Question:
What could be the possible cause for a staph infection 6 days post op?
— [Anonymous] (posted on September 8, 2001)
September 8, 2001
Staph exists all over in our world. It is on our skin all the time, It is
also an opportunistic bacteria. Ordinarily, it just hangs around and
doesn't do much one way or the other. Sometimes though it finds a warm
moist environment and starts to make a major nuisance of itself. Incision
sites, operating theaters, blood are all good places to grow nasty staph.
Some strains cause all kinds of yuckiness--skin necrosis, toxic shock, and
stuff like that. The best advice comes from your doc. Take your antibiotics
as ordered and be sure to let the doc know if you are not responding to
treatment. Although it isn't necessarily horrible and awful,it isn't
something to mess around with either.
— phoebe
September 9, 2001
The above post is most definately correct. Since I had staph in my
incision I would just add one thing. Make sure they culture your staph to
find out if it is resistant to certain antibiotics. It takes a second to
culture. Then they grow it. With me the antibiotic I was on would not
kill that particular staph. Any family Dr. or internist can culture staph,
as well as a nurse practioner. It will get better but it takes the right
antibiotic and time. Again, as the previous post said...do what the doctor
says for sure. Get well soon.
— Karen Renee
September 9, 2001
The above post is most definately correct. Since I had staph in my
incision I would just add one thing. Make sure they culture your staph to
find out if it is resistant to certain antibiotics. It takes a second to
culture. Then they grow it. With me the antibiotic I was on would not
kill that particular staph. Any family Dr. or internist can culture staph,
as well as a nurse practioner. It will get better but it takes the right
antibiotic and time. Again, as the previous post said...do what the doctor
says for sure. Get well soon.
— Karen Renee
September 9, 2001
You asked for a possible cause being 6 days post-op: Someone might not have
used sterile technique during, and after your surgery. I would get in touch
with the person in charge of Infection Control at the hospital that did
your surgery. They are responsible for you getting it, treating you, and
compensating you for their neglegence. Some of the equipment used during
the surgery might have been contaminated or not sterilized in the proper
way. I remember a few months back, reading about several people in an
upscale hospital in New Orleans were exposed during brain surgery to the
Mad Cow Disease. The hospital used sterilized equipment on patients that
had been used on a patient with Mad Cow Disease. The problem was that
sterilization techniques do not kill that virus. The instruments should
have been discarded. Now, 7 other people could have been infected. Good
Luck, and God Bless --
— CohenHeart
September 10, 2001
I agree it must live everywhere. A very good friend of mine who is on this
website under Jill Elliott had WLS and it was successful but she developed
an AWFUL infection on her back area.. it ended up being som sort of skin
eating infeciton and required a surgery to fix it... she is still in the
hospital. Keep in mind her surgery was June 26 or 28th and its now
September 10 so she has been in the hospital a damn long time. I've been
so worried about her. I dont' know how she got the infeciton but dang she
has been off work for a long time and this has put her in a terribel
situation financially.. she wants to go home yet this infection is taking
its sweet time going away :(
— Dawn R.
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