Our MRSA Saga

When we were in the emergency department for the broken femur in April, they did a routine nasal swab to look for MRSA. They do that now before every surgery. Oh, he had to have surgery on his femur, by the way. So, it turns out that he DID have MRSA! Before the surgery, they gave him vancomycin for the MRSA. They admitted that he probably got MRSA because of his many hospital visits!

Then when he was in the hospital, all the nurses and doctors who came into the room put on disposable gowns and gloves. The trash can in the room was full of these gowns and gloves by the time we left! But when we went home, I asked about it, and they said there was nothing we needed to do about MRSA. I then called and emailed a few people from the hospital when we were home, and both of them said that it wasn't a big deal, that many people have it, etc. I argued back and forth, and she even had someone from the group that developed the hospital's MRSA guidelines email me about it. All he did was copy and paste the same old information. But this didn't satisfy me because my son was about to have another surgery, this one with an external fixator around his foot. And basically 100% of these get an infection. What if he got MRSA in it???

The orthopedic surgeon did agree that we should try to make sure the MRSA was gone. So over the summer, I applied a nasal medication to both of his nostrils twice a day for 2 weeks. Then he was tested for MRSA again. The result was negative! He then had to be tested again at least 24 hours later to make sure it was really gone. This time rather than driving an hour each way to have him tested at the hospital, I tried to make it easy on us and took him to his pediatrician, which is only 15 minutes away. They had us go in the back red QUARANTINE door. It was kind of spooky going in there, wondering what other infectious diseases we would catch by being in that area of the hospital. I was not too pleased, either, that the entrance was not accessible, with a full flight of stairs we had to go up. Thankfully, Jordan can go up stairs on his crutches (although he did break his arm in four places a few years ago going up stairs!).

Well, it looked to me that the physicians assistant did not do the nasal swab correctly. But the pediatrician called within a few days and said the results were negative! I was so relieved! But sure enough, when the results appeared on the hospital's website, they looked strange, not at all like the previous results. After emailing the PA for the orthopedic surgeon's office, the PA told me that the pediatrician's office had ordered the wrong test! So it was back to the hospital for yet another test! Argggh!!!! Finally, after a few days, the results were in--negative for MRSA and MSSA. FINALLY! This took five months. But it goes to show you, make sure you or your child is tested for MRSA before surgery. Not all hospitals do this yet, but when they do, they say it cuts down on infections. I just wish they would treat each patient as an individual and not just copy and paste information that having MRSA is JUST FINE!

Kurt Fearnley Wins the Marathon in the Paralympics

Kurt Fearnley ended up winning the marathon in the Paralympics after his bad luck in the earlier races (see Kurt Fearnley’s Week from Hell). I liked what he said after winning: "It was as if it was just building in tension and building in hype. I knew in myself every single bad thing that happened just meant the next good thing that happened was going to be twice as good.”

Kurt Fearnley in the 2008 Paralympics

The Paralympics have been going on in China for quite some time now, and they aren't getting a fraction of the publicity the Olympics got. One of the big names in the news is Kurt Fearnley, who is ranked number one in the 1500 meter, the 5000 meter, and the marathon. He has been having some bad luck lately with first being assigned the wrong lane and then being hit from behind during the 1500 meter race yesterday: Kurt Fearnley's Rotten Luck.

Fearnley has sacral agenesis and is Australian. For more, see Athletes with CRS/SA.

Wheelchair Ballroom Dancing

I saw this great story about a woman, JoAnne Fluke, who has CRS and is a wheelchair ballroom dancer: With Groovability, Wheelchair Dancers Dismiss Notions of Disability. In describing why she likes dancing, she says, "I get the opportunity to really express how I feel. It feels like it doesn’t matter that I have wheels instead of feet. It’s in the heart. It’s in the soul.”

Miracle Buckley

I saw this story about a 19-year-old girl, Miracle Buckley, who has CRS/SA. She is studying to be a concert pianist. She says, “I would say there is a testimony to my name because somebody in my condition is not supposed to be here.”