MRSA

Get to an ER...

by donr - 2017-10-28 22:47:21

...4 hours ago!  It is that serious.  Don't screw around waiting for your PCP to call you back.  The probability of that thing getting to your ICD is about 50%.  IF it grows (They call it colonizing) on the PM case & leads, it grows like moss or hanging weeds on the leads inside the heart.  Not good!  That means removal of the PM & all its leads. Even not gooder!!!!!  You'd best let your EP or whoever planted the device in you know about this.

Read this article:http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/circulationaha/104/9/1029.full.pdf.

A boil is a skin infection that grows in hair follicles & is usually Staph Aureus - which can become MRSA. (That's what the RSA means - Resistant Staph Aur).  It lives on your skin all the time, so there is always a chance of having something bad happen.  For most of us, our Staph on the skin is NOT resistant, so we don't get these bad infections.  If we do have resistant Staph, we have it forever.

That boil is in a very bad spot.  The hair follicles go into the skin a quarter inch or so, & when very, very bad, the boil can go deeper, perhaps reaching the leads or the inside of the PM pocket.
For those uninitiated into boils, They can grow quite fast, can be very painful and build up a significant pressure inside.  They become very inflamed, must be incised & drained, & the sooner & smaller it is the less painful it is to be lanced.  SInce it grows in a follicle, it can infect several & the undersurface area becomes a honeycomb of interconnected passageways (like an anthill) that must be broken open to be drained. 

Donr

Donr is Right Again

by NiceNiecey - 2017-10-28 23:34:03

I'm ticked that your PCP didn't get you right in.  You will learn as you get older that sometimes you have to be pushy! You don't want to but you've got to! Don't wait; go the ER. My mother's heart wants to take you there!

Niecey

ditto!

by Tracey_E - 2017-10-29 09:06:31

You can't mess around with this, if they dont' call back right away either show up on their doorstep, or since it's the weekend go to the ER. 

Thank you

by Scout915 - 2017-10-29 17:32:26

So I was able to get in later in the day yesterday for a short appointment opening with another doctor whom I haven't met before. I have made appointments with my primary a couple times and have yet to meet them in the last two years, I always make appointments at the wrong time I guess :/. Anyways, I saw the doctor for a total of about 5 minutes and she was gone. She pushed a bit on the boil and said it was the size of a marble. It is a few mm away from the pm so she said don't worry and to take some antibiotics. It is a bit more sore today than yesterday because she poked a bit to see if it would ooz, which it did not. I am hoping from here on out it goes away on its own. The last boil I had was above my collarbone and got to the size of a quarter before they had to extract it. I thank all that responded, and hopefully my dr knows what is best. I will be sure to push any future appointments harder as to not risk any sort of bad results. Thank you for all the information! I will keep a close eye on it :)

I am still concerned...

by donr - 2017-10-29 20:08:11

...about this.  You are 19 & a  female.   You got the typical treatment young, unsavy women get.  The bum's rush. 

Let's look at a few things - 1)  It's the size of a marble.  That's at least a half inch in diameter.  2)  That PM/ICD is not that deep inside you - unless you had it put beneath the pectoral muscle.   That means that if it is only a few mm from the device its bottom is darned near IN THE POCKET!  3)  A marble is about 12 mm in diameter.  If the bottom of that boil gets through into that pocket, you will have the H$%$% to pay & it will NOT be pleasant.  That stuff is pernicious (A fancy word for BAD!)  It loves to colonize foreign objects in the bloodstream. 

You gave the impression that the Dr. was not particularly impressed by what you have. 4)  Did she act like she knew the implications od that thing getting into the PM pocket?  Just like mighty oaks growing from tiny acorns, monstrous Boils grow from tiny follicles.  5)  For normal people, at this point, antibiotics & watchful waiting would be the choice, but yours is a bit more dangerous than that.  It needs to be watched very, very closely.  6)  If there is NOT a layer of thick fascia between the PM pocket & the skin & subcutaneous fat above it, there is nothing to contain the "Roots" of it from connecting w/ the pocket & draining into it.  Then it's Katy bar the door!

Grab yourself a ticket to southern MS to see my daughter - you'll get at least half an hour - & it's a lot warmer than in Alaska!

Donr

I am still concerned...

by donr - 2017-10-29 20:08:32

...about this.  You are 19 & a  female.   You got the typical treatment young, unsavy women get.  The bum's rush. 

Let's look at a few things - 1)  It's the size of a marble.  That's at least a half inch in diameter.  That PM/ICD is not that deep inside you - unless you had it put beneath the pectoral muscle.   That means that if it is only a few mm from the device its bottom is darned near IN THE POCKET!  A marble is about 12 mm in diameter.  If the bottom of that boil gets through into that pocket, you will have the H$%$% to pay & it will NOT be pleasant.  That stuff is pernicious (A fancy word for BAD!)  It loves to colonize foreign objects in the bloodstream. 

You gave the impression that the Dr. was not particularly impressed by what you have.  Did she act like she knew the implications od that thing getting into the PM pocket?  Just like mighty oaks growing from tiny acorns, monstrous Boils grow from tiny follicles.

Grab yourself a ticket to southern MS to see my daughter - you'll get at least half an hour - & it's a lot warmer than in Alaska!

Donr

ditto again

by Tracey_E - 2017-10-29 22:00:07

I know it's hard, but sometimes we have to be pushy and advocate for ourselves. If you take a random antibiotic without a culture, you could waste time on the wrong med. If it spreads into the pocket, your entire device will have to come out because we can't risk infection going down the lead into the heart. It's a straight shot from the pocket to the heart. Once it's removed, then iv antibiotics for a few weeks, then get a new pacer on the other side. It is crucial to act quickly and aggressively so this doesn't happen. As the others said, not all doctors fully understand the serious implications for us if infection, especially a resistant strain, gets in that pocket.

It's been...

by donr - 2017-10-31 01:14:33

...over 2 days, now.  You got us old coots all riled up, so how about a progress report.  Is it going up or down? 

Donr