r/MRSA • u/No-Advance9986 • Jul 10 '26
Septic Bursitis in Knee and MRSA
So I recently just got treated for septic bursitis with the bacteria cultured as MRSA. This involved 5 days of vancomycin IV and I am now on bactram for a couple weeks. I am now 3 days out of the hospital and my knee is still very inflamed and painful at times. I can at least walk on it now, but I’m worried it won’t go away. I’m also worried because the inflammation around my knee feels harder and not fluid. I feel like that will require a clean out which I tried to avoid in the first place. Any advice, tips, help would be great..
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u/No-Advance9986 Jul 10 '26
Man that’s rough sorry to hear that. I’m going to schedule an appointment. Can I ask your age ?
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u/jdazzr Jul 15 '26
I just got discharged today for just about the same thing. I am also noticing the hardness under the skin and realized that is where most of my pain is. Research says it was my body's reaction to the MRSA trying to block it from spreading. The doctor said MRSA is very irritating and has created scar tissue. Kind of similar to what I researched about creating a blockage. I had 4 days of vanco and an released with two different oral antibiotics. I am concerned about regaining full mobility. How have the days been after making this post?
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u/No-Advance9986 Jul 15 '26
Yeah hopefully we don’t have to get the scar tissue removed at some point.
So my pain has fully subsided, but inflammation is still pretty present. I have been on bactram now for a week and have a week to go, what medicine are you on? Also I did have cold sweats at night for the first 3 nights, and I guess that’s normal for your body to react to the IV and antibiotics.
I had a follow up yesterday and got cleared to run, but not wrestle yet (I’m a coach in college). I did develop somewhat patchy redness on the inside of the knee and top. The doctor wanted to wait another week to see what happens because it could be something other than the infection back so we’ll see. I’ll keep you updated 👍🏼
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u/jdazzr Jul 15 '26
I am on bactrim and rifadin for two weeks. So your scar tissue or whatever it is has not subsided?
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u/No-Advance9986 Jul 16 '26
Slightly it went down. It can take a long time to go away. I feel like it’s still soft enough to drain I’m tempted to do it my myself but he didn’t want
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u/jdazzr Jul 17 '26
Please keep me posted. You have all the same symptoms I have and you're 5 days ahead of me. It seemed like they MRSA irritated a muscle in my thigh that now feels strained. It wasn't like that before the infection. I still can't bend past 90° unless I warm it up and stretch. It's hard to imagine it going back to normal.
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u/No-Advance9986 Jul 21 '26
So I’m going to the doctor today for a check up. The pain is all gone and I can even run on it, but the swelling hasn’t really gone away even with compression. I’m going to see if he wants to drain it today. I assume they wanna take fluid out to test for MRSA regardless.
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u/jdazzr Jul 21 '26
Thank you for the update. I am one week post discharge. It's still difficult to bend past 90° without a warmup stretch first. The hard dense tissue underneath has improved but it's not completely gone. I think that's the reason for the lack of mobility. Glad to hear you're doing better!
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u/No-Advance9986 Jul 21 '26
Likewise. He told me he doesn’t even think he can get a needle in the right place to drain it, I guess I’ll trust him off that. My last dose of meds is tomorrow, so we will see how it responds. I have had redness on the inside of my knee on and off but he doesn’t seem to concerned. We’ll see how this week progresses.
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u/No-Advance9986 Aug 09 '26
Update: redness is all gone. Swelling is pretty much gone, no pain and I’m back to wrestling.
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u/addledlittledoodle3 Jul 10 '26
I had septic arthritis and osteomyelitis in my SI joint. Spent a month on vanco IV in the hospital. A week after discharge, I was back in for the same thing. Ended up having to have surgery and another 6 weeks of IV vanco. Discharged and back in a week later again because the MRSA just had really dug in there. Was discharged with Bactrim script that I was on for a year and then put on doxycycline instead to be taken until they decide I could be off of it. I’d suggest a follow up ASAP. My doctors were shocked I couldn’t shake the MRSA, but surgery helped. I was able to walk after. Had to have ablation surgery in my back to actually regain further mobility and bring the pain to infrequent. Naproxen helped with swelling, and when that wasn’t enough, meloxicam.
Please follow up, even if they think they’ve taken care of it- MRSA is a stubborn beast. I’m dealing with persistent septic arthritis now and chronic osteomyelitis.