MRSA Support Group

Firstly, thank you all for the responses and help. As I said before I do not have MRSA, but someone close to us does. Her shildren come to my house often and I want to protect them as much as possible!! She is actually my fiance's ex-wife. Well, I just learned she had thier 9yr old daughter change her bandage today and her daughter has a cut at her eye she got today in school. I am scared beyond belief for her! Not sure what she was thinking, or if she understands what she has. My biggest question is what can I do after the fact to make every effort of prevention for the daughter?

I am so burned up by this it is unbelievable!

Oh my. How long ago was she diagnosed? She is either extremely ignorant or extremely careless. either way, in my opinion, they child was just put at high risk. I think I got mine from the ole cowboy that runs his cattle thru our place, He's like a father to me. He is a volunteer fireman too, so when he told me he had been on the hospital for cellulitis, I assumed since he wasn't alamred, that it was no big deal. I certainly didn't know any better at the time. I hugged him when he got home. i never thought about it twice- neither did he. My fiance brought it to my attention. So I asked him if it was staph- he said he thought so. i asked him if it was Mrsa and he replied maybe because they thought he was gonna lose my leg. My point was that not only did he not know exactly what he had, he didn't ealize he was contagoius. I just found out a couple of days ago that the wound is still open. I didnt understand enough about mrsa when i left the hospital- not until I became ill from meds- only then did I begin to research and start to understand the true nature of the ailment. My arguement is that appearently one has to research this themselves-- hospitals don't really tell you much and some docs don't know enough or care enough (whatever the case) to inform you. And as one member here pointed out to me, Mrsa depends on its carrier. Evryone's Mrsa is different. The only thing I can say with confidence is that open staph wounds are highly contagious. After the fact? I'm no pro, but keep the child healthy, help the child to practice hygeine, and teach her how to dress a wound like a surgeon or how to tell her mom no-- maybe a school counselor needs to help on that delicate topic. You are in quiye a bind and I do not envy you one but. I wouldn't have blamed my fiance for packing up his kid and runnung out on me- but he didn't. i wouldn't let my bio father come to give me a ride to the doc. He said "I will do whatever I have to to care for you- Im not worried about myself", to which my reply was "You aren't the only one in the car... in essence you are bringing my neice and nephew with you and I am not okay with that". If I was contagious, I didnt want him carrying that back to the rest of my family.

That is horrible and someone needs to intervene on that childs part..There is no way a child should do any type of wound care on her mom with MRSA..SOunds like the mom is ignorant about the extreme danger of this situation..There is no way it is not contagious and It can kill..She is leading that child into a very dangerous situation..Stop her somehow or tell someone who can before it is too late and the child is infected..then has to take antibiotics that could kill her. GEEZE what a mess.

If the wound care is too complicated for mom the surgeon can order at home wound care to be done by nurses... you will pay but it's way better than a child being exposed unnecessarily to this horrible, painful, life altering disease.

Chief, I so agree. We had a scare this week with the youngest child being sent home from school due to a "spider bite" looking white head on his neck. Took him to the emergency room and had it tested. So far it is negative, thankfully!! But I think this episode and the reaction of the school and the emergency room staff has awoken the mother up. Finally!!! It is becoming increasingly stressful on my relationshi with the childrens father, since I also watch my 7 month old grandson and do not want to expose him to anything either. What a horrid mess it all is!!

The good news is the insurance has approved a home health care nurse to go to the house every day for wound care.

And the nurse can talk to mom about proper hygiene... by hygiene i don't mean to say they are dirty, but obviously she is not very aware of how infectious this is. I would also recommend mom seeing an infectious disease doctor. I feel like I have received my best care when my surgeon and infectious disease doctor coordinate care.