visiting the vampire...

[thoreau]

This morning I headed to the doctor - I had a bothersome cyst giving me some trouble on my back and after my run in with drug resistant staph last spring - I didn't want to take any chances. The lovely little bump that had been on my back minding its own business burst forth on Sunday and didn't seem to be healing. So off to the doctor I went - - using it (of course) as an excuse to get my bloodwork done (HIV counts, cholesterol, etc.) - after drawing what seemed like a dozen or more vials of muffin blood; the Nurse Practitioner took a look at my back. He said that it seemed to be healing but he'd give me a script to help it along. So I'm off to Rite Aid to pick up a script.

We also had a chat about Neosporin. Ya know - the yellow tube we were taught as children to put on our sores? Turns out - neosporin eliminates many agents that normally help your skin resist harmful bacteria. With long-term use, there is a danger that your skin may build up an antibiotic resistance which could end up making you more susceptible to serious infection down the road. He recommended using sprayon Benadryl in future - and even that sparingly. He says - that particularly after fighting Staph - that HIV+ patients in particular - can cause more harm than good using neosporin on anything more than a tiny scrape. Strange how the body reacts to stuff. He said that it's possible that putting neosporin on the cyst when it "did it's thing" may have caused or opened the wound to infection. Bizarre. anyhow... all is good apparently - and I should back to a nice smooth skinned hairy back in a few days.

Comments

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

Neosporin was still prescription only until sometime in my 20s. I remember the doctor telling me how to use it after my cyst surgery.

[jimwnyc.livejournal.com]

The cyst I had removed turned out to be an affected (not infected) sweat gland. I have the tiniest of scars, but happy it is gone.

Happy healing!

[abqdan.livejournal.com]

Glad you are OK! I remember a lecture about this when I was nursing. And some interesting studies have shown immune system damage in children because of all the 'anti-bacterial' soaps and sprays concerned mothers have been convinced to use by all those 'nasty germ' ads. In fact, a child NEEDS to be exposed to minor bacterial agents in early life to develop a properly functioning immune response.

[surewood31.livejournal.com]

LOL.

I had a pimple on the back of my neck. It came to a head and when I was done squeezing it, I put some neosporin on it. It then became infected with staph (but not MRSA). My neck swelled up.