-MRSA- It All Started With A Small Scratch

Hello.. I am a 42 year old woman.. I have gotten hives since I was 9 years old. No doctor has every figured out what I am allergic to.. So, I always keep Benadryl on hand.. I make a habit of taking one before bed, I go months without them and then sometimes month with them.. Now I am going through the on months, especially at night.

I notice on a Wednesday night I had them especially bad on my arms.. So I took my Benadryl and went to bed. I kept scratching my forearms and drifted off to sleep. A lot of times I will find myself scratching through the night.

Now I have had mornings where I wake up and have scratched my skin off a little in places. Well I woke up Thursday morning and I noticed that I had did this on my right forearm.. I left it alone all day. It had scabbed .. Then the next day it was red and a little puffy and I asked my husband, What could this be on my forearm.

I explained I had scratched the skin off the night before. He had told me he had a touch of poison ivy on his legs and arms from mowing our yard.. And it looked exactly like his little spots of poison ivy.. So I wake up the next day which is now Friday and it is the size of a dime really red with a touch of pus in the center.. The pus was just the size of a pin head but it ached my whole arm from my finger tips to my elbow.

The abscess itself was in the middle of my right outer forearm.. So we cleaned it out with alcohol and put a bandage over it.

Now, we have antibacterial soap in out kitchen and bathroom. And we keep hand sanitizer on our counter as well. We decided it was best to wrap it and antibacterialize everything everyone would touch and we washed all of our pillows and blankets just to be safe.

Ok, So now I wake up Saturday and the top of my hand was swollen and the abscess had gotten bigger and it was hard as a rock. I decided, I am going to Urgent Care. They diagnose it as an abscess or MRSA.

They give me a script for Bactrim . I take it Saturday, then Sunday and they said to come back Monday if it grows or doesn't seem to want to drain.

I went back Monday at 3 in the afternoon. Now, by this time the size of it had grown to a half a dollar maybe a tad bigger and my arm was even in worse pain and I had a fever in the night.

The doctor says it got so big so fast, We are going to admit you for 24 hours to give you IV antibiotics every so many hours. Then she tells me she is going to cut it open and drain it. She numbs my arm and uses a scalpel to cut it open.

Now let me tell you, The stuff that came out of my arm, I choose to never see again .
It was the nastiest mixture of blood and pus. And so much it almost made me sick.
I also got a booster shot.. I couldn't remember when I had one last so they gave me one.

The picture I am uploading is today , Wednesday which is a little less than a week after it all started.
I just had to change the dressing myself and just a hint, If this happens to you. Get a box of gloves and also wash everything you use or may touch in the process with antibacterial spray.

I am not sure where I got this, I was told you can get it off of grocery store carts , tanning beds , almost anywhere. Our Walmart just starting supplying antibacterial wipes .. USE THEM ..I use 3 to wash down the entire top of the cart ..
Also, If you go tanning, You can ask to use their cleaning supplies and clean the bed again yourself. I personally carry Clorox Wipes.. And carry some hand sanitizer.. Especially if your day consist of touching a lot of community property items. ie..door handles, light switches, shaking hands and so on.

I have OCD and constantly wash my hands and carry hand sanitizer and I managed to pick up MRSA somewhere. And as the hospital says it's more common than not these days. So anyone can get it.

It is not necessarily a thing that happens to people who aren't cleaner than others.
Thank you for reading and I hope this helps someone.