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.