Marshall Jones’ MRSA Story

Marshall is going out of town for 2 weeks starting July 11th. He promises he is going to take care of himself, eat when he needs to eat, and put his health before other needs. I hope that he will do that, it is not in his nature to take care of himself above other things, as he has always felt pretty indestructable. I hope that through this last 9 months he has seen his mortality and knows that if he is going to live a long full life, that he must continue to take care of himself. He had better!

Marshall has been complaining of needing glasses for the last couple of years, but his eyesight has gone down a good bit more lately. I don’t know if it can be attributed to MRSA effects or not, but the time has come to get glasses. He finally went to the eye doctor and got a prescription. After looking all over town for glasses, and seeing the astronomical prices of them, he decided to try my method and buy them online for a huge savings.

I hope he loves them as much as I love mine!

Well, we made it to Tennessee and back. I was not so sure how Marshall was going to do, but he came through it pretty well, although on the way up, his feet were so swollen and painful that he spent a good bit of the trip in the back of the Surburban with his feet propped up the best he could. That is one LONG road trip!

While we were there, in Gatlinburg at the Z-Coil store, we discovered a product for neuropathy called the Jigglin’ George. The claims were that it brought life back to feet that were damaged by diabetes, as well as lowered blood sugar approximately 15 points after just one session. It purported to cure swelling in the feet, as well as bring back feeling by increasing the circulation to the feet. Marshall laid down and tried it out, and did see some immediate results. However, the machine itself was $300, and we were spending $200 already on a pair of Z-Coils (and in fact had already spent $200 on another pair of Z-Coils that we found in Nashville a few days earlier). So Marshall had decided against the Jigglin’ George.

Just before we were going to pay and leave the store, an older man came in, and was just gushing over what the Jigglin’ George had done for him just in the weekend that he had owned it. He had used it about 4 times a day for the 2 or three days since he had purchased it, and he was just overwhelmed with the progress his feet had made. He was telling Marshall and I about how his feet were swollen, his big toe had been burning, and his feet were super sensitive to pain–he had ALL of Marshall’s symptoms–and how much better they were now. Well, it was like God sent someone to make sure we did not leave without this machine, and so we did not. The Jigglin’ George has made more improvement in Marshall’s feet than any drug or doctor or type of exercise has done for him, by a long shot.

Dr. Daftarian finally talked us into going to the pain doctor, Dr. Stonecipher. We actually liked him a lot. He knew just what Marshall’s problems were with his feet, and prescribed Gabapentin (Neurontin) for his neuropathy.

One of our biggest questions to him was whether the neuropathy was caused by the diabetes or by the MRSA infection, and he told us that most likely it was caused from the MRSA, as diabetic neuropathy generally takes a good bit longer to appear. This is good, there is some hope for improvement!

He also told us about some shoes, called Z-Coils, that were designed for people with diabetic foot neuropathy. We looked them up on the internet, and boy are they interesting looking things! We are going to Tennessee just as soon as school lets out for the summer, and there is a Z-Coil store in Gatlinburg, where we will be spending our first weekend in Tennessee. We are anxious to see how they feel!

At Marshall’s appointment with Dr. Daftarian, he had his feet tested for neuropathy, as he has been having real problems with swelling, burning in his big toes, and general hypersensitivity. The tests were so painful for him–they hooked his feet all up with electrodes and shocked them all over, he was miserable! I am not sure what the tests are supposed to tell him, other than he does indeed have neuropathy! Duh!

Oh–he has gained 20 pounds! His pants fit him again–I think it must be the Lexapro. She put me on it at our last appointment (in February), as I was just about to flip out with all of the trauma in our family over the past 6 months. I put on 20 pounds in a matter of weeks, and have quit taking it now. I will just deal with the trauma.

MRSA is the acronym for Methicillin Resistant Staphlococcus Aureus, which is an antibiotic resistant form of the very common S. aureus bacteria. We have found there to be a huge lack of information on MRSA patients and their experiences and we also feel strongly that the medical community and the media are not divulging nearly enough information about this deadly bacteria and how important it is to protect yourself from it, and so we are here to tell our story in the hopes that it will help someone who might read it. This is also a story about diabetes, and some of the awful results, if kept unchecked.

My husband, Marshall Jones, was hospitalized on October 13, 2004 with an MRSA blood infection and was released 33 days later. Marshall’s infection began at the end of August, 2004, when after a haircut and a neck shave (at home), he got an ingrown hair on the back of his neck. I plucked the hair out with tweezers on about day 2, but the wound just kept growing. It was about the size of a quarter and was a very nasty looking wound when he went to the doctor, about 4 days later.

The doctor took a culture of it, drained it, and sent him home with Bactrim (an antibiotic used for skin infections) and a diagnosis of a spider bite. After about another week or so, he went back to the doctor because the wound was just not healing. Dr. Daftarian opened it up deeper this time because she said there were pockets of infection underneath where she had drained it the first time. She gave him instructions (for me-since obviously he would need help with a wound on the back of his neck!) on how to pack the wound so it would keep draining, and gave him Levaquin antibiotic. The wound finally healed after we nursed it daily for a week or two. It healed up beautifully, and other than a pretty good scar, we thought we were finished with it. Boy were we wrong!

My plan is to go back to my detailed notes from our experience and enter them into this blog as they happened. Therefore, the whole story will unfold as it really did in our lives. Once you have read this first entry, if you are interested in the rest of the story, you can use the archives tab above to go to the first entry (which is October 8, 2004), or use the category listings, and began reading the story from there. We also invite you to join us at MRSA Resources and find current MRSA information, along with many interactive features, and share with everyone the things you have discovered when fighting MRSA.

If you, or anyone you know, has this infection, it is our hope that you will find some information here that will help you through this horrible infection. I believe that God has urged me to tell our story, and it is one that without his help, would have had a much, much sadder ending. I urge you to arm yourself with information, pay close attention to what is happening around you, be strong, keep a positive support network around you always, and most importantly, pray OFTEN for strength and healing. Come to think of it, these are good rules for LIFE!

Sincerely,

Christina Jones

We are spending what seems like every waking hour at the ballpark. Our coach is supposedly great, and he likes to practice every day, until the sun sets. That is alot for a 7 yr old, I think, but I guess it will teach him some much needed discipline. Opening ceremonies are next Saturday, we will see what happens from there, I hope they kick butt and don’t have to practice so dang much.

Marshall is doing better than I expected with all of the nights at the ballpark. He hasn’t missed one practice. Sometimes we walk around, sometimes we sit…but he is enjoying it, I think.

He ran into Allen Fritsche one of the first nights, and they talked for 2 hours I think, just standing there. I was surprised Marshall was feeling that good! It was nice to see him “normal” though, he is a social butterfly by nature, and has been cooped up in the coccoon for months now!

I made it back to Texas safe and sound, and found my husband and kids no worse for the wear. Marshall said the kids were exceptionally good, and helpful. I knew they would be. I am still loving golf, that day turned his recovery around!!! Marshall saw Dr. D. just before I left, and she told him not to come back for 2 months! Hooray!

I managed to have a great time with my brother in TN, he and I haven’t spent any alone time together in years and years (probably since we despised each other as teenagers).

Dad was on the news in Tennessee just before I went up to see him. Patricia Neal was visiting the rehab center, and Dad got to be in the news clip. Kathy said he was SO excited. I contacted the TV station, and asked them if there was any way they could send me the video so I could see it, and they posted it on the internet for me to see for a few days. I felt so much better after seeing Dad on there–he looked so good, it took a huge load off of me to see for myself, even though it was only a TV clip. Thank you WATE 6 in Knoxville! I have always loved that station–and they still are my favorite, all the way!

So, Dad was much better than I expected him to be. Looked better anyway. In fact, he looks healthy as a horse, but his speech is really coming hard for him. I think that a strokes effect on the brain is amazing and terrible. I can tell that the words he wants to say are in his head, he just can’t get them out of his mouth. That is so frustrating to him, I just know it. I can almost see him reaching for them in his head…..But he looks good, and heathy!

Baseball starts next week. Back to the 2 months of living off of ballpark food. I wonder how Marshall is going to deal with all of that.

We have displeased the universe, I think. Marshall’s mother is now in the hospital with breathing problems (again). This was the morning after Marshall was comforting me, saying that we had gone through our 3 traumas (the “bad things come in 3’s” speech) and all would be ok now.

She is doing pretty well though. We went and saw her today, and other than a highly irritating roomie, she seems to be ok. They are going to give her an MRI and see if they can tell what is going on with her.

My father is doing pretty well, he is in the Patricia Neal Rehab Center in Knoxville, and Kathy seems to be very happy with where things are going. I will be up there in a few days to see for myself.

Ok, I am going to Tennessee during the first half of the kids spring break, and I am going alone. Marshall will stay here and watch the children for 4 days.

He is still doing unbelievably well, I attribute it to that one golf game. Maybe it made him feel normal again, and he remembered what that was like? Whatever it was, I am a happy golf widow!

His feet are still terribly sensitive, as well as his thighs. His BM’s are back to normal (the Milk of Magnesia did the trick–we should have listened to Poppy), he is feeling the “urge” again. Just about everything from the waist down has had some sort of problem, but they all seem to correct themselves with time. I hope his feet get better as well, they bother him a lot.