2nd Belly Button

I am now referring to the hole where my g-tube was as my second belly button. It is healing nicely and actually yesterday is the first day I did not cover it with some sort of bandage. It's a good thing I never was a bikini kind of gal - as my tummy now had a wide assortment of scars and such. But - no regrets! For any of you that know what MRSA is - when they swabbed me at Georges Dumont - the first night I was in right after my surgery in Aug - I tested positive. So I was put in a private room. Being a nurse - I had a big concern about this - would I ever be able to work again? When I got back home I went to a doctor I trusted and spoke to her about it. I didn't want it generally known - in case it would affect my employment. So we started from scratch and did all the swabs again. The only swab that was positive for MRSA was from my g-tube site. And by that time it was looking a bit mucky with a bit of green/yellow discharge. So she put me on Bactrim for 10 days. When I was at Georges Dumont for my 4 week post-op check with Dr. B. - I told Lise that I had tested positive.  On goes the mask and she swabbed me again - including the g-tube site after it was removed that day. I talked to her 2 days ago and all the swabs were negative.  Fast forward to now. The g-tube is out - site healing well. We are going to repeat the MRSA swabs next week and see what they show. Hopefully all negative. My hospital has no policy on health care providers that have MRSA. And I don't want to be the one who's responsible for having to institute one. I do know that in some health care facilities - workers CANNOT work unless they have 3 consecutive negative swabbings. The thing is - I work in ER where we are in contact with patients who are MRSA positive all the time. And that's just the patients we know about. Who knows how many come through that are positive and aren't identified. Many times at work we have joked about it - talking about all the precautions we are taking with patients who are identified as MRSA +ve - when a lot of us probably are positive anyway. There's a reason they don't routinely screen health care providers for MRSA. What would they do with all of us who were +ve? Dr. B. and I had that exact same discussion. Anyway - apart from that - I still feel somewhat like a limp dishrag. Working hard at eating - walked a bit the other day and will get out again later today. Had a load of blood work drawn yesterday. My tentative return to work day is October 12. Now I need to get stronger and more energetic and get back my get up and go. DH is doing better - normalcy is getting closer. Have a wonderful day everyone!

For us lay people, what is MRSA????

MRSA stands for methacillin resisitant staphlo****us aureus. At least to the best of my memory. It's the term for a bacteria - one of the superbugs as they are called - that have evolved to become resistant to even heavy-duty antibiotics - one of them being methacillin. To otherwise healthy people - coming in contact with MRSA is no big deal as their natural immune system can keep it at bay. But to someone who is compromised - such as very old, very young, a cancer patient, a patient with a chronic illness, a patient having surgery, a patient with an open wound - MRSA can hop on in there and become an infection that is VERY difficult to treat. And - unfortunately CAN lead to terrible infections that can go through someones whole body and  make them terribly ill - or worse. As Maggie said - it is so widespread these days - if you were to swab all the nurses in our ER - I imagine a ghood portion of us would be carriers. That's why they don't do it. It was just unfortunate that I happened to have surgery and had been a recent inpatient at another hospital - so I got swabbed. Fortunately - the Bactrim  (antibiotic) seems to have taken care of it. Hope that answers your question!

Well Mary thats makes sense to me - they did the same thing in Halifax when I was admitted for my pnemonia last summer - they gloved up - suited up - masks the whole nine yards once they put me up on a floor - no one said squat when I was in the ER for the last 10 hours about not being clean - I was so out of it I didnt have the strength to question it.

My god it was like 2 am and they are saying you were in Montreal we have to make sure you are clean - I am so ill at the time - thinking clean from what - where the heck did you think I was a 3rd world country my god people get a grip - I assume I was "CLEAN" as no one ever freaked out at me the rest of my stay and I had 3 roomy's  in total for my stay- not like they isolated me! I had other things on my mind and have never thought about it again til I read your post !

Glad your good and it will not affect your job.

Take care,
deb

Yes Deb - it is really TOO funny to think about. I sat in the ER waiting room at Georges Dumont for 6 hours one day - two hours another day - plus was kept overnight in ER there the night before I ended up having surgery. Heaven knows how many people I infected - hahaha. Not making light of it - but it's quite ridiculous. The doctor I am seeing here told me she has actually come across teenagers who are MRSA +ve - people who  have NEVER been hospitalized. Apparently it's quite common for it to be spread in locker rooms, shower areas at gyms and pools etc. Anyway - I guess it's the latest "thing" to be concerned about. As Maggie said - 20 yrs ago it was HIV. And 10 yrs from now it will be something else. Have a great day!

I believe hospitals in Ontario and further west don't test or take extra percautions or cleaning protocol about MRSA anymore. It is so widespread and prevalent now. This province goes apesh**   over it for now. I'm sure that will change in time. I was fresh out of nursingschool when we had the first case of terminal AIDS. That was a nightmare for a few years too. Now it's hardly given a second thought. I think we are more scared of Hep C than AIDS.