This really stinks......hubby has MRSA on his hands!

Nurses General Nursing

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Well imagine my reaction last night while I was at work and here comes DH and the House Supervisor to tell me he had to go home because he had MRSA and couldn't work until the facility MD evaluated the situation today and came up with a plan of action. My knees buckled and now I have several concerns, not just for him, but for myself. By now many of you knw that even after 10 years of marriage, I cannot keep away from him for long so now I'm concerned over my recent bout with pneumonia and am wondering if it was pneumonia in my lungs or could I have MRSA because we constantly kiss and if his hands were to have contaiminated his beard, isn't it possible that I could have gotten it from him??? Especially since I am still have symptoms and bring up very nasty, thick sputum. I have a follow up MD appointment tomorrow. Also, and this is really embarrassing but I'm concerned I could have MRSA in my urinary tract because my uring smells very foul, is cloudy and has a sharp pain at the end of each elimination. I'm thinking about requesting a urine and sputum culture. Do you think I'm over reacting or being paranoid???? Please give advice ASAP because my appointment is tomorrow and I need to know if I have a legitimate concern or if I'm just over reacting. HELP................also, to explain where his MRSA is......he has had blisters filled with purulent discharge forming on his hands for the past few months that appear, rupture, then dry up. We just thought he had a latex reaction but it could be a combo of that and that he was contaminated in one of the blisters by one of our MRSA patients. His washes his hands about a gazillion times a day but he is like me, a hugger and he has all the little old ladies at work in love with him, as he spoils them to pieces with hugs and affection and this is the way we figured he obtained it. Please, I need your input??????

Specializes in CV-ICU.

Duckie, PLEASE don't hug me til you're all better! I'll add you to my prayer list; after all this time your pneumonia should be gone!

There used to be a store here in Mpls that was called "Condom Kingdom" and they had costumes that were giant condoms that covered the entire body. Want me to check into one for you? ;) :) :D JK, Duckie. Please take care of yourself.

Specializes in Corrections, Psych, Med-Surg.

Wouldn't you know. One of the few times gloves weren't used. Glad to hear you are both on the road to recovery. Some lessons are MUCH harder to learn than others, aren't they, but at least this one had a solution?

Unfortunately, as you well know, we all (patients and health care workers) are going to have to deal with more and more of these resistant bugs as time goes by, since life squirms and mutates to fill any and every available opening provided for it.

40%!!! That was a shocker, rncountry. I would have guessed maybe 2% at the most. (A good reason for me not to be an IC nurse.)

Originally posted by Jenny P

Duckie, PLEASE don't hug me til you're all better! I'll add you to my prayer list; after all this time your pneumonia should be gone!

There used to be a store here in Mpls that was called "Condom Kingdom" and they had costumes that were giant condoms that covered the entire body. Want me to check into one for you? ;) :) :D JK, Duckie. Please take care of yourself.

Aw, come on, not even one little hug??? Oh well, can't say as I blame you! :p I would like to clarify that both my husband and myself use gloves for all procedures and follow isolation procedures to the letter. We work with many Alzheimer's/ Dementia patients and we most likely touched something they had contaminated. Believe me, I am the glove queen. As stated in the above post, in LTC we do not isolate MRSA patients so something like this is bound to happen. One of the other nurses on our floor got MRSA in her finger after assisting to transfer a patient when we didn't even know he had MRSA and he was fully clothed. It's just one of those things that happen, but I am confident we are both being treated properly. Thank you eveyone for your concern but please keep us in your prayers as I really do want this gone ASAP. Love to all!

Originally posted by sjoe

40%!!! That was a shocker, rncountry. I would have guessed maybe 2% at the most. (A good reason for me not to be an IC nurse.)

I was shocked when I read how common it is that LTC's were colonized with MRSA.

Statistics show that colonization is common in LTC's. Cultures show that there are different strains within the same facility even. They don't even consider it an outbreak until 4 infections have occurred. (RN March 1999, Vol. 62 no 3 page 39). Again referencing the article, "typically patients will remain asymptomatic and carry the organism for only a few days or weeks, though some remain colonized for months or years." So, I guess it would surprise me that nurses are ONLY colonized at 40%.

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