|
One day I woke up with an ingrown hair. I
thought nothing of it. After 3 days it got larger and it did not go away.
Unfortunately neither did the pain. So my loving boyfriend escorted me to
the emergency room where I was told that what I had was a very common
abscess or boil that would need to be lanced, and than I would be put on
antibiotics for a week. Great, a few days of discomfort and than back to
flying the friendly skies. Wrong!
Within one month I was back in the doctor’s
office with another abscess/boil and was told “you are just having bad
luck. This is very common in men and unfortunately you happened to have
gotten two of them.” Off to the surgeons office I went. Once again I was
lanced and out of work for a week. The surgeon put me back on antibiotics
and told me all will be OK once this heals. Wrong!
Exactly one month later it happened again. I,
of course, thought, “Hmmm bad
luck. It will go away just like the last time.” Wrong! This time I ended
up in Sibley Memorial Hospital and was told I would be spending a few days
there because my arm was so infected and swollen.
The infectious disease Doctor took a swab of
the infection, only to tell me that I definitely had a virulent
antibiotic-resistant form of Staphylococcus. We had no clue how I could have
picked this up. I was placed on intravenous drugs and told the drugs would
take care of the infection. Once again wrong!!!
For the fourth and final time, I was lanced
and drained and this time placed on the correct drug for this particular
Staph infection. Two weeks later gay.com and USA Today printed articles
about a new outbreak of Staphylococcus in gay men with headlines of “L.A.
Gays Fighting Staph Infections.”
I hope those of you reading this will
possibly recognize the symptoms and see that this is serious. If you do have
a bump in the skin that grows large within a few days please see a doctor
immediately. The USA Today article states: “The infection appears to be
spreading through skin to skin contact, including sex, and has proved to be
impervious to common antibiotics.” This is not found exclusively in the
HIV positive population. It may be passed on while dancing shirtless and
sweaty on the dance floor. Do not treat these bumps as nothing. Please see
your doctor immediately and don’t be embarrassed about it. This is your
body and you have to listen to it and respect it.
For more information see gay.com, L.A. gay
men suffer skin malady.
|
Back to Top of Page 
