My DW & I have used maxi pads as external bandaging for 1 or our best friend's MRSA wound.

When he'd get up into his wheelchair, the maxi pad would absorb the extra drainage caused by the pressure of him sitting up for a few hours.

His wound was on the bottom of the left buttock. Normally a poor circulation area made poorer due to being a paraplegic.

We used surgical sponge gauze for packing in the early stages and finished with the Algaenate material once the wound was 2cm and closing.

His wound started off looking like he'd been shot with a nearly spent .75cal round.

I still carry maxi pads in my FAK because of their size and absorption abilities.

you're doing the right things already. Oral meds, keep dry, packed.

Folks, not all "bug bites" are MRSA. There's the normal "Methicillin Sensitive Staph Aureus." MSSA is sensitive to Keflex. MRSA laughs at Keflex. You can try Clindamycin with MRSA, but really, Zyvox is the only good oral med right now for MRSA.

If you redress the wound packing, 4x4s are fine. Unfold them first, and put them into the wound (wet or dry, depending on what you're told). Don't "pack" them in - the wound should have just enough 4x4s to keep the wound open. You don't need to cram 500 4x4s into the hole, when 5 will do. Packing too much actually slows healing.

Clindamycin and Bactrim to start, with a threat of Zyvox coming soon.

The packing is what looks like a wet hockey skate lace that came from a sterile bottle. Man oh man, I had forgotten what a nasty thing the human body can be.

This would be better for me if it was a stand-up adversary that I could face. If I could "get my hands on it" type of fight it might do me well as a little stress relief.

Yeah, but when the lab results come back as MRSA, and a list of which antibiotics worked and didn't work, you do know (as was my case)

About that - for me, it was $3000 for the 2 weeks, but the insurance covered all but something like $90

There is one other downside - look at the tiramine issue - and at least 6 months ago, the dietary restrictions were MASSIVE - no cured meets, no preserved foods, no fermented foods (aka sauerkraut, soy, soursauce, etc ), no aged cheeses, no chocolate, and most important NO pseudepidrene (sp) the list goes on - they have since decided that most of the restricions are not needed. This is because Zyvox is actually an MAOI - but a milder form than the ones used for psycological reasons. If you do get a tiramine/maoi reaction, your bloodpressue can spike like you would not believe

Favorite new experience at the 7/11. "No these are not for my wife or daughter, they are for me." The clerk probably still wonders why I needed the generic maxi-pads. It was that or diapers. The pads were a darn site cheaper than continuing to use sterile 4x4 for non-contact sponges. I will be getting "regular" 4x4's in the morning.

Huh? What did the clerk say or ask, exactly? I had a similar experience buying lipstick once for a craft project. Neither I nor the store had red candles, and I wanted to make an old fashioned seal with an imprint.

The smirking clerk, who I was slightly acquainted with and had joked around with before, asked "That for you?" I replied, "Yep, I looked fabulous in this shade!," and sashayed my fanny right out the door.

Jeff

I went to the store for el generico pads to put on top of the sterile 4x4's that I have on the wound. The clerk smarted off with something to the effect of "I wouldn't let any woman send me to the store for these". My rejoinder was they were for me. Left him confused.

Good one! His smart comment might have earned him my best cold, dead stare and and a flatly intoned "what exactly do you mean by that?" from me.

I try very hard to be extremely polite and courteous in public. But among my many character flaws is a nasty tendency to intimidate those who I think are being unnecessary rude. I know I need to work on the whole "turn the other cheek" thing, but it's hard for me.

Jeff

One trip to the doc today and things look "okay". Not worse, but not what was hoped for. One more trip after accidentally ripping out the packing, and things don't look worse, but the opening got a little bigger. I promise that WILL NOT happen again if I still have a pulse.