[hope]

I don't think they know. My son developed staph infection that had to be surgically removed from the crook of his arm...With this there
was no break in the skin anywhere that we could determine...it was in the soft tissue near the bone. Thank God it was not in the bone. He already had to spend ten days in the hospital with it in the tissue alone.

Now nearly two months later my daughter developed it in the in her gums. We think it started in the gum area where she had to have a root canal that went bad. It spread to the cuticle on her forefinger from nail biting. Now I asked the doctor if this is infectious staph. He said they did not know, but they are seeing a lot of these cases.

Tom Servo, praying that you are on the mend.

[TomServo]

Thanks so much, Hope. The Doctors have practically pronounced me cured after almost 2 months. It's nice to be (almost) normal again. BTW - I was tellin' my Infectious Disease Control Doctor about some articles I had read about staph (on the rise, epedemic, etc) and he said that 30% of ER visits to my local hopspital were staph related.

The then said, (and I quote), "And everybody's worried about bird flu - HA!"..

[hellinahandcart]

How old is your daughter?

Get her to a good periodontist and have them do a culture. I know from painful experience that if these bacteria are below your gums, they ain't going away without a serious intervention, and while they're not usually flesh-eating bacteria, they can cause recurring resistant infections and bone loss.

I avoided going because of the cost involved (most insurance plans cover NO perio work at all). Well, because I put it off for too long, I've now had to shell out money for bone grafts on top of shelling out for the gum surgery. Don't be like me!