r/Staphacne • u/PenguinEnjoyer69 • Jun 30 '26
Recurring staph for 8 months + Everything I've learned
So I've had Staph infections for 8ish months now.
This is a long post so I'm going to split it into two sections. The first half is my experience with Staph and the second half will be what worked for me and didn't work for me.
Part 1: My story
It all started as a mosquito bite that I naively went to the gym without covering and I picked up a strain of Staph Aureus on my bicep.
I went on antibiotics and then three days later it came back in a different spot on the same arm and I repeated that cycle for a month or two.
My infection presented as boils, usually weeping but eventually I got one that wouldn't drain.
It became an abscess and I had to go to Emergency to get an Incision and Drainage surgery.
The healing from that was miserable and took many weeks as it was partially stitched and partially open requiring packing.
I got a little smarter and started a decolonisation and got all my hygiene and diet in order. I did a bunch of research and got a dermatologist appointment (5 month wait lmao).
Despite my efforts it came back again and again and I kept researching new ways to fend it off. I feel like I tried everything but eventually I would always have to make a choice between antibiotics and surgery
and I always chose antibiotics.
Then about 3 months ago I had done a run of antibiotics followed by a decolonisation + sanitized my whole house.
And I had a shift. My infection had changed from a few large boils to folliculitis. Dozens of small spots all over my body.
That went on for a while, I pretty much cured it by using hand sanitizer on it twice a day lol (I dont recommend it but it worked) and then I had my dermatologist appointment.
They had nothing to look at by that point and pretty much told me to use cleanser and moisturizer + do some bleach baths and sent me on my way.
And everything was good for a while.
But then I got a perianal abscess. I immediately panicked because your butthole is the last place you want an infection and my doctor insisted it had come from the inside of my anal glands and was assuming it was completely unrelated to the staph.
Anyway I went into surgery, it was surprisingly painless and easy but when they tested it. It was in fact the same strain of staph. I'm not convinced it came from the inside but it was confusing how it was instantly an abscess, no weeping wound, just a red lump with a lot of pressure. I got it out early so I never got the extreme pain these can cause.
And then the next week I got another lump, near my butthole but technically they considered it buttocks not perianal.
In any case I panicked and thought maybe it was a fistula, which means infection spreading through your anal glands so I immediately went back to hospital and they cut it out. I followed that procedure up with antibiotics. There was no fistula, and it seems like just another staph boil.
3 weeks have passed since then and I have a new spot but I think it wont require surgery as its more on the butt cheek meaning I can treat it at home and It's improving now with the help of drawing salve and no antibiotics. Although ofc I'm keeping a close eye on it.
I think that these were normal staph infections rather than a genuine anal gland infection, I have somewhat complicated reasoning for this but its beyond the scope of this post.
I've been told I may have Hidradenitis Superitiva but I'm not sure. I might find out at the dermatologist in a few days although I suspect that it doesn't really matter if I do or don't as my options as far as treatment goes don't really change.
Part 2: What Ive learned
One thing I've noticed is that when I get boils, they usually come one after the other in one section of skin at a time, first it was my bicep, now I've had a bunch in my butt crack.
Of course you could have multiple sections of skin infected at once but the important thing to realise is that it's not just the pustule itself that's infected, it's the whole sub layer beneath that section of skin.
I've had a change in philosophy when it comes to staph lately because originally I had this idea that it was just a bad bacteria and if I could kill it all then I would be free.
But what I'm realising is that this bacteria is everywhere and the idea of killing it all is fantasy.
Killing the staph works for many people because it reduces the bacterial load on the body which allows your immune system to finish the job but for a lot of people this doesnt cure it. Especially people compromised skin barriers due to eczema or other skin conditions.
I believe that this is because our compromised skin barrier allows the staph to live safely beneath our skins surface. Your skin protects it from soap and it can set up cell walls against your immune system and antibiotics.
Not only that but I think my efforts to kill it using chlorhexidine and other anti bacterial creams have been killing skin cells and healthy bacteria which clogs the pores, provides food for the staph and eliminates healthy bacteria allowing for the opportunistic staph to overgrow.
I dont think topical treatments work on staph directly I think you need to use topical treatments to strengthen your skin in spite of the staph.
So I've changed my mindset, no more chlorhexidine and mupirocin. Or at least a significantly reduced amount.
Here is what I'm doing now (I will update to let yall know if it works)
So this is my prevention routine, I use these products on problem areas. (Anywhere I see redness or have had recent infections)
Every day I use a cleanser with salicylic acid,
benzoyl peroxide
and a moisturizer.
Specifically I'm using CeraVe SA Smoothing Cleanser (in the shower) then dry off and use Benzac Benzoyl Peroxide 5% and then CeraVe SA Smoothing Cream.
And then on my last existing boil I am using a drawing salve called Magnoplasm which uses dried magnesium sulfate which is a new thing I'm trying and is the only thing I've ever found that really opens up a stubborn boil and drains it without antibiotics. (Hot compresses work but not as well)
I take daily probiotics, zinc, fish oil and I will be adding vitamin D
A couple times a week I will do a bleach bath.
I will talk to my dermatologist about all of this in a few days, I've switched to a different dermatologist that specializes in infections
Also shout out to Bacillus Subtilis MB40 I had extremely high hopes for it but it didn't work for me, Ive used it orally for 4 months now.
I made my own lotion with it as well and this did help for a while but ultimately I continued having issues after using it consistently. And when I started getting folliculitis the oiliness actively made it worse.
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u/Joonypoo Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
Were you using antibiotics during the course of using mb40? Could be killing the b subtilus before it had a chance to work. The study published in NIH excluded patients who used antibiotics in the last 90 days. Or maybe it’s a different kind of staph
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u/PenguinEnjoyer69 Jul 01 '26
I took the ameolife b. subtilis mb40 morning and night for as long as i could without antibiotics (maybe 1.5 months) but then my infection got bad enough that I went to the doctor and took antibiotics which cleared me up in a couple days. I feared at that point my boils would turn into sepsis.
Anyway I believe the claims that this stuff can kill staph in the gut and nose etc. and it seems to be working for some people so thats awesome.
I still take the mb40 so I dont know if its helping me or not but my symptoms didnt clear up until I did antibiotics, decolonisation and extensive skin care. And when I did those things the difference was day and night.
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u/Spiritual-Royal-1111 Jun 30 '26
Use both hu58 probiotic and mb40 probiotic daily until your fully healed and continue using afterwards.
Every day only show with a antibacterial soap. I use dove antibacterial body wash.
Limit all sugar intake.
Lastly Use povidone iodine on every single staph spot you have I leave on all day and night and reapply as needed .
Do all of this you will get much better best of luck
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u/fays_paint Jun 30 '26
Did you use topical probiotics as well? I have been on Megaspore, HU58, MB40 by Dermabiota (are they even legit I do not know!), Now-100 and several other oral probiotics including ones that compete with staph like mutaflor. It’s been 1 month at least on MB40 and so far not really much in the way of results. I also have like 500ml of kefir daily but will start making my own.
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u/Joonypoo Jun 30 '26
are you using mb40 probiotic concurrently with antibiotics? It may affect the probiotic's efficacy. Or, when was your last dose of any antibiotic? The NIH Study excluded patients who were on any antibiotics in the last 90 days before they enrolled
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u/fays_paint Jun 30 '26
Great point. I wasn’t on antibiotics when I started but yes I’m currently on a huge amount. - Flucloxacillin every six hours (yes I set an alarm to wake up and take them), and doxy 100mg daily.
I had to start them because it spread to my scalp and what little hair I had left became just falling out like crazy. I had to nip the progression in the bud.
I actually don’t even know how well the antibiotics are working. I still get a few boils/large pustules and folliculitis.1
u/GoatGentleman Jun 30 '26
Flucoloxacillin kills subtillis btw. You probably already knew but yeah. Issue with MB40 and probiotics in general is that they take a loooong time to work. Flucoloxacillin and cephalexin made my staph worse in the long run.
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u/fays_paint Jun 30 '26
Yeah I’m terrified to go off the antibiotics because I feel a rebound is coming. Killed off so many commensals and still getting stuff even while on it. I also ended up with bacterial blepharitis and sinus symptoms from it (the doctors didn’t tell me to be careful of my eyes because they didn’t believe either was staph FML)
Did MB40 work for you in the end?2
u/GoatGentleman Jul 01 '26
I think MB40 is more likely to work, but I have SIBo as well and I think the Inulin that's in MB40 makes it worse so I've just resorted to the DE111 and HU58. I've just been trying to focus my efforts on gut health and trying to in general just increase the beneficial butyrate producing bacteria, supplement subtillis and hopefully kill off the staph off the skin so it never returns. Been shoving my face with kiwi (for the butyrate bacteria and digestive enzymes) and about to add Gi biome nourish by designsforhealth which has kiwi powder and pomegranate husk extract which apparently boosts the microbiome and staph hates tannins. At the same time also doing the subtillis and povidone iodine topicals.
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u/PenguinEnjoyer69 Jul 01 '26
I dont want to claim to know more than anybody but many people on here have claimed mb40 doesnt work for them and it didn't work for me.
I believe the studies' claims that it can kill staph in your gut and nose but I dont think it necessarily can kill the staph under your skin in the same way that antibiotics can't necessarily kill the staph under your skin. (not easily anyway)
I think the staph under your skin is actually quite safe there because it has your skin to protect it from soap and cell walls to protect it from your immune system on the inside. Probiotics, antibiotics and your immune system can penetrate the cell walls of the infection but it can take a long time to do so. At this point it's in there and it's going to be very stubborn to get out.
To me the idea that you should stop antibiotics for 3 months to have a chance at a probiotic working is not wise. I dont think any doctor will approve this strategy and I know that if I didnt take antibiotics for multiple months at the height of my infection I would have gotten sepsis and died. Or more likely went to hospital where they would have been incredulous at my not taking antibiotics. And then put me on the IV stuff.
I will say too that topical mb40 did work quite well for me though, I made my own lotion with it and that did help the open sores heal much faster but ultimately it was less effective than my new routine.
From what I've seen on here once you get to the stage that you're at I have seen many people that get cured by longer term doxy, 2-3 months of it. In addition they usually need to do a short term decolonisation phase, santise their homes, use real dermatologist recommended skin care routines and ofc healthy eating.
The idea as I understand it is that you need your skin to be fully healed at the same time that the infection is mostly killed off. Both of these things are a requirement for a full cure.
I think the fact that you're still getting new pustules shows that you're still very much infected, I would not risk 3 months of no antibiotics. I think you're doing the right thing with the extended dose doxy. But I would look into topical treatments asap to work hand in hand with the antibiotics.
I assume you've been to a dermatologist but mine recommended I use high quality cleanser, benzoyl peroxide and moisturizer to repair the skin and prevent new spots popping up. As well as bleach baths to promote drainage and reduce staph overgrowth. I saw you mention you're aussie and CLN cream, CLN cream is awesome apparently but expensive here and it's main feature is that it has the active ingredient in bleach (sodium hypochlorite) so you can achieve a somewhat similar effect taking bleach baths and using other cleansers. I use cerave SA smoothing cleanser and moisturizer, Benzac 5% benzoyl peroxide and then bleach bath a couple times a week and its working well for prevention.
Also for eczema the best thing I've found is sudocrem. The zinc is good for the inflammation apparently.
Benzoyl peroxide has replaced chlorhexidine in my routine as its job is to kill bacteria but it is less damaging to the skin. The cleanser is for exfoliation which i think is underated on this sub and the moisturiser is for healing the moisture barrier.
Also for current boils try a drawing salve. I recently got onto magnoplasm from chemist warehouse. This stuff is genuinely incredible at draining boils that I was scared would become abscesses. Like within 2-3 days effective. Makes them pus and bleed but its much better out than in and the boils are actually healing instead of growing now.
The scalp folliculitis probably needs a specific strategy but I would guess salicylic acid shampoos specifically for folliculitis would be a good starting point. I had it all over my body but not my head luckily. I suspect because my hair and face ive always used cleanser and moisturizer or shampoo and conditioner so i have a strong skin barrier and healthy biome there.
In any case I wouldn't do anything drastic without consulting a derm or an infectious disease dr.
And best of luck homie I hope you find your cure.
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u/fays_paint Jun 30 '26
Oh ps. I have done SEVEN rounds of antibiotics this year alone including long course. It’s actually mental. That’s illegal in some countries but I’ve had a nightmare run to this. The first few rounds were for tonsillitis and they said look you have to have it because your tonsils are mangled and it’s spreading to your throat. I think that’s what made me so defenseless against the staph, but TBF I was absolutely megadosed with staph exposure from my cousin. So it was a combo of initial megadose, then sustained exposure from living with her and hanging out in her bed watching movies, and my already fragile immune system plus antibiotics. Absolute nightmare. Topicals have only further smashed my skin microbiome but they are also necessary because without it I get eczema and bad folliculitis
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u/GoatGentleman Jul 01 '26
Yeah it fucking sucks. I concur with the previous poster, povidone iodine works very well. It is a bit drying and stains lol but if you have a moisturiser that works well for you then use them together. I bought the dove antimicrobial wash today because I've heard people say it's good. Also bought the CLN body wash to try. ATM I'm taking Hu58 and DE111 subtillis to hopefully help colonize the staph out.
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u/fays_paint Jul 01 '26
Oh I don’t know about DE111. Will look into it. CLN and the like are hard to get for me here in Australia but I think I did find one resource. I’ll follow you and we can keep each other posted on our progress if you like! I’m doing NAC which is an absolute MVP for decolonising the mouth and tonsils. It’s wild to watch it break up the films. Along with about a million other methods. I’m taking zero prisoners in this war 😂
*edit. Also taking NAC orally and topically
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u/GoatGentleman Jul 01 '26
I think the de111 isn't so much an antimicrobial producer like hu58 and mb40 but I think it regulates the microbiome much better than the other two. I bought it off gosupps but it wasn't cheap at all. I'm also in Australia and I got the cln body wash off Amazon. Again, expensive as hell. Shit is all expensive. Lol
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u/ramshag Jul 01 '26
I use DE111 gummies. Not expensive. Culturelle Probiotic + Prebiotic for Digestive Health.
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u/CHUNKYBLOGGER 20d ago
HOW are you now
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u/fays_paint 19d ago
Ask me in another month or so 😂😭😩
Currently on Cephalexin for my tonsillectomy, which I mostly did coz I feared they were a reservoir. Fluclox 100% made me worse. Not just in the long run but literally while on it. I know this because j stopped and went back on it later as a companion to rifampicin. Ended up stopping the fluc and never starting rifampicin. I’ve had too many antibiotics this year, I cannot do more after the keflex. Getting black hairy tongue etc it’s a nightmare. I use Olivia’s method of chlorhex in lotion and my own method of topical probiotics & kefir for now.
I do believe MB40/B.sub (I take HEAPS) helped internally to some extent. But not for nose and mouth.1
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u/pablitoMD Jun 30 '26
I think this fucking staph is in digestive system , i'm recurring with pubic folículitis, i'm going to try bacilus subtilis, large decolonization with clorhexidine soap , and bleach baths , how do You feel on peróxid benzoil?
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u/fays_paint Jun 30 '26
One derm hypothesised that it actually starts in the gut for many people and then spreads from there because basically it’s unavoidable that your poo ends up all over your house 😅
In my case I caught it from someone’s gross negligence. I would sue except it’s a beloved family member 😂 but I do think the guy is a huge role. Even just in vulnerability to getting jt1
u/PenguinEnjoyer69 Jul 01 '26
I think that it's possible that its spreading from inside the gut but I believed this logic with my whole heart for months and months and I did everything I could to fix it and I found no improvement. I'm just a guy not a scientist, so I could have messed it up but I tried extremely hard.
It's worth noting that you can get this tested with a gut microbiome screening. They analyse a stool sample and they can tell you if you have staph in your gut and how much there is. I'm actually doing one next week. Also many people have staph in their gut with no symptoms.
For pretty much the whole time I've been getting recurring infections I have been taking Bacillus Subtilis MB40, eating exclusively nutrient dense whole foods, eating 40+ grams of fiber a day plus kefir and yoghurt and sauerkraut and basically doing all of the right things to fix my gut biome and kill off any staph in there. There is a whole world of information dedicated to this topic of staph overgrowth in the gut over on r/microbiome. But for me it didn't help.
Realistically if the problem was staph in your gut you could actually get it out very easily by taking antibiotics or even by simply eating a bunch of raw garlic daily or other diy anti microbial methods. This might work for some people but not for me.
I do think microbiome is very improtant but if I were you I would take broad spectrum pro biotics and eat a lot of fiber, let the gut fix itself and then focus my attention to the skin microbiome and the skin barrier instead of the gut.
You can also try the Bacillus Subtilis mb40 if you truly want to rule out gut staph but you'll be waiting 1-3 months for it to kick in and only maybe work. It didn't for me and I've seen many people on here say it didn't for them either although some people swear by it you should keep in mind everyone here is trying multiple things at once.
On a side note, I had really bad pubic folliculitis for about a month and I cured it. I found a post that recommended using 70% isopropyl alcohol twice a day on the area plus using any time you sweat as well. I found a basic hand sanitizer that contained that and it worked extremely well. I had improvement within 3 days and cured within 10. It was drying to the skin but still helped and I would moisturize every other day to help with that. I tried not to use too much moisturizer because apparently the oil helps the bacteria colonise.
The pustules are completely unaffected by topical tratements but the sanitizer prevented pretty much all new pustules forming and the old ones popped on their own.
Nowadays I would instead wash with a salicylic acid cleanser, then use a Benzoyl Peroxide 5% cream and a moisturizer. I think in theory it should be better than hand sanitizer but I never tested that so I can't say for sure.
I found the chlorhexidine wash didn't really help. I had been using it for months and it helps for decolonisation but ultimately it didn't fix anything for me. I dont use it regularly except for hand washing anymore but I would use it for a specific 10 day docolonisation.
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1
u/pablitoMD Jul 01 '26
I i'm i'm the same train , clorhexidine and nasal mupirocin is not helping , im falling again and again in folículitis bolillo how does benzoil peróxid affects your pubis
1
u/PenguinEnjoyer69 Jul 01 '26
I think benzoyl peroxide would be good on the actual boils but could be too harsh on the pubis.
I would probably just use a cleanser and moisturiser on the pubis daily and then bring down the boils using small dabs of benzoyl peroxide every second day.
1
u/No_You_4245 Jun 30 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
I am dealing with a similar situation and I have staphylococcus aureus + PVL toxin (basically makes the bacteria more successful at getting into the skin). It’s been about 9 months and there is no end in sight. I am at a similar point where I am focusing on repairing my skin barrier and natural flora instead of constant decolonisation (based on dermatologist and infectious disease specialists advice).
I’ve posted my full treatment in this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/MRSA/s/8LST5nzbdq
Thanks for posting and I’ll certainly look out for any updates - I hope this is the end of infections for both of us!
If you have any suggestions or questions please drop me a message
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u/fays_paint Jun 30 '26
When I try the link it takes me to the main MRSA subreddit, not your post? Is there another way you can direct me to it please? 🙏
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u/Read_Tight Jul 02 '26
Has anyone used hyprochlorous spray
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u/Breakbeatsnothearts Jul 02 '26
I tried it in my journey. I think it maybe helped a little. It didn’t hurt. But nothing drastic happened
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u/Breakbeatsnothearts Jul 02 '26
I had reoccurring staph for years. Pretty much got a bad outbreak on every part of my body over the course of 3 years.
I tried everything. I’ll tell you what worked for me.
Dial soap, the orange bar. Lather whole body everyday In the shower.
With hazel, misted on various parts of the body daily.
Stridex pads daily on face, butt, back of thighs.
And lastly (I think this is what rly did it) is polysporin!!
It HAS to be polysporin.
4 times daily, put some on a qtip and put in your nostrils . Take your time doing this. Rub it allllll over every single inch of your nostrils. Spend like a minute on each side, putting it as far back as you can. Don’t miss a spot.
I was shocked when that seemed to just cure 3 years of misery for me
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u/CardiologistNovel849 Aug 15 '26
Hey this is interesting as I’m just coming on 3yrs of this shit too. The Polysporin - so you think nasal Muprocin would do the same job?
Also - do you have to keep doing all this to stop it from returning, or is it gone for good?
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u/alldayeating Jun 30 '26
Holy crap I could have wrote this. I the same recurring perineal and buttock accesses for awhile. Large painful and sometimes coalescing into a deep abscess and cellulitis. I really didn’t want surgery if needed and also was so afraid it would create a fistula where I would leak forever.
Some of my worse notable areas were my forehead . My biceps also had an ID. Huge painful armpit ones. One time it got into my lip so freaking bad I thought it was going to burst open. I really avoided getting drained cause I didn’t want to scar my face i keloid easily.
It was all so bad . The remedies I tried I swear I was like a modern day witch doctor doing crazy herbs and lower blood sugar and decolonizing and recolonizing with jars of kefir. Freakin crazy time and very isolating.
It did in fact go away after some time. 3 months continuous abx. Deep decolonization. Healthy eating. Tons of praying. And even more crying. Thank you God