Monday, July 1, 2013

Hey MRSA, Hold it right there!

  Going over this blog again makes me cringe.  If it is at all unclear, I sucked at English.  Writing papers was probably my least favorite thing to do.  I'm not sure how I skated by so many years in school being so terrible at correctly expressing myself on paper.      Besides being a mediocre writer and editor, I am reeealllyyyy clueless about blogs.  Really!

  Anyhow, the point of this post is because this blog is unfinished.  I "intended" on sharing Farrah's story and THEN explaining our attempts at warding off the MRSA monster for good.      After I wrote the last entry, life got hectic, and I didn't get a chance to sit down and murder punctuation and grammar again.  Plus, my computer is from the cretaceous period :(.  I do a mental sigh every time I have some desktop related task to do because that means dealing with the beast.

  Okay. Wanna hear about it?  Here it go.  Following Farrah's last battle with MRSA and my complete freak out, all I could do is my best.  I researched and researched and researched.  I cried and cursed people for not finishing their antibiotics, doctors for giving them out to everyone with a runny nose, and for not having a livable bubble invented yet....kidding.  I think I mentioned my tendency towards dramatics.  It is an unfortunate part of having severe general anxiety.   Wow, can I stay on topic?

This is a fairly complete list of everything we incorporated into our lives.  I overdid it a bit, but I wanted to be sure, so...
--Potty training was numero uno.  Farrah was still 18ish months old and hadn't really shown interest in the potty, but since it was her diaper area that kept being the open wound portal, I figured this was necessary.  I rolled up the carpets and she was free.  We did a half ass version of the 3 day boot camp.  It really did take only 3 days.  I was pretty impressed.

--We used mupirocin, which I think is also called bactroban.  It is like a suped up neosporin.  We all swabbed it in our noses for 7 days.  

--No more baths with a caveat.   Because I was told that bathrooms are high powered germ factories (perfect environment), we switched to showers only.  They hated it at first, but quickly grew to like or maybe just tolerate them.  They really didn't have a choice.   The caveat was that Farrah did take a bleach bath once a week for two months, tapered to one every two weeks, once a month, and then done.  We used one cap of bleach to a full tub.

--All wounds were cleaned and dressed immediately with waterproof bandages.  They seem to seal and stay better.  Wounds are a point of entry for nasty bacteria, so it helps to stop them in their tracks.

--No sharing of towels, razors, etc...  I don't think we did, but I can't be sure.  I mean, I remember growing up in a house with 10 people, and 1 bathtub.  We shared water and towels.  Apparently, since MRSA colonizes in your nose,  you can spread it with your towel when you dry off.

--I made sure to wash bedding once a week on hot.  Towels never got rehung and everything we was thrown into the laundry at the end of the day.  We didn't wear or use anything twice.

--I switched from everything antibacterial, to everything natural.  We started using vinegar, dr. bronner's soap, tea tree oil, lemon, garlic, turmeric.  The idea is that antibacterial products are super strong and kill all bacteria.   We have beneficial bacteria on our bodies that keep the bad bacteria crowd in check.  If you kill all, then either or has a chance to pick up and take over the leader role.   That was a bit how the infectious disease doctors explained it to my little un doctor mind.
 I sometimes even dabble in the crunchy  "cures" so to speak.  My husband's finger was very infected around the knuckle.  He is a mechanic and can never keep his wounds clean.  I made a paste of garlic, onion juice and turmeric.  I washed and bandaged his finger 3 times a day over a long weekend and by the time he went back to work, it wasn't full of puss and pain.  It healed over the next week.
There are so many natural and holistic ways to treat things like infection, cold, flu, etc.. I am very slowly learning more and more on a daily basis.  

--Finally, we did little things like eat better.    We cut down juice to once a day.  We went organic, grass fed, and local.  I cut out a lot of processed foods and started making dinner every night.    It can never hurt to be healthier no matter if you have MRSA or not. 

  I feel like I'm leaving so many things out, but since it has been 2.5 wonderful years of being MRSA free, I am almost glad to forget.    Farrah will be 4 on Sunday <3.    We still incorporate a lot of things, like showers and not reusing things, but I have relaxed on being such a germ freak.    My son started school when Farrah was younger and I had to realize that we couldn't keep germs away from her no matter how much I tried to drive myself crazy.  I had to let go and hope that we were doing the right things to keep her healthy.

  She is now in school as well and I want to just squeeze the daylights out of her about once an hour.   She makes me laugh a lot.   She's imaginative and beautiful, inquisitive and playful.  Her brother, her, and I are the best of friends, and I couldn't be happier with how things have worked out.
Wants to be just like her brother!
1st day she learned to ride her bike without training wheels, AND as a devil.
A costume a day makes life more exciting :)


3 comments:

  1. I am having the exact same problem with my daughter and I'm galling apart trying to fix this for her she cries from. The pain all the time

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  2. My son is on round 2 of MRSA in 3 months. We don't know what to do. I feel like it's all around us and it's just a matter of time before he gets it again. It is on the same leg as last time, just in a different spot. He also has a yeast rash that has started, we believe from the antibiotics. I'm terrified. What do we do?

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  3. My son is on round 2 of MRSA in 3 months. We don't know what to do. I feel like it's all around us and it's just a matter of time before he gets it again. It is on the same leg as last time, just in a different spot. He also has a yeast rash that has started, we believe from the antibiotics. I'm terrified. What do we do?

    ReplyDelete