coltsfan715
New member
I will say my doc knew what was going on with the Red Mans thing, but the nurses did not. I ended up having my first dose of the Vanco in the middle of the night (like 1-2 am). I was dreaming that ants were biting my head and woke up because I had been scratching my head to oblivion ("trying to get the ants off" - or so I thought in my dream). When I woke up I just started crying because it was burning/stinging/itching so bad from me scratching. I called the nurse and she immediately unhooked the meds and called the doc. The burning lasted about 2 hours after that and only stopped when I went in the bathroom and turned the faucet on to ice cold and held my head under it. Once the doc came in I found out that the meds had been infusing for about 15 min when I woke up - so it would have taken 45 min more to infuse the whole dose. He lengthened the infusion time to 2 hrs and had me take benadryl like 30 minutes before each dose. My scalp was red (I think mainly from scratching) but nothing else was I guess I just reacted so quickly that the rest of my body didn't have the chance to react, who knows.
I have only been put on the Vanco a few times (2 maybe 3) but each dose I use benadryl normally (if I do I can infuse the meds over an hr) if I don't take benadryl I have to infuse the med over 2 hrs. I haven't had any serious problem since that first dose though. No cellulitis or anything either.
As for the MRSA. I culture it in my sputum - from my lungs. I have cultured it for probably about 6-7 yrs now. I had one culture in that time that did not show it, but by our hospital's standards you are not cleared of having MRSA until you have 3 clear cultures in a row. I have not had it in my blood thank goodness. A friend of mine had a port infection that cause a staph infection in her blood stream and it almost killed her. She was in the hospital every 2-3 weeks. She would get out and I swear within a week of being off IV meds completely she was sick again. They kept saying it was Pnuemonia or her lungs were just getting worse. They had her go through all the transplant testing and stuff and right after she completed that a doc that was on call when she was admitted asked if they had cultured her blood to see if the port had cause an infection or anything and they said no. Luckily he had them check and that was the problem. They removed the port and started a PICC and within a few weeks she no longer needed O2 24/7 like she had before and had pretty much a complete turn around.
I had an experience shortly after I graduated HS where I got Leukocytoclastic Vasculitis in reaction to Levaquin (at least that is their assumption - tests could not confirm an allergy). It is nasty is all I can say and painful. It lasts anywhere from 3-6 months and comes and goes throughout that period of time, causes joint pain and all. Well when I had it (the worst outbreak was on my legs and I had started to have an outbreak on my arms but it was very slight) it was obvious something was wrong but no one could figure out what it was or if they knew what it was no one at our hostpital had ever seen an actual case of it in person. It was hysterical cause I was having all these doctors and med students in and out of my room. They would peak in and say ... Ummm .. you are the patient with Vasculitis?? .. Can we see it? lol At first it was embarassing because it was so gross I was embarassed to show it to anyone as time went on I thought it was soo funny. I would tell my mom I am like the "Medical Mystery." We still have a good joke about it every now and then when people ask questions or make comments like well that is strange I haven't seen that or heard of that before. You are probably wondering why I brought that up .... the whole 15 doctors in your bros room staring at him wondering what was going on reminded me of that. I find it mildly entertaining when doctors are stumped, they always seem to know everything(or at least think they do) it is nice to just remind them on occasion that "HEY - there are still bizarre things out there that you don't know EVERYTHING about."
This is a great site. There is so much to learn from people on here and all of the different experiences.
Best of Luck
Lindsey
I have only been put on the Vanco a few times (2 maybe 3) but each dose I use benadryl normally (if I do I can infuse the meds over an hr) if I don't take benadryl I have to infuse the med over 2 hrs. I haven't had any serious problem since that first dose though. No cellulitis or anything either.
As for the MRSA. I culture it in my sputum - from my lungs. I have cultured it for probably about 6-7 yrs now. I had one culture in that time that did not show it, but by our hospital's standards you are not cleared of having MRSA until you have 3 clear cultures in a row. I have not had it in my blood thank goodness. A friend of mine had a port infection that cause a staph infection in her blood stream and it almost killed her. She was in the hospital every 2-3 weeks. She would get out and I swear within a week of being off IV meds completely she was sick again. They kept saying it was Pnuemonia or her lungs were just getting worse. They had her go through all the transplant testing and stuff and right after she completed that a doc that was on call when she was admitted asked if they had cultured her blood to see if the port had cause an infection or anything and they said no. Luckily he had them check and that was the problem. They removed the port and started a PICC and within a few weeks she no longer needed O2 24/7 like she had before and had pretty much a complete turn around.
I had an experience shortly after I graduated HS where I got Leukocytoclastic Vasculitis in reaction to Levaquin (at least that is their assumption - tests could not confirm an allergy). It is nasty is all I can say and painful. It lasts anywhere from 3-6 months and comes and goes throughout that period of time, causes joint pain and all. Well when I had it (the worst outbreak was on my legs and I had started to have an outbreak on my arms but it was very slight) it was obvious something was wrong but no one could figure out what it was or if they knew what it was no one at our hostpital had ever seen an actual case of it in person. It was hysterical cause I was having all these doctors and med students in and out of my room. They would peak in and say ... Ummm .. you are the patient with Vasculitis?? .. Can we see it? lol At first it was embarassing because it was so gross I was embarassed to show it to anyone as time went on I thought it was soo funny. I would tell my mom I am like the "Medical Mystery." We still have a good joke about it every now and then when people ask questions or make comments like well that is strange I haven't seen that or heard of that before. You are probably wondering why I brought that up .... the whole 15 doctors in your bros room staring at him wondering what was going on reminded me of that. I find it mildly entertaining when doctors are stumped, they always seem to know everything(or at least think they do) it is nice to just remind them on occasion that "HEY - there are still bizarre things out there that you don't know EVERYTHING about."
This is a great site. There is so much to learn from people on here and all of the different experiences.
Best of Luck
Lindsey