Please take this post with the up most seriousness. I am a ER MD. I work in Orlando, Florida. Worked at one of the best hospitals in the country the past ten years before moving to Florida. I have seen it all. Trust me. Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you.
Moosejay, you need to get some real help soon. Your way past the maybe stage. You will most likely lose your arm up to the elbow and may lose your life if not treated soon. How your doctors are "stumped' on this one is beyond me. No eating meat is not the cause, Septra will not help you, and Honey will not help you. It is not flesh eating bacteria. If it was your arm would be gone in a day or even hours , bone and all. You don't want it getting in your bloodstream your already immunosuppressed , your organs are next if it reaches your blood stream. You need to be taken care of "NOW".
Do me a favor and more importantly yourself. Never see your doctors again or go to the hospital that did your surgery again. I can get into why later. The most important aspect right now is your health and your life.
Your so called "doctors' and the hospital your now going to is to blame for your current condition. I am truly amazed and stumped on how and why you have loyalty to them. Go seek some professional help. Your not dealing with professionals. Period. Anyone that would let you go through this pain and suffering for the length of time you have is not taking your plight seriously or more likely in denial that they were the cause of your infection. You should have been hospitalized immediately at the first signs of MRSA. Your have MRSA. End of story.
You need to go to MAYO NOW. Get in your car and drive there or take a taxi. NOW. Right now. I don't think you realize how serious this is. Your in danger as I am writing this post. That open wound is a ticking time bomb.
Wound healing involves three distinct stages,the inflammatory, proliferative, and a remodeling phase.
In the inflammatory phase, bacteria and debris are phagocytized and removed, and factors are released that cause the migration and division of cells involved in the proliferative phase. Your way past that point.
The proliferative phase is characterized by angiogenesis, collagen deposition, granulation tissue formation, epithelialization, and wound contraction.
In the maturation and remodeling phase, collagen is remodeled and realigned along tension lines and cells that are no longer needed are removed by apoptosis.
All three processes are very fragile. The challenge here clinically and microbiologically is to identify which healing phase is impaired as a result of infection or heavy bacterial burden and figure out which systemic or topical antimicrobial treatment will be of benefit. For this you need to be hospitalized. NOW.
In most cases after a wound such as yours after surgery is methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which is more commonly encountered, reflecting the hospital flora.
If your doctors did a swab and are still "stumped' is may be because organisms cultured from a superficial swab may, however, simply reflect the colonising bacterial flora and are not always representative of the pathogenic organisms invading deeper tissue. This is particularly relevant to deep surgical and deep penetrating wounds such as yours in which infection from internal sources may occur. I have seen this mistake too many times to count. Improper "swabs' putting the patient at risk because most doctors do not experience these kinds of wounds on a rountine basis. Most of the peers I have met over the years the best doctors come from large 'teaching hospitals' and see a wider array of wounds and their causes. Even the best trained doctors would miss a 'bad or negative swab' if they have not encountered such a wound before.
Most laboratories will perform a semiquantitative analysis on wound swabs. This entails grading bacterial growth as scanty, light, moderate, or heavy. Semiquantitative analysis introduces a bias towards motile and fast growing organisms.Infection is a major source of failed wound healing.
Fastidious organisms such as anaerobes may be under-represented. Bacterial load greater than 100 000 organisms or colony forming units per gram of tissue or mm3 of pus is a predictor of wound infection.
If your wound is MRSA, which I suspect it is, you should start on a treatment of Zyvox immediately. Linezolid, an oxazolidinone, is a very effective agent against MRSA. It has excellent bioavailability, can be administered orally, and has good skin and bone penetration.
Please listen to what I am telling you. Good luck and god bless.
