MRSA Ruined a major part of my senior year of college

by Sam
(San Francisco)

I could not tell you where I got it. It was back in November 2007. All I know is I had spent a wonderful weekend with friends in a cabin and noticed my arm really hurt.

For 3 days it felt sore, and then day 4 it looked like I had a strange pimple. I popped it and thought nothing of it. Day 6, it had grown to look like an infected spider bite. I figured it was a spider bite because I had spent the weekend in the woods.

As I continued on with my week, my arm began to swell. It was absolutely disgusting. I also panicked because I was suppose to be leaving for a trip. The day before the trip, day 9 or 10, my right arm was, no joke, about the size of a football. I decided to see the Nurse Practitioner at my school and told her I was very excited to go on my trip tomorrow and would do anything just to get the swelling down. She took a culture, and told me to elevate my arm for the next 24 hours to see if the swelling went down. She said strapping my arm to my shower-head would probably be the easiest way to keep it elevated.

Desperate to go on my trip, I left and began to walk home when a friend insisted I was out of my mind for listening to that advice. The next thing I know I am in the hospital, being told I need to be quarantined. They rush antibiotics into me, where my entire body turns red and itchy and they realize my body cannot handle the speed.


I am told if I had waited any longer to come to the hospital, the infection could have reached my bloodstream. I am then prescribed Bactrum, which made my stomach hurt more than my arm. I vomited for a week and shook, and on day 7 my entire body turned red, and the doctor said I was the perfect text book example of someone with a Sulfur allergy.

After Bactrum, I was immediately taken off and began Cipro. My arm finally started to go back to it's normal size, and I was no longer vomiting. My stomach was in pain because I had been informed that part of the allergic reaction had deteriorated some of my stomach lining. I stopped the Cipro after 10 days of treatment. For the next month I felt weak and tired all the time. I had to delay all my finals to get myself back on track, and was sleeping very long. In March 2008, I saw a "spider bite" on my breast, and this time I did not wait, and went straight to the E.R. It was MRSA again. Did the Cipro treatment.

This time because I caught it so early, I recuperated much faster. Besides for feeling a bit loopy from the drugs, I was fine. I also got it a 3rd time in October 2008. It was not a big deal.. but the doctors are certain I am a carrier and I seem to be recontaminating myself from time to time.