Hi. My name is Rhoda, I’m a 48 year old Japanese/Cherokee woman and I live in Omaha, Nebraska. I have three daughters, Jess, 23, Jeanette,24, and Jami, 30 who have given me five granddaughters and one new grandson. Jami was diagnosed with MRSA several months ago after an initial diagnosis of spider bites in August 2006. We believe she contracted the disease through needle sharing or at least from being part of the needle using drug community. Everyone she knows uses drugs and most of them have MRSA now. Most of them won’t admit they have MRSA but I know because they weren’t so afraid to talk about it when they thought it was spider bites and a lot of them got “bit”. I will go into the world of drug addiction in this blog because it is such a part of our MRSA story and I haven’t read about anyone yet in this position who is writing about it. I hope others will join in and share their thoughts and I hope to find those others who contracted CA MRSA through needle sharing as I suspect they will be the last to speak up and to get some of the worst care since their habits already make them social outcasts and most of them live in dire poverty. We can’t sweep them under the rug any more than those who innocently caught CA MRSA at a gymnasium or something more acceptable. They are humans and they live among us and send their children to school with ours and work at the places we go. They are maybe in the most dire need of help being in poor health already from their drug habits but get the least care and attention. This blog is about the whole kit and kaboodle. How it can bond and separate families, care that is helping and the duds we try, the beauty of hope and faith and the ugliness of the Super Bug. I pray that my last entry here will be a celebration of recovery for all.