Ingrown hair?...or staph infection?

I wanted to write about something that can happen to any of us..... and did happen through this house hold..... what I am talking about is  the staph virus (Staphylococcus aureus) ......Everyone carries this virus on their skin........ You can help prevent the spread of this virus by encouraging your children to wash their hands and keeping open wounds covered and clean also but this is not a definate guarantee you will not get a staph infection.....It is in the air... on surfaces....on the skin and also in your nose.......

The actual infection caused by staph I wanted to write about was one that has actually occured in our home......It is called Folliculitis and it shows up similar to an ingrown hair to start with..... Some people are prone to squeezing these like me even though I know I am not supposed to oops..... I got one of these on the back of my calf muscle.....it started like a small ingrown hair which I usually squeeze and out pops the hair inside and it heals up..... this one was different.... it did not pop and it started to hurt....I thought it would go away but after two days it became quiet large and very very painful.....then I noticed a red area around this so called ingrown hair hmmmm.

It will be okay I thought  to myself maybe if I can bust it it will all be better.... I have seven kids and do not have time to go to the doctor right now for me.......Isn't it amazing as we become parents that as soon as our kids get sick or sore we need to have it checked out with the doctor but for us it can wait.....that was my first mistake..... On about the fifth day there was  this red area on the back of my leg which was about 10cm by 15cm and in the middle was this painful aching red and purple coloured hard lump similar to a boil but it had no head...... I could not walk on that leg now without it causing so much pain that I cried....

My husband came home from work that night and took me to the hospital.....They admitted me and told me I had a staph infection in the hair folicle and now because I could not find the time to get to the doctor I had cellulitis as well (I am going to write another article on this soon..) I was put on a drip for four days while my infection cleared up......I was also isolated because I was highly infectious .....

When this infection is present in your home you must be very careful of towels etc.... and that it is covered at all times to stop infecting the whole house with this germ.....

Staph infections can spread very quickly through a houshold very easily....It can also affect your friends households....... It is so important that  you  keep an eye on this sort of thing on you and your children....if you find a redish spot on your child and they say it is sore get it checked.... if you do have this infection it can be treated easily in the first few days with anti bacterial creams and maybe oral anti biotics.... My doctor told me that alot of parents actually can miss these on their kids because they can even come up in their hair folicles as well.......

My advice to you is keep an eye on this sort of thing it is very very common and can happen so quickly in both children and adults.

And the moral of the story is go to the doctor yourself if you think something is not quite right with you either... hehe....

Have a good day
Cheers
Angie