What should you do??

I had a comment from a family in Florida that has just started their journey with MRSA with their 4yo. I pray it will be short for them! I've been thinking about doing a post re-capping what has worked best for us and what we use on a normal basis, so this comment has led me to do just that.

So..what would I do if I knew then what we know now? (just my opinion, from experience, not medical expertise!)

1) Wash hands frequently with regular soap - we use alcohol to spray down hard surfaces in the bathroom after showers.

2) Wash all towels and clothes after the first use (even dress up clothes) - it's a lot of laundry but MRSA multiplies very quickly. No sharing towels (we've even started using paper towels after washing our hands). Wash in hot water and dry on high heat for a long cycle. We dry on high for 90 minutes. I found in some research online that it takes about 30 minutes on high heat to kill the MRSA, so I make sure it's drying for about 30 minutes after the clothes are completely dry. I change sheets once a week. I have at times changed them everyday, but didn't see any difference, so went back to once a week for sanity's sake!

4) Keep wounds covered with band-aids or bandages that are sealed on all 4 sides so no pus can escape. We have found Band-Aid brand Ultra Care the best for smaller ones and use gauze and tape for larger ones.

3) We avoid antibiotics if at all possible. Sometimes just draining it is enough. We learned this the hard way. There were many times where the girls were off antibiotics for just a couple days before new spots appeared. Both girls now have candida (too much yeast overgrowth from a lack of good bacteria to keep it under control) from all the antibiotics and that can cause lot of other issues. There are times where antibiotics are necessary, but we are grateful they haven't been on them since February (May for me). We have had plenty of spots and a hand full of times that I thought one of us would end up on antibiotics, but we've been able to get them to go away without antibiotics. If you really need antibiotics, use Clindamyacin if your MRSA responds to it. The microbiologist I spoke to about MRSA said it's one of the very few antibiotics that enter human cells to get the infection there. I also take Milk Thistle with the antibiotics that helps it enter the cell better (from what my alternative doc tells me). If you can't use Clindamyacin (it is more expensive), take Bactrim or Septra with the milk thistle. It will help it get into the cell and work there.

4) Turmeric really helps with the inflammation and seems to help the pus dry up...one of the best results we've seen. Both my girls can swallow pills now (we taught our 4 yo out of necessity recently - have them look down when swallowing instead of up. The pills float so looking down makes them go to the back of the throat for when you swallow). If they have any spots I'll give them up to 6 pills twice a day. You may be able to find this as a liquid or add it to juice or chocolate milk or something if you can't swallow pills.

5) Hibiclens. As much as I don't like the fact that this is a type of antibacterial, we have found it keeps us from having to use oral antibiotics. For months last year we would do a whole body Hibiclens, but now we just do spots. We want to leave as much good bacteria on the skin as possible and it works just as well as a whole body Hibiclens rub down. We order this from www.drugstore.com and it comes with a pump top that makes it foamy and is much easier to apply. I would recommend showers instead of baths so you are not sitting in the bacteria, it can be washed off and down the drain in the shower.

6) Probiotics - This is basically good bacteria that lives in your gut. Especially important if you are taking antibiotics to help keep up the good bacteria since antibiotics kill both good and bad bacteria. Don't take it at the same time as your antibiotics though because the antibiotics will just kill it. We usually take them right before lunch time. We rotate between Natren and Udo brand and both girls take these everyday.

6) Manuka Honey Ointment. We have been using this on any small spots and it really seems to help. The ointment is only 40% manuka honey, so it's not as sticky as the 100% stuff. If you have a large open wound, go with the 100% manuka honey, but for small spots the 40% seems to work well. We use the ointment found at www.manukahoneyusa.com

7) Tea Tree Oil and Colloidal Silver - We use the Manuka honey more often but rotate and use these in between. Tea tree oil can burn, so the manuka honey is easier to use on the kids. Colloidal silver seems to really help, but it seems to need an open wound to get in there and do it's job.

I hope that's not too overwhelming and that I haven't left anything out. I think the best thing we've found so far is the combination of turmeric orally and manuka honey on the wound in addition to good hygiene.

I have learned over the course of this struggle that I can't fix it. It's hard not to be able to "fix" what's hurting your children. It took me at least a year to realize this, but I now know. I am committed to keep looking for new information and pray for direction from the Lord for healing and direction on what to do next. I have learned a lot and my girls have grown through this. I hope and pray that one day in the future, I will be able to share our victory with those suffering along with us!