Daughter prone to MRSA infections - how to be prepared

[SugarMama]

My daughter (5) was diagnosed with MRSA 1 year ago. She's had several occurrences. It is extremely fast acting - it goes from a pimple to a boil to an abscess overnight. Very painful, very contagious - very dangerous to be unprepared. We treat with oral antibiotics (clindamycin) and topical antibiotics (AltoBax, Bactroban, Mucipron) as well as surgical soap. The whole family is to be treated at the time of an outbreak to prevent colonization.

My question is - I only have 1 outbreak worth of antibiotics and soap left. It is obviously prescription only and she is not currently having an outbreak. How do I go about getting more and storing it for the future in case we won't have the means/it won't be available in the future? I do not want to lost my little one over not being prepared. And that is definitely a possibility if we do not treat/contain the infection. Also, the topical changes often due to mutations - the last topical they gave me was a box of samples as it's not "formulary". I have two tiny samples left.

I am brain blocked due to the emotionality of this situation. 3rd party opinion appreciated.

Edit: Just wanted to clarify MRSA is resistant staph - no ordinary antibiotic or topical (bacitracin/neosporin) will cut it.

[wnn]

Maybe look into Garlic its one of the most potent natural antibiotics.look up homeopathic methods ...

[T.B.]

unfortunately, anymore, staph is everywhere. sounds like you're doing the right things, clean/dry/topicals/pills... Septra DS has proven somewhat effective agains MRSA, and it's a LOT cheaper than Cleocin. do you have a good relationship with your doc? would being honest and saying you want a round of drugs "just in case" work? ya might have to convince him that you're a responsible patient, who knows to take the full round of drugs, and repeat back all your discharge instructions to him. quite a few of the docs i know are like-minded, and don't have a problem writing just-in-case scrips. hope it helps.

[SugarMama]

Thank you for the replies.

I will look into garlic and homeopathy.

TB - unfortunately, she is Septra resistant. Cleosin is the only one that has worked for her particular strain. While on Septra she was getting worse, not better.

I am thinking I will have to appeal to my doc for the Just-In-Case scenario. It's worth a try at least!

[T.B.]

these superbugs may be the end of us all...

after Cleocin, there's Vancomycin and Zyvox, both of which are rather pricey. after that, nada, at any cost.

best of luck with your young'un, SugarMama. i know you're frustrated by a little bug you can't even see.

anybody else wishin' for the good ol' days of penicillin and Keflex?

[SugarMama]

On the positive side... Septra needs to be refrigerated, and Clyn doesn't. :)

[MOlivo]

Have you asked your Dr. for extra dosages for emergency purposes? Ive heard of many people asking, and getting them. Notoriously Dr's arent stupid :D

[piranha2]

Yeh, ask him for some extra for those situations when hes not available.

[Direwolf]

My wife had MRSA, it took 7 weeks of Vancomycin in a Porta Cath and 3 months in bed to get rid of it. We almost lost her. She has a starting of a tattoo picture of her son on her shoulder, he past away in April 2004 and was 4 month from being 14. But it is not finished and it looks like sh@t. She wants to get it finished but she is scared. How can she find out if she is a carrier of MRSA?

[T.B.]

blood cultures, skin swabs, urine cultures. any open, non-healing wounds would be a good first place to look.

so she had her initial infection from her tattoo work? scary!

many medical personnel actually have colonies of Staph in their noses; colonized, but not infected, if you will.

[Direwolf]

She got her infection from a surgery on her ankle sorry about that.

[SugarMama]

She's most likely a carrier - has she had any more reoccurances?

My daughter has had 4, all from urine accidents. She is a carrier. We've tried eliminating it by treating her nose, using the surgical soap head to toe...

[Kobayashi Maru]

Damn, that's rough. Would colloidal silver hold any long-term benefits for her (make the outbreaks LESS severe, perhaps?)? I don't know, but I'm looking into it myself as a general purpose preventative measure for a LOT of things, FYI.

:?

[Scott Skawronska]

I see several options, none of them truly long-term.

Option 1) Go to your doc and get a culture done and what's called a "sensitivity test" -- this will give him the best option for attacking the particular strain of MRSA your daughter has.

From there, having at least 2 spare scrips of the full regimen of the drug that works the best on this MRSA, fill one, keep the other as a "refill" so that just before a SHTF situation (such as...oh...say...NOW) you can get a super fresh supply and then upon first outbreak, use your "new old stock" and keep the fresh stuff for the time when you don't have that option.

As far as surgical soaps go, google "Hibiclens" -- they have sample packets at reasonable prices online. It's what I use.

Option 2) Start researching "bacteriophage therapy."

This may be your only true option for a cure. Too bad it's not approved by the FDA in this country. Ironically, the largest laboratory for culturing bacteriophages is in the Republic of Georgia, lately in the news. So it's not as safe as it was last year to travel there, give them a culture, and give them three weeks to start making attenuated viruses that EAT the Staph bacteria (that's what a bacteriophage is...a virus that eats bacteria...and ONLY a specific bacteria) and because they're viruses, they mutate faster than the bacteria does, so the bacteria can NEVER develop a resistance to them.

There are drawbacks to bacteriophage therapy, but resistance isn't one of them.

For antibiotic-resistant bacteria, this could be the magic bullet. Theoretically.

Those are the two best options I can recommend.

S

[Lone Eagle]

Here's the lowdown on staph and MRSA: EVERYONE is a carrier of both strains. It's under your fingernails, in your hair, in your armpits, in your nose, and (YUCK!!!) in your groin. The trick is, it's harmless in these locations, as long as it's OUTSIDE the body. If it gets in a cut/wound, it can be anything from mild(like a zit), to excruciating(requiring a lance/drain). Me and my entire clan have it. Wife's going thru a bout right now on a surgical scar. My last outbreak was 3 yrs ago, and it was nasty with a capital N. Had to have it lanced, drain installed, and stuck on an IV pump for 4 weeks, pumping 100% sulfur into me. After that, I was fine. Downside is, wife/oldest are highly allergic to sulfur.

Her boss' husband is working on a cure for this "superbug" as we speak. They know what caused it to mutate, tho.......over-antibiotic use. Everything from simple antibiotics to antibacterial soap. This thing is even resistant to some hand sanitizers. His team is calling it "the bubonic plaugue of the 21st century".

[Scott Skawronska]

They know what caused it to mutate, tho.......over-antibiotic use.


Allow me to elucidate a bit on that.

The trouble with antibiotics is that they seem to work too well. So well, in fact, that most folks quit taking their regimen before they run out of pills.

Let me explain why this is bad:

An antibiotic is a selective poison. It attacks a specific cellular function of the organism it's supposed to kill, while not harming the human cells. Different types of antibiotic attack different functions of the bacterial cells. When a bacteria becomes resistant, it's because it has modified the function the antibiotic attacks, thus the antibiotic no longer works.

How does this happen?

Natural selection, pure and simple. And folks who overuse antibiotics; such as taking an antibiotic for "prophylaxis" reasons, when no true infection exists, or taking an antibiotic for a viral infection; antibiotics don't work against viruses, and for the longest time, doctors prescribed them anyway because that's what people expected them to do, or, NOT finishing the regimen.

Overuse of antibiotics will kill the weaker strains of a bacteria, and LEAVE the stronger strains. Multiple overuses of the antibiotics basically kill off the non-resistant strains, and leave the resistant ones, to the point where repeating this enough times creates an ideal environment for bacteria that are completely unaffected to flourish.

Not finishing the regimen does the same thing, only in a different way. When you get a bacterial infection, you start taking the antibiotics. You quickly build up a level of the antibiotic in your system, called the "therapeutic level" -- that is, the level that is required in your bloodstream and tissues to kill the bacteria. And most of the bacteria start to die right there, because they are susceptible to the antibiotic. The more resistant the bacteria, the longer it takes for them to die. But the large percentage of them dies off, to the point where your symptoms of infection recede and you feel normal again.

Most folks stop taking the antibiotics at that point, allowing the therapeutic level of the antibiotic in their bloodstream to drop.

Unfortunately, the bacteria is not COMPLETELY gone; It is only MOSTLY gone, and what's left is the hard-to-kill stuff that needs JUST a bit more before it dies off.

And suddenly, you've removed the threat.

Instead of killing the bacteria, the situation is that it is almost certain that the bacteria left are the MOST resistant form of it; You haven't killed them, you just gave them a Navy SEAL workout, and those who haven't dropped dead are now stronger. There may not be enough to immediately re-infect the host (that is, you), but now there is a colony of a resistant infection that YOU helped create.

Do this a couple of times, and you get the same effect as taking antibiotics all the time -- that which is left, grows stronger, more resistant, to the point where finally, the antibiotics don't work anymore.

WE have been teaching these bacteria to survive. WE have been selecting them for survival by killing off the weakest ones. WE have been DOING THESE BACTERIA A FAVOR BY MISUSING ANTIBIOTICS.

And the sad fact is, most folks are stupid when it comes to this sort of thing...they know better, they get told NOT to do these things by their doctors, and they do them anyway. I get a lot of "I don't trust doctors, they're shills for the drug companies."

That may be, but why would they tell you to take the whole scrip you've already paid for if they're a shill? Don't you think there's a REASON? Did you ever ASK?

Not enough of us did, for decades and decades, and now we have what we have now.

As I mentioned before, bacteriophage therapy may be one of the best solutions to this situation due to the nature of bacteriophages as opposed to chemicals.

S

[SugarMama]

What's most upsetting about that, is for the most part I have avoided any and all antibiotic use for both my kids prior to this. Not only that but she's extremely healthy and not at risk at all. And much too young to be dealing with something like this.

[Scott Skawronska]

What's sad is that through no fault of her own, she is reaping the consequences of several generations of idiots (Not you, Mom...I'm talking about society at large) abusing the use of antibiotics as the "magic bullet" for disease.

The bigger picture is: Know that MRSA exists. Know how it got here. We can't stop THIS one, but now that we know what we know, we can keep from contributing to the problem.

I'm still hung up on the whole phage therapy thing. I really wish the FDA would approve it for use here. It could make MRSA go away, or at least become as manageable as pretty much all other minor bacterial infections, in probably less than a year.

S

[Herbie Pup]

I've heard of some positive results from people who have tried Grapefruit Seed Extract (different from Grape Seed Extract). Grapefruit Seed Extract highly diluted (too concentrated to be used straight) has strong antibacterial and antiviral properties. It can be taken both internally and externally and can also used all around the house as a natural disinfectant.

[Herbie Pup]

Another thing I've heard people use as an alternative to antibiotics is Essential Oil of Oregano. There are some who say this oil is a profound infection fighter for all manner of bacteria and viruses. The downside is that it is so noxious and camphorous that most people can only stand a few drops in a Tablespoon of water and take internally several times a day.

[daisycutter]

I use Oregano with about 5 drops in a teaspoon of olive oil about once a week as a preventative. I had my gallblader extracted a few years back and when I over eat too much deep fried stuff and my stomach don't feel right,....a dosage of oregano stops the nausea instantly. It's been around since BC.

[Angie]

I want to thank everyone for pointing me towards oil of oregano. I didn't realize how powerful it is and it seems like a sensible item to keep in my BOB or even in the house here in case of a flu pandemic.