MRSA. I battled my first batch of SSI acquired MRSA starting in Nov 2008, after a cervical spine laminectomy C5-C6. The infection was almost to my spinal cord when found. I was on Dapto and Vanco for over 7 weeks ending in mid Jan 2009. Two weeks ago I had some pain in my in my neck, rt front. My ENT Doc (I've had a Trach since May 2008 for OSA) sent off for a culture because of my history. She took the swab from inside where my trach enters my neck. To my surprise, the culture was positive. I've been taking Clindamycin since, but I finish up the script today. My ENT Doc took another swab last week, I should get the results later today. What concerns, me but no one else, is that the neck pain has moved to the rt rear of my neck. Its very sensitive to the touch and starts below my ear and goes back to my cervical spine in the same area the last batch of MRSA was found. Could this pain on the back of my neck be related to the positive MRSA found on the front of my neck? So far all that's been done is the cultures from my Trach site. I feel that more should be done but the Infectious Disease folks are very low key about the whole thing. Me, I'm terrified that this stuff is moving through my body. I was within a couple days of certain death when it was found the first time back in December. If my left arm didn't start hurting severely, we wouldn't have known the MRSA was engorging my spine. My WBC wasn't off, and I had no fever at the time I went to the ER. This time, the Doctor said "Just let us know if you start to run a fever". I told them last week that if they're waiting for me to run a fever before doing anything else, they may be waiting too long. I may be dead by then. Do you think they should be taking a more aggressive approach, considering my past MRSA problems? or am I being overly concerned? I'm also having other strange pains around my body. I call them nerve pains. Its like someone is poking me randomly with a safety pin. Last week I was awaken in the middle of the night. It felt like one of my toes was in a vise. Very weird stuff if you ask me. Of course all these new pains I'm attributing back to the MRSA. I sure would like another's take on all of this.

Thanks a bunch..

Big John
Pearland, TX