MRSA

I almost forgot to update you on DH's outpatient surgery that he had last November. The surgery itself went well, but DH developed a MRSA (methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus) infection in his elbow and could not get rid of it for anything. This was part of this years medical bills, too, because he had to have wound care nearly every day for three months. He also had a "wound vac", which is a vaccum that is attached to the wound that sucks all the yuck out of the wound so it can heal--now that is gross!
DH wasn't really that concerned about the MRSA, but it kept us from seeing family at Christmas, because my uncle, who has multiple myeloma, was undergoing chemo so that he could have a stem cell transplant, and I didn't want to take a chance on that uncontrolled MRSA finding him.....DH has had a lot of treatments and checkups on his elbow, and current status is that the wound is closed, but it is not healed. Therefore, his doctor is confident that the MRSA is still alive and well, living inside DH's elbow. DH also had a test at the hospital recently that determined that he is still an active MRSA carrier.
So I wanted to give you this cheery little update as I am thinking that we will be dealing with the MRSA for another extended period of time, as soon as someone checks inside the elbow to see what's really going on. Right now, DH complains of pain, and the surgeon has given him cortisone shots to eliminate the pain, but the shots don't last very long. The surgeon has mentioned re-doing the surgery, at which point, I'm sure they will find more MRSA. But DH keeps "forgetting" to make the appointments that are specifically for the elbow/MRSA, although numerous doctors have seen him in the past several months and have not been concerned beyond the "take precautions not to spread it" stuff. Nobody seems to think his health is in danger. It's hard to know how worried to be on this one, but I'm sure this isn't the last you'll hear/read of it.