by Carol West

Created on: August 10, 2009   Last Updated: August 11, 2009

MRSA is a fast spreading infection that can literally kill you if not treated. It may start out as small boils or knots on your body, feel like a spider or insect bite, turn red and become pus filled. It is immune to most antibiotics and is very hard to control once it has started to spread.

I can speak of this personally, as I had MRSA 10 years ago, starting out as small boils all over my body, then on my stomach. I didn't realize at the time I was dealing with an infection that could be fatal, and when the huge abscess was 5" wide, on my stomach, I decided to go have it checked out at my family doctor. He was not willing to lance it, but instead I ended up in the emergency room and was very sick for 11 days. My husband had touched me where one of the boils were, and he too soon had a boil develop in the same place mine was. My son recently had huge knots and sores on his neck and lymph nodes, and arms, and he also had to be hospitalized to have a large MRSA infection from the middle of his back to the middle of his stomach, barely missing his kidney. He too, had to have it surgically removed.Then several months later one of his friends actually died from the infection.

They say it can be contracted at hospitals, nursing homes, people with weak immune systems and older people. It also can be caused from an open sore and develop from a river or lake. It can be contagious if you are a MRSA carrier and touch someone who has an open sore, or you or eat meat contaminated by the animals getting too much antibiotics as they are raised. The amount of antibiotics used in animals has made a high strain of bacteria that so far has been useless to control with regular antibiotics. You are better off buying meats that are grain fed, or farm raised without hormones and bacteria.

All we know is that is is very dangerous and all we can do is try to avoid getting it by washing our hands and washing the meat before we cook it, and if you notice ANY lumps on your neck, underarms, hands, or other parts of your body, please get them checked out as soon as possible. It could just save your life.

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