MRSA and Streptococcus Pneumoniae

[Brooke]

Hi -

Haven't been feeling the best lately. Last weekend I was coughing more and had a bunch of green stuff from my sinues and some that I coughed up. My doc in town put me on a Z Pak and that didn't work, so he had me do a sputum culture and put me on omnicef. Sputum Culture came back with heavy growth of Streptococcus Pneumoniae and light growth of Aureus-MRSA. So, now I am adding another antibiotic for the MRSA and I told them to please call MAYO and let them know what is going on. Might be seeing an Infectious Disease doc again. I have had MRSA before and it went away with antibiotics.
Has anybody else had MRSA?

[Brooke]

I should say, now that I have started the omnicef I am feeling much much better!

[Sangye]

Oh man, Brooke. Please make sure they talk with Mayo and get their input. MRSA is extremely hard to treat. You should also find out how to protect others from it--highly contagious. I'm glad you're feeling better and I hope it clears up quickly.

[Brooke]

Thanks Sangye -
I have had MRSA in the sinuses before and they treated it with an antibiotic and it went away. I am hoping it does the same this time around. I will be starting a pretty strong antibiotic tomorrow and I will be seeing ID doc on Oct 26th. Of course now that I am diagnosed with having Weg, I am extra scared this time to have MRSA.

[Brooke]

Oh, the nurse here spoke with the Mayo Clinic nurse and they agree with the treatment plan and seeing the ID doctor.

[elephant]

Brooke glad you are feeling better, I have to say....I just got up and wiped my computer with a clorox wipe. MRSA gives me the hibeegeebeezzz...

[pberggren1]

I regularly wipe all surfaces down with alcohol swabs or chlorhexadine swabs or sometimes clorox if I am out of the others.

[Brooke]

Haha, I try my best to keep everything clean! Ask my husband, he will say I am a cleaning fool lately! I wonder if I would have caught it at the hospital at Mayo?

[jola57]

Oh dear, Brook, this is unexpexted. Any idea how you got it?

[Brooke]

Hi Jola -
I'm not sure, I was in the hospital at Mayo for my bronch so I don't know if I could have caught it there? I work in a medical clinic but we see mostly work comp injuries not sick people. There is definately something going around with the staff here though, I am not the only one who has caught something.

[Sangye]

A hospital is the best place to get MRSA. When I was in JHU's Pulmonary unit last year they said a few years ago they'd get maybe one patient with MRSA a week. Now they get 8 or 9 and it's overwhelming their facilities. MRSA patients have to be in isolation and there are only so many private rooms on the pulmonary floor.

Make sure you tell the doc who did your bronch, too. They may need to change how they clean the area, etc... Even in a great facility like Mayo, improper cleaning of tools and/or room is not unheard of. They need to thoroughly review who was there, etc.... A bronchoscopy is not a sterile procedure, though. If you have a bacteria in your nose, the scope can push it deeper into your respiratory tract. Under the best circumstances it's a risk.

[Brooke]

Thanks Sangye - I think I will put a call in today and let them know! I just picked up my Zvox 600 MG and it was $2,248.41 for 2 weeks worth. My insurance is weird, I have blue cross blue shield and whenever I buy a prescription, it seems like a couple of weeks later I will get a reimbursment check in the mail. I'm lucky my parents are able to help me out in situations like these.

[Jack]

Even the title of this thread scares me! :kittyscared:
UK hospitals have had one of the worst records for this type of infection in Europe and there has been a big push in the last few years to tackle it. Things are still not great, but improving - National Statistics Online - MRSA (http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=1067)

[Sangye]

Thanks Sangye - I think I will put a call in today and let them know! I just picked up my Zvox 600 MG and it was $2,248.41 for 2 weeks worth.
Holy petunias.

If you wind up needing to stay on it and it's an issue to pay for it, ask your insurance to do it through a "specialty" pharmacy. They'll mail it to you and bill the insurance directly so you don't have any out-of-pocket costs. Specialty pharmacies are for extremely expensive meds like this. I had to use one while I was taking Lovenox injections ($7,000 a month). It worked great. All insurance companies have specialty pharmacies they work with. You may want to ask about it now, in case you need to use it.

[jola57]

OMG Brooke. That is insane. Why is it that the old and sick are prayed upon when they are the most voulnerable.

[Doug]

Because they are old, sick, and vulnerable. I just had to remind the insurance lady today that while I missed the fact that money was still being taken out for my father's Medicare Plan something or other premium two years after he died, it was disingenuous for her to place the blame on me for missing it without considering that Blue Cross Blue Shield has hundreds, many thousands of people trained in the legal and procedural aspects of handling their business, and they missed it, too. (B, I think it was.) I reminded her that I accepted blame for the whole mess (just to shut her up, frankly, though she is a nice person....), but that I still expected BCBS to handle it in a way that was amenable to the best interests of the dead man's widow (That's how I put it- I'm sick of these sanctimonious insurance types!) because that's what the Insurance Commisioner is for if not. This has to do with refunding approximately $6000 in payments for 24 health insurance premiums paid for a man dead two years.

p.s. I remember when, not really that long ago, I was a very nice person!

[pberggren1]

That is true Doug, you are no longer a nice person. You are now a Magnificent person.

[Doug]

When I run for Congress on the Rabid Doug Party ticket, I shall have you do my public relations, Phil. Ha!