Lord Have MRSA!!! MRSA and Staph infections in sports, my personal story

If you have ever gone to any gym, whether it be a fitness class, yoga, weightlifting, or martial arts gym, at some point, I’m sure you’ve heard someone mention staph. What is staph? Staph is short for Staphylococcus and it’s a genus of Gram-positive bacteria in the family Staphylococcaceae from the order Bacillales. ( that’s more scientific than you will ever need to know and it’s above my pay scale so I won’t even pretend to be an expert in anything medical here but I will post my experience with it and will post links to articles that have medical information so that you can read more into it if you chose.

Staphylococcus bacteria, often called “staph,” are commonly found on the skin and in the noses of many healthy individuals.  The CDC says that 1 in 3 people carry staph at any given time. These bacteria are generally harmless and coexist with us without causing any problems. In fact, our skin and mucous membranes act as barriers, preventing staph bacteria from entering the body and causing infections.

However, if staph bacteria enter the body through a cut, scrape, or other breaks in the skin, they can potentially lead to infections. This can range from mild infections, such as boils or skin infections, to more serious conditions, like pneumonia or bloodstream infections. The severity of the infection often depends on the type of staph bacteria and the individual’s overall health. When staph bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, it’s called MRSA. MRSA can resist a class of antibiotics related to penicillin, including methicillin, oxacillin, penicillin, and amoxicillin. Anyone can get a MRSA infection or carry MRSA. The risk increases for people with hospitalizations or nursing home stays, skin-to-skin contact with others (such as in contact sports), and exposure to crowded and unhygienic places.

In 2021, I had a unique experience with MRSA. I have been training in various martial arts for over 15 years and the worst I ever had was cauliflower ear and a short bout with ringworm.  I had heard about Staph infections and MRSA but because I always showered right after class and had good hygiene practices, I never had any issues with these bacteria.

My case started with a lump on my right elbow that appeared one day after I had some blood drawn for a surgery I had coming up in the next few days ( I was going to get my breasts redone) The bump on my elbow bothered me a little bit; it itched and was tender to the touch. It looked like a pimple. Something felt weird about it after a few days and I had a feeling I should have a doctor look at it. Mind you, I don’t go to the doctor for any much. I do my check ups and stay on top of my health but for any cut or bruise or injury, I will let it run it’s course by itself and that’s always worked in my favor. I don’t pack the doctors office up with my issue that could be handled at home. I keep the medical resources open to those who need it. So for me to feel the urge to have a doctor look at my elbow meant that my body knew something was off.  I went to an Urgent care since the Las Vegas primaries want you to wait 6 weeks to make an appointment. ( don’t get me started on medical care…I’ll have enough to say about it in this post). The Urgent care doctor took a look at my elbow and told me it was just a spider bit, I should ice it and take some antibiotics that they gave me and I should be fine.

So  I started my antibiotics and I went on my merry to to California to go have my Breast augmentation done and see some friends and family while I was in town. The night I arrived in California I could tell something was off again with the “spider bit” It was starting to hurt ALOT and getting very red. So I went to the Emergency room, waiting many hours only for them to confirm it was a spider bite and that all I needed to do was continue with my antibiotics and I should be fine. At this point, I’m feeling disillusioned already by doctors. I feel something is wrong, I’m not some sissy who can’t handle a spider bite but I had two doctors in two different states look at it and just KNOW that yup it’s a spider bite. They took no lab work, the didn’t culture anything, they just looked at it and confirmed it was a spider bit. So I went about my day with my body starting to feel worse and worse as the time went by.

By 9PM, I was in extreme pain. My arm was so hot and swollen that I could not bend it.  I was even starting to burn up with a fever. I knew something was terribly wrong but at this point, I’m worried about seeing a doctor again who was just going to tell me I was a pussy for complaining about a wee spider bite. I reached out to my brother who is an EMT, told him my story and took a picture of my elbow, and sent it to him. In 2 seconds he looked at the picture and said ” That’s MRSA go the to Emergency room NOW!!!” So I went back to the ER that I had been to just hours before and told them I wasn’t feeling well and had something they said was a spider bite. They told me to sit down and wait, they would get to me when they could. This was a Friday night and unfortunately, people like to act stupid on the weekends and the Emergency rooms tend to get very busy; I was not important to them since they had people with severe Traumas coming in after me that needed attention. So I sat there, watching my arm balloon up, feeling my body fighting off an infection, and watching a black streak start to form  up my arm. I took a picture of the black streak and asked my brother what it was in a text. He told me it looked like lymphangitis and if I waited too long the infection would  go septic and that I needed to tell someone immediately or I could lose my arm. So I went to the front desk again and showed them my arm and they started to go into “do mode” with me.  They brought over an IV with antibiotics and hooked me up in the waiting room. Within a few minutes, I did start to feel a little better. I thought “Oh I’ll get this IV and be out of here tonight and still be able to have my Surgery in a few days” But I was wrong.

After waiting in the waiting room for 8 hours tethered to an IV with various antibiotics dripping into me, I was wheeled into a hospital room. I was told the wait took so long because there were not beds available. I was tired and wanted to rest so I was very happy to have a bed to sleep in however, I wasn’t aware that I was not going to be sleeping at all while I was in the hospital. I had nurses coming in every few hours to take vitals and replace my IVs and check my progress. Some of the Nurses were not very good at going IVs and 2 viens in my left arm got blown out so they needed to move to my right arm. I was a human pin cushion. I called my surgeon to let them know I would not be able to do my surgery due to a bout with MRSA and called some family to let them know where I was so they wouldn’t worry. This was in 2021, COVID was still an issue, people who were not vaccinated were not allowed to visit patients so I was alone for a few days without visitors. Not even a doctor came in to see me which was a bit annoying. It wasn’t until I was in the Hospital for 2 days that a nurse came in and I asked her how long I was going to be there. She told me I had MRSA and it was pretty serious and it could be a while.

At this point, my mind is conflicted with animosity for the healthcare system for dismissing me twice when I came in with a bump on my arm. I was mad at them for not listening to me when I said it seemed more serious than a spider bit, that I had a pretty decent mind-body connection and my mind was telling me something was off. But then I was incredibly grateful that we have these medicines to cure this affliction. I don’t work in healthcare so I can not give advice on how they can do things better. I hate when people with no knowledge of how an industry is run will chime in with unrealistic tips that seem “common sense” but when you know the actual ins and outs of the industry the tips are just idiocy. So I won’t rag on the Healthcare industry. I have some of the best insurance can buy so I was taken care of. I didn’t die. Everyone was polite and when they needed to step up they did. I just wish this could have been addressed sooner so that I didn’t have to suck up valuable healthcare resources.

The takeaway from all this should be, to listen to your body. Not just when you have an issue but daily. The more in tune you are with you body day to day, the sooner you will know when something serious is happening. Don’t become a hypochondriac and expect that any weird feeling is a worst-case scenario. Just listen to your body. Lay quietly in bed and do a body scan, head to toe. pay attention to your breathing, how it feels to breathe in and then out. Can you feel your heart beating? can you feel the clothes or blanket touching your skin? Feel everything, and get familiar with yourself so that you can sense when things are different. Be diligent about advocating for yourself as well. If you KNOW something is off, do not let nay sayers turn you away and make you feel crazy. speak up, say something, and keep coming back until someone listens. For a more detailed post about the Body Scan, click here