I went over to my daughter, Jami’s, home this morning to meet with the man I was to buy my van from. The place was crowded even at seven A.M. and I’m sure everyone there had been awake all night on Meth. It is frightening to visit there with so many having CA MRSA. I look from one emaciated face to another and know they are all likely victims or will be soon. I didn’t launch the subject this morning. The crowd wasn’t right and I wasn’t at my sharpest so I just sat there and felt what it feels like to be terrified that the person next to you is going to sneeze over your coffee. I feel terrible for being afraid, but I’ve seen too much to not be afraid. I still hug my daughter and sit close with her, kiss her on the cheek, but that isn’t because I think there is any mother/daughter forcefield protecting me. It is just a risk I choose to take.

We do use precautions when draining one of their boils, gloves, masks, and I need to get protective goggles still for when I have to work close. I sterilize the skin around the boil and then lay clean towels around the site. Am I completely protected then? No. We do what has to be done, and when we didn’t have a car we couldn’t run to the doctor to get every boil lanced and drained although we would for very deep or large ones. I also go straight to the bathroom when I return home and strip and shower before being around anyone else.

But, back to sitting in a room full of CA MRSA. There is no way to do it knowing what CA MRSA is and not feel fear. I shook hands with everyone I was introduced to and discretely rubbed on some Purell after. I sat and talked with them all about their lives without touching on whether or not they had CA MRSA so they will know me when I do get around to talking to them.

I’m not sure what all I want to do with this blog or what others will do with it, but for now I hope to chronicle the people around me with CA MRSA, visiting those I can and phoning any others. Each person and each case of MRSA is totally individual. Hopefully, from all of our combined efforts, we can all be better educated about the disease and how to help those who have it and, eventually, kiss this ugly thing good bye.

See you here later!