UTI is MRSA

Ginger, I think what makes it so difficult is the change between when his temperature is normal and when it is elevated. His ability to even talk can change in an instant. Today we were talking at the kitchen table and he didn't finish a sentence. I repeated the sentence and he didn't respond. There he was in la la land again. It took an hour to get him to take his medication and use his inhaler. Right now the antibiotics are affecting his appetite and he is not eating well at all. He has lost 20 pounds in the past two week.
You are right he is sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. I hope he will be able to get better but the chance of that seem to be increasingly remote.
We can all forget our medications I know I have managed to forget to take mine more frequently than I would like.
I hope your Gene doesn't have any more hospital visits.

Julie,
Sorry to hear he is not responding, and not listening as well. Gene went to the cardiologist, seems because he missed 2 doses of lopressor it could have caused the defib hospital visit..so now I have to watch him as well, but he is up and working so he has no excuse..sometimes your there wifes and mothers as well. I hope something starts working for you soon and he will feel better as I am sure he is fed up with feeling bad all the time. take care,,,Ginger Beane

We saw the urologist Friday and they were going culture his urine again. I phoned them today to report that nothing has changed. Dick still does not seem to be responding to the antibiotics. His fever is too low to be in the hospital but too high for him to function. I have to watch him all the time. I gave him the Bactrim Saturday evening and thought he took it. He found it Sunday noon on his computer desk untouched along with his pain medication. So now i have to stand and wait until he puts it in his mouth. He doesn't like it when I keep reminding him but unless he gets irritated he will just sit and pay attention to his breathing.

Julie, yes my poor husband has been through the mill these pass 4 years. But this time is by far the worse of all. And it kills me to see him like that. We have had our share of ERs as well. We live in Long Island New York and we go to North Shore University Hospital. They have a wonderful emergency room. We really don't have to wait long and once they know that my husband is a chemo patient they take him faster. But even with that we hate going to the ER so I can understand your point. Anyways it seems that you have it under control!

It's true that you can carry bacteria without being sick. That's becuase carriers are not infected. It is very difficult to eradicate the carrier state with antibiotics since antibiotics don't achieve high levels in non-inflamed tissue. Nasal carriage is the most common, other than on the hands that do the dirty work. Washing your hands will eliminate the carriage from your hands. Antibiotics rarely eliminate the carrier state from the nose and most treated carriers revert back to the carrier state after stopping antibiotics. The answer there is common sense good hygiene. Just like you wash your hands after using the toilet, you should wash your hands after blowing your nose, and you should always wash before handling a patient even if you washed 5 minutes before and can't remember touching anything.
Should you be tested? What would you test if you have no symptoms. I think you end up chasing your tail when you do cultures on asymptomatic patients. Just remember to take any superficial infection seriously and inform your doctor of exposure to MRSA.

Thanks for the links Karen. As i read it a lot of MRSA can be treated at home using Bactrim then if the infections does not respond then IV antibiotics would be necessary. We were told that Dick should start the Bactrim and then call back on Friday. We have also been told that they don't consider a fever a problem until it is over 101.5° so I am monitoring him closely. The fever broke last night but has returned this morning.

We dislike the emergency rooms here immensely and I would rather take care of him at home as his diabetes is not treated properly when he is in the hospital. We have had 5 ER visits in the past year here and the wait time is intolerable. First time I was there it took 9 hours until I was admitted and the 2nd time when I knew what was wrong it took 13 hours from the time I walked in the door until I was admitted to the hospital. If the Doctors decide he needs to go to the hospital then they can admit him directly and not have him go in via the ER.

Wow almeth you have sure been through the wringer with your husbands bouts with MRSA. Do they think it caused the heart problem? I know staph can cause a large number of problems. My sister had an allergic reaction to a staph infection and was very, very sick with ruptured blood vessels on her skin and there was concern that she could have internal bleeding.

We do have access to an infectious disease specialist and would not hesitate to involve her if Dick doesn't
respond to the first line treatment.