Everyday Randomness

Is It Staph?

I finally got a few hours of sleep, and it totally wasn’t enough. I passed out around 4pm, and I woke up at 6:30 with my legging itching like crazy. I figured I had a mosquito bite, but it just kept getting bigger and bigger.

It itches like a mosquito bite, but it’s freakin’ huge. I’ve resisted the urge to scratch, and I’ve been using Staphaseptic on it all evening. Now I’m not so sure it’s an insect bite at all. After doing some research for a couple hours, I’m going to the doctor tomorrow.

Why?

See, I’ve had boils that pop up on certain areas of my body all my life. They started popping up around my bikini line and inner thighs about the time I hit puberty. The first time it happened my mom took me to two different doctors. I had two come up at once, so the one doctor diagnosed it as multiple spider bites. The second doctor diagnosed it as boils due to my sensitive skin and eczema.

It’s happened quite a few times over the last 15 or so years, and they always show up in the same place. Sometimes I’ll have one huge boil while other times I’ll have 2 or 3 smaller ones. I’ve gone to the doctor to have them drained before although normally they drain on their own. I’ve had other doctors diagnose them as boils, ingrown hairs, spider bites, allergic reactions, severe mosquito bites, and one even tried to blame it on my hygiene. I’m a very clean person, so I knew that wasn’t the case.

So the reason why I started looking all this up tonight is because I happened to remember a couple years ago I had a “bite” show up in the exact same spot on the exact same leg. I freaked out over it for a few days because it kept getting bigger. I finally went to Urgent Care, and I was told it was just another boil, but it wasn’t hard like most of them get because it was in a more sensitive area of my body. I was told to apply hot compresses and squeeze out the infection. After a few more days it turned into the nastiest pimple I’ve ever seen.

One Google search tonight and I saw a ton of other people showing photos of the exact same thing, sharing stories that sounded just like mine. Almost all of them finally had a culture taken and they all were diagnosed with staph or MRSA. Most of them were treated with Bactrim DS or Hibiclens. Most of them haven’t had any more boil outbreaks since.

Not a single one of the doctors I’ve visited has ever taken a culture. I’ve had these things pop up for years, and like I said I’ve seen many different doctors over it. I’ve been to my regular doctor, Urgent Care, and the ER. Not once has any of them even mentioned taking a culture. If I’ve got staph infection causing these things I want to know about it! I’m calling my doctor in the morning to set up an appointment.

Some people my think I’m overreacting, but when something the size of a golf ball keeps popping up on my leg, and not one doctor can tell me straight forward what it is I search the internet. When I find someone else describing something that is scarily just like what I got through I want to be tested.

Oh, and almost as if to reassure me that I think I’ve found my answer on the internet, Hubby walked in while I was in the middle of writing this post.  He said “Hey babe, look at this.  I’ve got some weird bump under my arm.”   I inspected it, and it looks just like the so called boils I get on my inner thighs.  He’s never had these before, so I’d like to hear my doctor try to explain to me that this is just coincidence.  We’re both taking a trip to Urgent Care when he gets home from work tomorrow to have cultures done.