, that this had "just happened", and then later told me the doctor said it was an ingrown hair and gave him some medicine to use. This then, later, happened to the other eye but he knew what was happening sooner and I'm not sure if they went back to the doctor or if they used whatever was left of the medicine. I couldn't quite sort that out. Anyway, DH has been home this week (he is gone most of the time with business) and SS asked to stay with us. He was with us from Friday night until yesterday morning. He slept in oldest DS's bed, showered, etc... Yesterday he was going to go to school then back to his mom's. He came to me at breakfast and asked for neosporin. When I asked why he showed me this HUGE cystic place on his calf. He said it was bothering him. It wasn't bleeding or draining anything but the top was shiny (like a pimple before it comes to a head.) As soon as the doctor's office opened I was on the phone with them, this is the same clinic he went to for everything else. I went over his previous visits (the staph this summer, the eye thing) and told them that we didn't really think mom was doing anything more than getting his meds filled. He had seen a nurse practicioner the other times and I asked that he please, PLEASE see one of the two doctors my family sees. We got him an appt and his mom was supposed to meet DH and SS there. The doctor was going to go over cleaning procedures, proper wound care, etc.. with her to make her understand they can't all use the same washcloth for a week, his clothes need to be washed, etc.. (this is an ongoing problem with her.) Also, there is a baby in their home who has had it on her butt for 2 years. We wanted him to talk about spreading the staph, etc. Well, she of course didn't show. She did leave DH a huge balance of unpaid co pays for him to catch SS's account up 
so that he could be seen.
So, now the doctor can't talk to her. DH again mentioned stepson's previous cases to this doctor. He cuts the cyst or something and squeezes some stuff out that he says it is staph, they will culture it to type it, and then know how to treat. In the meantime he gives SS an ointment, an antibiotic, and a spray for his nose (apparently this stuff can be present in the nose.) The nose spray is something SS has never been given. So......DH fills it all and asks mom to come pick it up after she picks up SS from school. He wants to talk to her in person. He is trying to drag details out of her and says "Did they tell you what KIND of staph it was?" And she says yes, MRSA, but he took his medicine and they told her it would clear it up. Well, yes it will clear it up but you aren't ever CURED from MRSA. We know that and that is just from reading the CDC website
She insists it isn't incurable that he "got over it" with that week of meds. Now we are thinking that they told her they would type it and then treat it more aggressively but she probably never went back/called back to get meds or just never went to pick them up.
Everything I've read has said anything from 6 wks of antibiotics to a hospitilization for IV meds, none of it said a generic med for a week. Still she did SAY that she knew the type. DH calls back and speaks to the nurse to confirm this, she flips through the chart and says "Yes, he had MRSA last time."
She then confirmed to DH that no you can't cure it, yes it is highly contagious and can be spread via contact with the sore, etc... DH is freaking out. I am freaking out.
I had already left work, gone to the store and bought a bunch of bleach and new (white) towels. All my pretty striped towels are now in the trash
I didn't want to ruin them with bleach but no way were we going to use unbleached ones. So now I have bleached the main bathroom we all use, DS's bathroom (they don't really use it except for toileting and handwashing), the kitchen counters, and I've used Lysol to mop our entire main floor (laminate wood flooring.) Now, we already have our home cleaned once a week with disinfectant cleaners and we always wash the kids dirty clothes. We change sheets once a week, more if sick, and I have a strict rule about not using dirty towels or washcloths (way before MRSA I sitll thought that was the heighty of nasty.) Still, his jeans were washed with all of our jeans, he slept in DS's bed WITH DS (they were both wearing shorts so that place was exposed), he showered in our bathroom where my youngest takes a bath and the older two shower...........I washed the towels after use, yes, but just in hot water and hot dry. I didn't bleach. ARGGGG!!!
DH and I both feel like we are waiting on the other shoe to drop. Will one of the kids develop this? I will be so, SO mad if they do. This is life long and (as was for my SS) can be disfiguring. It can also be fatal if it goes to the bloodstream or bones. I am upset that the dr's office didn't see this previous MRSA diagnosis and be more forthright with DH, I am furious that SS's mother thinks you can take amoxicillan or some other random drug and "cure" it, I am scared that one of us will develop this and spend the rest of our lives dealing with it.
Please don't think we are not upset for SS. We are devestated for him. He is 14, almost 15, and has the rest of his life to find "spots" and have them treated. To worry about passing it along and feel like a leper. And, still, even with DH telling her this is incurable but can be managed WITH THE RIGHT STEPS, his mom refuses to believe it's more serious than poison ivy or eczema. She didn't even want his school notified but DH is going to. He plays football and it isn't right for him to be in the weight room and locker room, on the field with MRSA and not at least have the coaches KNOW.
I looked on the net and it said that in the state of TN this was reportable to the CDC but the dr didn't act like he planned to call anyone. Should we? Has anyone had experience with this? Is there something I should do beyond bleaching everything I can and washing throughly anything I can't? What about from here on out? Is there a timeframe we can consider our kids "out of the woods" if they don't exhibit symptoms?
What do we do about him visiting in the future? I guess he needs his own beds and sheets (each of our kids has their own that aren't shared so it wouldn't really be any different.) His own towels?! A friend whose sister is a nurse has it and she cleans her bathroom with bleach after she uses it (but I think now that is only if she is in the midst of a flare up), has her own towels, and monitors her body for any new spots that she goes straight to the doctor with. Therein lies our problem. If he has a new spot develop she WON'T take him to the dr because she REFUSES to believe this will come back. I really think she thinks it is like chicken pox and you are immune after you have it
So, he could come to our home already in the contagious stage. At 14/15 what do you do? Ask if he has any spots? Check him over? I mean he's only had it on the one leg but it could show up anywhere on his body now right? I'm certainly not checking him and DH would probably feel uncomfortable doing it at SS's age. I mean, who should have to visually examine a kid for an infectious disease? Which brings me to the last question.......
How do we locate an infectious disease doctor in the Memphis or Nashville area? We are perplexed and agahst at how nonchalant the dr's office has been. They didn't even mention to DH this time about cleaning everything until he said "Don't you have to be vigilant about keeping things clean and disinfected?" and the nurse said "Yeah. If you don't clean really well it will spread." HELLO!!! You need to TELL that not wait for someone to ASK??! They also told DH it is ONLY contagious if the wound is draining but then said as long as he wasn't up walking around to leave it unbandaged. That isn't how I read the CDC and other site information at all. That isn't how my friend's sister was told to treat hers. We are really feeling like the dr's office don't know to much about it and by trusting them to treat this/advise us we are putting ourselves at risk. Can anyone help??
I'm sorry, I know this was long and perhaps disjointed. If you've made it this far, bless you! I am just sick with worry for ALL the kids - SS because we KNOW he has this and it will be up to him (in her home) to try to do what is right and get to the dr if he sees anything else and for our 3 because they don't deserve to have been exposed to this anymore than any other child does. They didn't ask far all this and they live in a clean home that they HELP keep clean
I know you can have it in clean homes but I just do feel like this originated because a case was gotten due to being left in filthy diapers and then was passed through unlcean bathrooms/toweling and clothing.
) and dealt with pain and swelling, etc... Finally, the places opened up and the skin blackened on his knee. By the time she took him to the doctor's office they had to cut large chunks out of his knee and they gave him (if I remember what he told me this summer correctly) a week of a strong antibiotic. They told him he had staph. We checked with them often about it but he said he wasn't having any other problems so we assumed it was a "normal" staph infection. Then this fall he sent me a picture of his face and it looked like he had been punched in the eye, very swollen and black. He told me he was going to the doctor, that this had "just happened", and then later told me the doctor said it was an ingrown hair and gave him some medicine to use. This then, later, happened to the other eye but he knew what was happening sooner and I'm not sure if they went back to the doctor or if they used whatever was left of the medicine. I couldn't quite sort that out. Anyway, DH has been home this week (he is gone most of the time with business) and SS asked to stay with us. He was with us from Friday night until yesterday morning. He slept in oldest DS's bed, showered, etc... Yesterday he was going to go to school then back to his mom's. He came to me at breakfast and asked for neosporin. When I asked why he showed me this HUGE cystic place on his calf. He said it was bothering him. It wasn't bleeding or draining anything but the top was shiny (like a pimple before it comes to a head.) As soon as the doctor's office opened I was on the phone with them, this is the same clinic he went to for everything else. I went over his previous visits (the staph this summer, the eye thing) and told them that we didn't really think mom was doing anything more than getting his meds filled. He had seen a nurse practicioner the other times and I asked that he please, PLEASE see one of the two doctors my family sees. We got him an appt and his mom was supposed to meet DH and SS there. The doctor was going to go over cleaning procedures, proper wound care, etc.. with her to make her understand they can't all use the same washcloth for a week, his clothes need to be washed, etc.. (this is an ongoing problem with her.) Also, there is a baby in their home who has had it on her butt for 2 years. We wanted him to talk about spreading the staph, etc. Well, she of course didn't show. She did leave DH a huge balance of unpaid co pays for him to catch SS's account up so that he could be seen.So, now the doctor can't talk to her. DH again mentioned stepson's previous cases to this doctor. He cuts the cyst or something and squeezes some stuff out that he says it is staph, they will culture it to type it, and then know how to treat. In the meantime he gives SS an ointment, an antibiotic, and a spray for his nose (apparently this stuff can be present in the nose.) The nose spray is something SS has never been given. So......DH fills it all and asks mom to come pick it up after she picks up SS from school. He wants to talk to her in person. He is trying to drag details out of her and says "Did they tell you what KIND of staph it was?" And she says yes, MRSA, but he took his medicine and they told her it would clear it up. Well, yes it will clear it up but you aren't ever CURED from MRSA. We know that and that is just from reading the CDC website
She insists it isn't incurable that he "got over it" with that week of meds. Now we are thinking that they told her they would type it and then treat it more aggressively but she probably never went back/called back to get meds or just never went to pick them up. Everything I've read has said anything from 6 wks of antibiotics to a hospitilization for IV meds, none of it said a generic med for a week. Still she did SAY that she knew the type. DH calls back and speaks to the nurse to confirm this, she flips through the chart and says "Yes, he had MRSA last time."
She then confirmed to DH that no you can't cure it, yes it is highly contagious and can be spread via contact with the sore, etc... DH is freaking out. I am freaking out. I had already left work, gone to the store and bought a bunch of bleach and new (white) towels. All my pretty striped towels are now in the trash
I didn't want to ruin them with bleach but no way were we going to use unbleached ones. So now I have bleached the main bathroom we all use, DS's bathroom (they don't really use it except for toileting and handwashing), the kitchen counters, and I've used Lysol to mop our entire main floor (laminate wood flooring.) Now, we already have our home cleaned once a week with disinfectant cleaners and we always wash the kids dirty clothes. We change sheets once a week, more if sick, and I have a strict rule about not using dirty towels or washcloths (way before MRSA I sitll thought that was the heighty of nasty.) Still, his jeans were washed with all of our jeans, he slept in DS's bed WITH DS (they were both wearing shorts so that place was exposed), he showered in our bathroom where my youngest takes a bath and the older two shower...........I washed the towels after use, yes, but just in hot water and hot dry. I didn't bleach. ARGGGG!!! DH and I both feel like we are waiting on the other shoe to drop. Will one of the kids develop this? I will be so, SO mad if they do. This is life long and (as was for my SS) can be disfiguring. It can also be fatal if it goes to the bloodstream or bones. I am upset that the dr's office didn't see this previous MRSA diagnosis and be more forthright with DH, I am furious that SS's mother thinks you can take amoxicillan or some other random drug and "cure" it, I am scared that one of us will develop this and spend the rest of our lives dealing with it.
Please don't think we are not upset for SS. We are devestated for him. He is 14, almost 15, and has the rest of his life to find "spots" and have them treated. To worry about passing it along and feel like a leper. And, still, even with DH telling her this is incurable but can be managed WITH THE RIGHT STEPS, his mom refuses to believe it's more serious than poison ivy or eczema. She didn't even want his school notified but DH is going to. He plays football and it isn't right for him to be in the weight room and locker room, on the field with MRSA and not at least have the coaches KNOW.
I looked on the net and it said that in the state of TN this was reportable to the CDC but the dr didn't act like he planned to call anyone. Should we? Has anyone had experience with this? Is there something I should do beyond bleaching everything I can and washing throughly anything I can't? What about from here on out? Is there a timeframe we can consider our kids "out of the woods" if they don't exhibit symptoms?
What do we do about him visiting in the future? I guess he needs his own beds and sheets (each of our kids has their own that aren't shared so it wouldn't really be any different.) His own towels?! A friend whose sister is a nurse has it and she cleans her bathroom with bleach after she uses it (but I think now that is only if she is in the midst of a flare up), has her own towels, and monitors her body for any new spots that she goes straight to the doctor with. Therein lies our problem. If he has a new spot develop she WON'T take him to the dr because she REFUSES to believe this will come back. I really think she thinks it is like chicken pox and you are immune after you have it
So, he could come to our home already in the contagious stage. At 14/15 what do you do? Ask if he has any spots? Check him over? I mean he's only had it on the one leg but it could show up anywhere on his body now right? I'm certainly not checking him and DH would probably feel uncomfortable doing it at SS's age. I mean, who should have to visually examine a kid for an infectious disease? Which brings me to the last question.......How do we locate an infectious disease doctor in the Memphis or Nashville area? We are perplexed and agahst at how nonchalant the dr's office has been. They didn't even mention to DH this time about cleaning everything until he said "Don't you have to be vigilant about keeping things clean and disinfected?" and the nurse said "Yeah. If you don't clean really well it will spread." HELLO!!! You need to TELL that not wait for someone to ASK??! They also told DH it is ONLY contagious if the wound is draining but then said as long as he wasn't up walking around to leave it unbandaged. That isn't how I read the CDC and other site information at all. That isn't how my friend's sister was told to treat hers. We are really feeling like the dr's office don't know to much about it and by trusting them to treat this/advise us we are putting ourselves at risk. Can anyone help??
I'm sorry, I know this was long and perhaps disjointed. If you've made it this far, bless you! I am just sick with worry for ALL the kids - SS because we KNOW he has this and it will be up to him (in her home) to try to do what is right and get to the dr if he sees anything else and for our 3 because they don't deserve to have been exposed to this anymore than any other child does. They didn't ask far all this and they live in a clean home that they HELP keep clean
I know you can have it in clean homes but I just do feel like this originated because a case was gotten due to being left in filthy diapers and then was passed through unlcean bathrooms/toweling and clothing.
) If this were the first time we've had to take him to the dr to deal with things that hygiene plays a role in then DH wouldn't have blown a fuse but we've been doing this for 13 years (almost 15 for DH.) He had to be re-circumcised a couple of times as a baby and toddler because they would just put a clean diaper on him but not clean HIM up, he got infections of the foreskin and it fused shut (ewww.) IIRC, at THAT time she assured us we were idiots and would feel differently about that once WE had a baby...three kids later and neither of my boys had that issue and DD never had anything "horrid" to deal with either, except a hormonal imbalance after birth (I take full responsibility for that 
) 
He forgets we were once teens who didn't need anybody either.
Sounds like an awful situation for you all. Your SS is in the worst spot at 14.
