C Section Infection

okay, my stories are from St Louis:

#1 baby was born c-section in January. Mom immediately developed an infection....& it was staph. Mom has since been hospitalized twice, with the 2nd time ending in surgery to clean out the incision. Mom is still not healed, & is battling this daily.

#2 baby was born c-section in June. Mom went home as scheduled with a low-grade fever & ended up back in the hospital that night. Staph infection. Sent home 2 days later with antibiotics.
Back in hospital within the week, placed on hvy-duty antibiotics & began to slowly improve. 3 days later, the dr wanted to change meds & Gma had a fit. Refused to allow her daughter to be the guinea pig to "see if a different drug would also help".
Gma is an RN & took her fight to the Infectious Disease Control Team. The statement Gma made to the dr was "you have 15 minutes to get the Infectious Disease Control Team in here". They were there in 10 minutes.
It turns out....that this mom was not the only new mom with staph. At the time of the meeting, there were 4 other cases from that week....& possibly another 3. That's a total of 8 women in one week....with staph following c-sections. Wow!
Anyway, the mom continued on the drug that was working for her & went home 3 days later...with an IV port & the IDC Team hand-delivering the drug daily. She was sent home, because the Team felt the baby was "safer" at home. (How's that for crazy?) It's been one month now & mom is still not fully healed....& they are pursuing this aggressively, both legally & medically.

Now, here's the kicker: both of these moms that I know....used the same hospital in St Louis.

Sooo, my recommendation is to contact the Infectious Disease Control Team for your hospital. Do this to fully document your case. Discuss this with your dr & ask for as aggressive treatment as possible. Staph is not something to mess with! .......I wish you a speedy recovery! Peace.

This happened to me with my 2nd c section also. At first the incision was being kept open bc I had a blood vessel accidentally burst (or cut) so all the coagulated blood was coming out (I was completely black all over my abdomen). My dr taught my husband how to clean it out daily so that it would heal right and then pack it w gauze. I got an infection that took forever to go away (in the incision area) AND a month later I got an infection inside of me and had to go to the ER and then take very strong antibiotics. I had to be checked by the dr. very often. It took 3 months for my incision to heal. It completely sucked - the whole experience. If I had had this happen with my first baby I am not sure I would have had a 2nd. No one really understood what I was going though. It was painful and stressful. So, I FEEL for you. Hang in there. I hope yours heals up quicker than mine did - I am sure it will. Just be diligent about keeping it clean and try not to stress about it.

I am not a Doctor, but come from a family full of medical professionals. I am guessing that once you start on the antibiotics, the infection will subside, and eventually clear up. The healing time might be delayed a little, but probably would take the same amount of time. Especially if you follow doctor's advice to a T, and take it easy. No lifting, bending, or sleeping on side. It is important for the area to stay as dry as possible, and make sure that their is nothing around it that could irritate it( clothing wise).

If you had pockets of pus (abcesses) then you will need heavy duty wound cleaning, packing and antibiotic treatments. The pockets of infection will need to be packed 1-3 times daily with a very thin and long cloth tape that is antibacterial and then covered.

I hope for your family's sake - that is the worst of the infection and that it's not in your abdominal cavity also.

Cesareans carry A LOT of risks and A LOT of side effects other than simply the pain of healing. Good luck

Mine was like yours and was healed by about 4 weeks postpartum.

You need to be on antibiotic pills. A creme is not enough. Bad doctor.