Staph Infection After Vaginal Hysterctomy

A few days after my vaginal hysterectomy, I started having night sweats and chills. I called my gyny - went in for an exam. He did blood work and a vaginal culture. The blood tests came back with a high WBC, so the gyny put me on antibiotic Cipro. Then a week later the culture came back showing that I had an MRSA staph infection. So my gyny contacted an infection disease doc, he suggested I go back in the hospital on antibiotic iv's. So I did, 6 days of vancomyicin and Zyvox. Then I was sent home on 2 weeks of home nurse care iv's of more vancomyicin twice a day. My white blood cell count at the time the iv's were stopped, (which was this past Monday) my WBC was back down to normal. Next Tues. (which will be one week after stopping the iv antibiotics) I go to the gyny again for another culture and blood count test. I am told I might have the mrsa staph infection colonized in me forever!

Also, one day after stopping the iv's, I started getting hives all over my legs, now, over the last 3 days, they have crept up onto my torso and arms.

If anyone out there has has undergone anything similar to this -I would greatly appreciate any shared correspondence.

Thanks much!!

i am now facing my 3 surgery sue to contracting mrsa during my TAH..i have been battleing this infection for 9 weeks now..i was also told,once you get it,you are conolized with it,and could have outbreaks for the rest of your life...i now have a picc-line,and am on the vancomycin..again..i was in the hospital for 5 days before my 2 surgery,and during that time i was on the vanc,and aldo on clyndomycin...part of my incision was left open following the 2 surgery,and im not bein packed 2 times a day..however,within 3 days of being home,and off the iv,another abcess in my stomach formed....i am now seeing a infectious disease/wound care specialist....i find out tuesday which day next week i will be having my 3 surgery...hang in there..i know how crappy this is to dal with..but ya gotta keep fighting it..also,mrsa completley wipes away your immune system,so you may want to try to find ways to build it back up..also,you could talk to your doc about taking a probotic..all the antibitoics we have takin not only get rid of bad bacteria,but also the good that we need..the probotic will help replenish those...please hang in there..if ya ever wanna talk,send me a messege.....sonie

The hives may be yeast - you can get it externally as well as internally, but I'd call my doctor, especially if you experience any itching or swelling in your mouth or throat. That makes it an allergic reaction and potentially more dangerous.

I don't know much about MRSA, but I do know that there are a lot of people who harbor staff without it being a crisis. MRSA is another animal entirely.

Nightauel

MRSA is becoming a very big problem.... I work in general surgery and see lots of MRSA wounds. It is now very common in the community - it used to be something that you only saw in nursing homes and hospitals. We are seeing it in schools, children in day care, professional sports teams, gyms, etc.... You can have your doctor do a swab of your nares (inside of your nose) to see if you are colonized. The problem is - your culture could be negative but you then get it on the bus, at the grocery store, gym etc..... The thought is that someday all staph bacteria will be resistant to the methycillin type antibiotics because of all of the antibiotic use.
luv&peace and soniek... so sorry to read that you are both having so many problems. I will certainly keep you both in my thoughts for better days really soon.

to luv&peace i had mrsa staph also after a d&c it was very hard to get rid of ,my gd got mrsa staph the last 2 years for her this year was really bad she got it from what started out as a sore and the sores spread then turned into mrsa staph this year when she had four bug bites on her they became very infected and abcesses grew where they had to lance 2 of them and put her on ivs every 8 hours for 24 hours then 10 days of medicine i was told to that we would be carriers of staph and will have to really watch any time we get a sore,cut or bug bite and keep it really clean she is only 7 and suffered shingles at 6 i dont know if that had any thing to do with her having staph she has many allergies and her skin rashes to alot of things like detergents perfumes anything scented i use wipes when i go to the grocery store and wipe shopping cart handles we wash our hands alot and practice good hygenine at all times i think as you said we will have to watch ourselves from now on i have read as the one lady said that it is very common to pick staph up nowadays we had an outbreak of highschool wrestlers because they didnt wipe down the mats all the time my gd wbc was high too i would talk to the doctor about the rash you just got hives and see if he can help you we used collidal oatmeal baths to help the itch when we dealt with hives might ask your doctor if that will help good luck

hi luv and peace- sounds like the ladies above have you covered.i just wanted to offer up my prayers for you. good luck and godspeed sweetheart. heather

Thank you very much to everyone for your correspondence and good thoughts. Soniek - I wish you the best and will keep you in my thoughts and prayers. Please let us know how your surgery goes.
Liberty gal - did you have your mrsa staph in your utuerus/vaginal canal? And how long did it take for your mrsa to go away?
As an update - I did contact my infectious disease dr today - told him after 24 hrs of benedryl the hives are still there and spreading more and are even beginning to look different. He said he thinks it is a delayed reaction either to the vancomyicin, or to the diflucan I took last Tues. morning (that my gyny perscribed for a yeast inf.). I have taken diflucan for yeast infections for many years, since it came out, and I never had any reaction to it. So I don't know. I see gyny on Tues. again, for those follow up tests, so I guess I will wait until then to be seen by anyone. Thanks again to everyone for your concern!!
GB.

luv&peace i had a d&c the first week in december 2 days later i started breaking out on my inner thighs on my pubic hair area and between my legs of my private area i called my doctor he said i had follucitisis and told me to hot compact the area i told him it looked like staph and he said no for 3 weeks it got worse i called again and he put me on medication for 10 days which started to clear it up but i still insisted i had staph and talked to the doctor who did my bladder sling he said he would put me on medication after my tah and bladder sling and did and for the 4 days i was in the hospital and sent me home with 10 days of a different medicine it was clearing up till i went in for my 2 week check i had been off my medicine for 4 days i took my steri strips off the doctor told me it was ok and underneath was 2 small abcesses only a small sore pimple size that started it all over the abssesses came back with a vengence all over my pubic hair area and between my legs i went to my primary care doctor who finally did a culture and said yes it was mrsa staph and gave me another medication which after two weeks finally cleared it up i have ugly scars where those sores were and i was so upset that my gyn thaught it was follucitisis my gd had bad staph last summer and i knew what it looked like all together it took about 2 months from the start but mine cleared up in between then came back 3 times till they found the right medicine and determined that it was staph ive always said if your gut tells you something is wrong find out i should have insisted my gyn did a culture but he was a specilalist and when he told me it wasnt i believed him i wont do that again i will go with my gut feelings i know several other people who have gotten mrsa staph infections over the past several years and it is nothing to play around with you need treatment as soon as possible one of my neighbors lost a leg below the knee to staph i wish you a speedy recovery and remember if you get a cut to make sure you clean it and put a good antibiotic cream on it and bandage and wash hands often we must be careful from now on good luck

you said your hives look different if you feel a small knot under them or they start looking like a raised pimple with pus and a black spot in the middle thats staph dont wait call your doctor i and my gd started with sores like that it spread down my gd leg, 4 sores and in 24 hours she had severve joint pain in her leg and could not walk they had to lance 2 of her sores which were full of pus and drain them and put her on ivs so look at them careful is it a rash or something as i described if so call your doctor right away

one other thaught some of the medications they put people on are sensitive to exsposure to sun so if you are in the sun for more than 15 minutes you can break out in a rash this has happened to my gd her neck leathered and she looked like an 80 year old from being in the sun and taking certain medicines they told me to keep sunscreen long sleeve shirts and a hat on her if she went out while taking this medicine because she was so sensitive to the sun on this medicine not sure if its sunny where your at just a thaught