Now all they have to do is see how it works in people. After all, lots of stuff is toxic to MRSA - hydrocloric acid, bleach, intense radiation, cyanide. The trick is in finding something that is toxic to the bug but not toooo toxic for the human.

It could be years before anything is developed from the volcanic clay for oral or intravenous use, but maybe something could be developed sooner for a topical antibiotic to catch it early at a wound site. And who knows how long it will take the FDA to approve it.

A common complication with early treatment of MRSA, is that sometimes a small wound heals over, becomes red and irritated, spreads quickly and then gets diagnosed as MRSA. It usually takes several days to run the lab test for it, unless someone knows of a new and improved test. In the meanwhile, a less agressive antibiotic treatment is administered per standard protocol.

Unfortunately, many doctors still don't know it when they see it.

There is a quick test that only takes 2 hours, using a nasal swab (I understand that the bacteria resides in the nose, so don't shake with someone who picks).
http://www.theindychannel.com/news/14375746/detail.html

Stay out of jail, it's rampant there, I hear.

Sue

I've had an ulcerated Leg wound since May, and I've leard a BUNCH about wound infection control - I've been on 3 differnt antibiotics (currently on 2 different ones at the same time), but they also doa LOT of topical infection control. You tend to develop what is called a "biofilm" - a micture of infection and othe bacteria and "stuff" on the wound that makes it VERY hard to regranulate.

One of the techniques used to heal you are "wet to dry" bandages - they soak a bandage in a solution, it's put on the wound, and let to dry out (this only works if the wound isn't oozing too much). The solution in my case is called "Dakin's Solution"

What is Dakin's? BLEACH!! .5% Sodium Hypochloride plus a bit of baking Soda. And yes, depending on the state of your wound, it can hurt, a LOT (why do you think I'm up at 3:00am - I'm waiting for 3:30am to take my pain killers - and today is a medium day)

There is a lot of Alginate bandages used - many bearing silver in various dosages ($60 per 4x4 pad - figre 2 pads at a time, changed as much as 2x/day if your oozing a lot, as little as once per 4 days once you start healing)

As you can guess, I've been a TAD paranoid about MRSA, but the big trick in this is to prevent it from getting started

Regarding your ulcerated leg wound: there are always a lot of questions to ask to determine if you are receiving the best care but from my past experience, two are critical?

1 If you are getting home health care, do they really know what they are doing? I have some bad experiences with some home health care workers. Some of them simply lacked appropriate training and experience.
2. Can you get a second opinion and possibly a more aggressive alternate treatment plan inspite of the various changes in antibiotic therapy? One wound regranulation therapy I have witnessed was a "wound pump". A seal is placed over the wound and the pump is connected to it. It itermittently creates suction and pulls blood to the surface and develops cell granulation more efficiently and helps to remove drainage. It speeds up healing from months to a few weeks. It may not be the therapy for you, but just a thought or other avenue to explore.

Best of luck to you and best wishes.

I am NOT getting home health care as the MD feels I am capabile of doing the care myself

Gone for a 2nd opinion at the Wound center at NY Presbterian (sp) - one of the top wound guys, and they say that the guy I'm going to is one of the best

In my case, vacuum assisted closure was contraindicated - in fact, what they are using is a sequential compression leg pump. Based on my life, situation, they felt that 2 weeks bed rest had a 90% chance of totally curing my wound - it did not, but it cut the size by 50% - the additional we has brought it down to 25% with a "healthy wound bed". He's saying by next Monday I should be back at work mostly healed

Has any of the MDs mention maggots and sphagnum moss as a possible treatment?


Maggot Therapy.

No Maggots, as I did not have a necrotic tissue issue. In my case, it's basiclly extremely poor blood flow in my leg, due to a previous bout with celulitus, compromising my veins. It does not help that I am extremely overweight

The national mean time to heal what I have is 27 months, My MD aims for 24 weeks, and we should make it - I've been in treatment since late May, and if I keep making progress at the rate I've been the last 3 weeks, I should be done before Christmas. In the last 2 weeks, I've been able to use certain treatments that I could not tolerate say 5 weeks ago, and those treatments acccelerate the healing drasticlly. My MD says that "wound healing is a dynamic game, what works well this week my be wrong next week, and what works for patient A won't work, or may not be tolerated by patient B" (for instance, I can NOT tollerate the classic 4 layer wrap - we've tried it 3 times - within 12 hours, I was in so much pain the bandages had to be removed)

My MD thinks that chronic wound care is best treated as a partnership between him, his staff, and the patient, and if the patient is well enough, he teaches us a lot of the techniques

Today, he had me restart a light debridement technique that I could not tollerate a bit back - wetting down the wound, and taking a VERY soft brush to the wound - it removes the soft scab that is above viable skin, and allows it to heal quicker - similar to what they do to burn patients - and yeah, it HURTS, I can imagine what it must feel like on a deep burn. I have a new respect for burn patients after this

Hi Kc2ixe

Good to hear your making progress with the leg ulcer. The last few months must have been very difficult with the constant pain. Have you been offered any hyperbaric oxygen treatment by the MDs. I've heard that this could be an effective treatment for ischemic leg ulcers. I think there are even some studies to see if even sildenafil citrate could be effective treatment for the condition.

Good Luck.

We talked about hyperbaric O2, but I've been healing well enough that he didn't think I needed it - the huge problem with Hyperbaric O2 is that you end up needing to tak 2-3 days/week off, for 4-5 months