I am a nurse. I developed an abscess on my spine. I had no symptoms for months while this grew. One day my arm started to burn and became numb. I thought it was due to a slip I took. So did the doctors. I was told to take muscle relaxers and go home. I took a nap. When my family came to wake me a few hours later I was unable to move from my shoulders down. I was rushed to surgery. I had a great one. He removed the abscess without breaking it. It was tested and they found MRSA. They say that I didn't get it from my job.

My 6-year-old son woke up one day and immediately started complaining that his sheets were making his leg hurt. I pulled up his pant leg, and he had a nickel size red mark with a white "pimple" in the middle. I immediately thought "spider bite". I checked with the doctor and he had me bring him and tested and it was MRSA. We have gone through two weeks of antibiotics and bleach baths and it has only gotten worse. We are now on our second round of antibiotics and waiting on a decision of whether surgical intervention is needed.

The first time I had MRSA it was on my back. I was in and out of emerge for a week before I was told what I had. I was given lots of misdiagnoses: ingrown hair, pimple, boil, spider bite, shingles. The pain was excruciating! I couldn't sleep. I couldn't sit. Eventually I was told I had MRSA, and the doctor put me on two antibiotics, lanced the area and I had to have it packed every day for over a month. Roughly six or seven months later I had the same sort of sore on my arm. I was in so much pain I couldn't hold my daughter, the air coming from a fan and hitting my arm had me in tears! I went to my family doctor and told him that I had MRSA before. He told me that MRSA does not re-appear and what I had was most likely shingles and sent me home. Two days later the sore had tripled in size, the pain was unbearable. My doctor has sent me to a specialist in a city a few hours from my home who is working to find out if I am a MARS carrier. I'm still waiting on results.

My 78-year-old mother first had MRSA about one year ago. She was caring for her 95-yr-old mother until she passed away, and became "run down" as caregivers often do. She had a bad outbreak of MRSA on her head, legs and vaginal area, which she self treated. A week or so later, she woke up with a very stiff neck, painful legs and arms and her hands were very stiff and weak. The glands in her neck were also swollen. She went to her physician who put her on antibiotics and steroids, which made her feel better immediately, but now that she has finished them, she is starting to feel bad again.

I am in the process of fighting to keep my foot and leg after 4 months of untreated MRSA. I had MRSA one other time and went immediately to my doctor when I noticed a sore not healing (I am diabetic). The location of the sore also spread to an area of my foot that was not injured. My big toe was losing big pieces of skin and the color was bad. I mentioned MRSA or at least a staph infection, but was ridiculed, "You are not a doctor. No antibiotics were prescribed.” She did, however, order a bone scan two weeks later when I returned as the infection was much worse. She gave me antibiotics at that time. A week later I was given an appointment with a podiatrist who comes twice a month and my doctor told me the podiatrist would discuss the results of the bone scan with me as she had gotten them back. Three days later, I went to the podiatrist who told me he had never gotten any results from the bone scan or any information. He then put me on more antibiotics. I switched to a new doctor, but he barely glanced at it and was much more concerned with the fact that I was an addict in recovery. I am disabled, diabetic and do not drive. I live in a rural area and I am afraid this will kill me.

I have been suffering from MRSA outbreaks for years and have been treated successfully each time by my Doctor until he retired. I now have a new doctor who does NOT believe me when I tell her I have an outbreak beginning. Each time I wind up at the ER to have abscesses drained, in horrible pain, overmedicated and with horrid scars resulting. Do not let your doctor dictate what you know is true-I am now looking for a Dr. that will listen and believe me, not ignore what I say.

I had a terrible experience with MRSA. It started with one infected bump that eventually grew huge and painful. Then progressed to different areas of my body (stomach, cheeks, inner thighs). All locations needed to be cut and drained. The wounds got very deep and large. I even had a surgeon send me home with a severed artery dealing with this.

I discovered a large red bump on my left buttock while bathing. It didn't itch nor was it sore. I thought it might be a shingle. Within the next couple days, I developed a small cluster of these bumps in the beginning crevice of my buttocks with one very large one that was very hard to the touch. I had a weird burning sensation there and then became very sore. By then I couldn't sit down and had to sit on my right hip. I went to urgent care. They took a culture and said it was MRSA.