Posted On: March 6, 2007, 9:41 pm CST

Posted By: Lorri

I too, got infected with MRSA after my hip replacement surgery in january of 06. I ended up getting the replacement removed in February, and an antibiotic spacer installed. In March, I received yet another spacer because the infection wasn't gone. In May, I received another hip replacement. My surgeon thought the infection was gone because an aspiration of my hip showed no infection. In August, I had to have the hip taken out once again because the infection was still present, and another spacer was installed. This time, I had a different surgeon and was at a different hospital. In October, another spacer was installed, and in December 06, another hip was installed. So far, it seems as though this one is staying. However, I have since lost my job (I was "disability separated"-a nice way of firing you when you're sick on Feb 28,2007), my place to live, and still can't walk on my own, therefore, can't get another job or go back to my old one. Now, without health insurance, I can't go to physical therapy either now!! I ended up getting on social security disability and applying for medicaid. I only get 800 per month, and now the social worker tells me I have to pay 265 dollars per month for medicaid coverage because I make too much off of social security!! I can't believe all this has happened to me just because of MRSA!! The surgeon I have had since August is wonderful, and the surgeon I had before then was wonderful, but the hospital where I contracted the MRSA from was horrible to me when I first went back to them a week after the first surgery complaining of increased pain and lots of drainage. They sent me back home and didn't even culture the drainage!! I can't help but wonder if maybe they had cultured the drainage, the MRSA could have been stopped earlier!! My whole life has been turned upside down by this. To make matters worse, before MRSA,unemployment, and no health insurance, I myself was a nurse!! That's the very job I can no longer perform!!! Now I can't even get around on my own, and have to barely scrape by on income per month that is 200 dollars less than I made in one week!!! I am STILL on antibiotics, and have no way yet of getting the prescriptions refilled until I get APPROVED for the medicaid!! This is disgusting!!! It all makes me very angry, and I can't do a darn thing about it, because I can't walk on my own yet, get another job and get back on my feet. I feel so darn helpless and strapped, it's unreal.