To anyone who knows anything about staph please help!


Me:

female

25years old

height: 5' 3" weight: 110lbs

generally healthy lifestyle with the exception of social smoking (not cigarettes and coffee drinking (have cut way back, but still having palpitations.)

work in office that has high occurrences of cancer, including thyroid, breast, brain and lung (in people who don’t smoke) as well as valley fever. Collogues are also plagued with recurrent uti’s and colds. Also, I got very sick (laryngitis & bronchitis) my first and two weeks into work. Haven’t felt quite right ever since (started work in 10/04).

My symptoms:

1. Chest pain (palpitations) for approx 2 years - especially when excited or stressed. Getting worse as time goes on. More frequent and intense.

2. General fatigue- tired even when I get enough sleep

3. Recently (last month or so) experiencing mild incontinence/leakage (1st time in my history) during stressful times but also when seated and calm. Coffee seems to make this worse.

4. Just recently (3 1/2 weeks ago) came down with a uti (1st one in my history) passed lots of blood and clots. Wbc count was up and I was treated with cypro for 3days - symptoms subsided.


5. On follow up appt, blood work showed: titer of 4:1 for anti-tiechoic acid antibodies. All other blood work was normal. Dr diagnosed as a staphylococcal infection pointing toward rumatoid arthritis. However, he also ran an rf (rumatoid factor) test at the same time that came back negative. Also I do not have, nor have I had symptoms of arthritis. I do have some genetic history as my mother was affected. Treatment is minocycline 3x a week for 2weeks then follow-up and continue treatment for up to 6months if successful.


Questions:

1. Does this diagnosis sound correct given my symptoms and the negative rf test?

2. Does anyone know or have experience of the anti-teicohic acid titer and how it relates to the severity of the infection?

3. An I am risk factor to those around me? (note: I have no exterior skin symptoms beyond mild to moderate acne, mainly occurring around the time of my period.) also, the diagnostic table used in the techoic acid test associates titers of 1:4 with more sever diseases such as endocartisis, what level of concern should I have?


The dr was very vague on the questions and seemed hesitant to order further tests to help pinpoint the infection so any information you may be able to offer is welcomed.

Thank you in advance!


~anonymous