I have a question about staph infections. Please help me out. I need some answers before I go to bed! Thanks!?
Question:
How long (with me taking my meds) will I still be infected / contagious?
Should I sleep in the same bed with my husband (especially tonight now knowing what i have)? (NOTE: his ammune system is not very good)?
I have a 2 year old and a 3 month old, and am washing my hands every 10 minutes or so, is there anything else I can do to not spread it to them?
Also, can I kiss/hug/have sex with my husband and him not get it, if I bandage my wounds up?
Here's my leg:
http://s73.photobucket.com/albums/i208/r...
Answers:
The only way you can transmit staph to someone else is if they (with open skin) come in contact with seeping or otherwise open parts of your infection. Be sure to keep the areas with staph covered, and you are not a risk to other people. Washing your hands so much is not nessecary if you have not touched your leg where it is infected.
Once you are on antibotics, you should see it clearing up within 24 hours.
You can kiss, hug, have sex (use protection just so you feel better since your legs will be touching, and his penis is somewhere it could enter through).
Mostly, just keep it covered and clean the area once a day then wash your hands when you are done.
You should be fine sleeping in the same bed as long as he is wearing clothes and does not have any cuts or open skin- When you are all healed, wash you sheets, and y'all should be fine.
Refrain from close contact with anyone having an impaired immune system. Contact with people that have a normal IS is fine. Takes a few weeks to kill it off.
As long as someone doesn't come in contact with your open sores, they cannot contract the Staph infection. Don't let someone bath in same water as you, and don't let them use the same towel, etc. You can sleep in same bed as long as your sores are covered with a band-aid. I had staph infection in my hand once (due to cutting myself at the restaurant I worked at) and it hurt like h*ll! They had to drain it out! Awful! But being on an antibiotic for 24 hours, you should not be contagious anymore.
As long you are taking your antibiotics, and washing your hands frequently, you should be fine as well as the others around you. You could cover the boil up if it is weeping, that would be another precaution. And take the full course of the antibiotics so that the infection doesnt resurface.
The best option is to talk to you doctor with these concerns. You can get good info online about the meds and how they work. Just type in key words "staph infection" and you will get many useful sites. Although not a physician, I know it is important to take the meds exactly AS directed and take them all. Drug resistant infections are more prevelant due to misuse/over prescription of antibotics (particulary for virus's which antibotics do NOT work on), so make sure the antibotics you are getting are really these best kind to take for the staph infection you have.
Once your antibiotics have been inside for 48 hours you aren't nearly as contagious! Since his immune system is weak I'd refrain intimate relations with him. Wrap it up tonight after cleaning it and washing your hands. You will be fine - (to sleep with him just not being intimate)
Get some rest - and keep the area very clean and wash your hands as much as you can. Stick to the medicine and in no time you should be fine. I'd just hold off on "being intimate" until you have had a full 48 hours of medicine and he's not handling your open wounds.
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