Is this infected? (warning, pic of incision)

[AmberK 5]

Im sorry that you are dealing with MRSA- I had my first MRSA infection on my face about 3 years ago and was hospitalized from it. They pumped me full of anti-biotics and luckily I didnt require surgery. Since that time I had probably about 6 other infections but lucky for me I havent had one in a year. Im concerned going into surgery tomorrow about getting an infection. Im going to keep a very close eye on things and may even talk to my doctor about going ahead and putting me on antibiotics since I do have a history of it.

I hope your infection goes away quickly. They are definitely not fun to deal with.

[azarellanos 8]

I'm so sorry you're going through this. I hope the Bactrim works for you. Did the doc mention IV antibiotics for this?

I've had an infection in my larger incision. Last Friday, I was one week post op and took off my steri strips because they itched. I noticed my wound had dehised (separated) on one end and was starting to on the other. There was a bit of yellowish drainage with an odor. But no fever, redness or heat at the incision. Ironically this is the day I began to feel really good.

I was sort of freaking out inside because I've had MRSA exposure and am probably colonized. My doctor is 3 hrs away. I called their office and the doctor ok'd me to see my local doc and called in Keflex for me.

I saw my local doc and he didn't think it was infected and didn't recommend I take the Keflex. But I thought he took too long looking at it and assessing it for my own comfort so I started the Keflex. Within 24hrs it looked much better.

The Keflex was in huge capsules so for the first couple of days I opened them onto a couple of tablespoons of ice cream. This was sooooo horrible tasting. I've since discovered I have no restriction so I've been taking the capsules normally--thank goodness.

When I returned to work this Monday I asked my boss to look at it (she's a certified wound care nurse). She said since it dehised it most likely had an infection and gave me some advice about it. I'm a nurse too and I kinda forgot that about incisions but knew it didn't look right. Sometimes its hard to remember what we're taught when it's so personal.

Best wishes for your healing. Please keep us updated

Edited August 4, 2010 by azarellanos
typo

[weso631 0]

Amber- Good Luck! Sorry to hear that you have had MRSA so many times. This is a first for me, so it has me scared to death...especially since I have a 2 & 3 yr old at home. My Dr. really didn't give me any information on it, so I've been researching it on my own. From what I gather, it looks like once you get it...you will most likely get it again sometime in the future. Hopefully when you have your surgery, they will give you a private room for your recovery. While I was in recovery I had to share a room with a young man who had a ruptured ulcer...I can't help but wonder if the nurses were not using sanitary precautions when checking on him & then me.

Stephanie- I hope yours clears up & you're 100% in no time. Mine started as a seroma. They never did drain it. They said that if they opened it, the port could come out. I honestly feel like this has led to the majority of the problems. At one point, I had tissue start coming through the incision. They called it granulation tissue. They cut it off in the office. About a week later the tissue started coming out again...this time they used silver nitrate to burn it off.

I had a 4cc fill a few weeks ago, but still do not feel restricted. They said they will be giving me another fill tomorrow if it looks like the Bactrim is working. I have a low grade fever this morning 99.2, so I don't know if that's a sign that it is working or is not.

Good luck to you both & thanks for your input.

ETA: Oh, I should also mention that most of the time I've had the infection I had no fever & the drainage, which was clearish/ yellowish had no odor. So, I don't think that's always a good indication of whether it's an infection or not, because it was obviously not a sign in my case.

Edited August 4, 2010 by weso631
add more info..

[JMinDallas 1]

Sorry about the MRSA outbreak. It is a little scary at first, but it seems once you finally get rid of it it's gone for a while at least. My daughter had it a couple of years ago. She was only 2 yrs old. We don't know where or how. She had 3 separate outbreaks over a year, the last one requiring her to be hospitalized. She was there for 5 days while she had IV antiobiotics, and had to be cut open and the sore drained. It was horrible.

We did daily bleach baths. Small amount of bleach to a tub of Water. It's been 2 yrs since then, and she hasn't had an outbreak.

If you're able to, I'd ask your doc if you can take baths. I forget the ratio, but I want to say 1 cup of bleach to a tub of Water. We did this for a few months. Just a suggestion.

Hope you get better soon!

[AmberK 5]

My doctor gave me 2 IV antibiotics today one of them vancomyacin which is what I had when I was hospitalized with MRSA. She also sent me home with an RX for Bactrim to hopefully ward off an infection. Like I said, I havent had one in over a year but I would sure hate for one of my incisions to get infected and jeopardize my band.

[knixon39 0]

I just had my surgery on 7/21. I called a few days ago bcs of some discomfort like a burning, pulled muscle and was asked if my incision was infected. They said what they look for in an infection is fever, redness and if it is oozing. If you are 8 days out, I would highly recommend going into your doc and have them check it. Good luck. Hope you feel much better and soon.