# False alarm! A not-so-funny April First **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 1, 2008, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-alarm-a-not-so-funny-april-first/443583 "2008-04-01T20:43:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2008, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-alarm-a-not-so-funny-april-first/443583/1 "2008-04-01T20:43:51Z")
OK, so I wake up this morning and find a black round mark on my stomach. Surrounded by a red ring. I Google skin cancer - yep it sure looks like the pictures on the web. Off to the doc. He looks at it and says: You have MRSA. MRSA for those of you (like me) who are uninitiated is > [@](#): > > An emerging form of so-called “flesh-eating bacteria” is caused by a strain that is resistant to standard first-line antibiotics. The same type of bacteria, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is causing record numbers of less-serious skin infections in children and also is emerging as a cause of pneumonia, which can be deadly. My doc calls my surgeon and they consult and now I must go and have it off a culture taken. And here is a prescription for antibiotics and an antibiotic topical cream. 20 dollars please. Off to the pharmacy. 60 dollars please. Off to the surgeon. Huh? No, that doesn’t look like MRSA. No, no there is nothing in it. It is probably a stray suture from one of your many operations. I’ll take it off and take a culture, there is no infection here. No, don’t use the antibiotic cream. The other antibiotic? Well, it shouldn’t hurt you, so I won’t tell you to stop taking it, but I wouldn’t have prescribed it. So, no cancer, no MRSA, my wallet is lighter by 80 bucks and I’m feeling like an April Fool. But I guess better safe than sorry, eh? ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2008, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-alarm-a-not-so-funny-april-first/443583/2 "2008-04-01T20:47:30Z")
Yeah it beats the alternative—having the disease for real. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2008, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-alarm-a-not-so-funny-april-first/443583/3 "2008-04-01T20:53:05Z")
It does, but still… sheesh. Glad to see that you’re OK. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2008, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-alarm-a-not-so-funny-april-first/443583/4 "2008-04-01T21:32:19Z")
MRSA is scary. Glad you’re okay! ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2008, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-alarm-a-not-so-funny-april-first/443583/5 "2008-04-01T21:54:52Z")
Something similar happened to my mother-in-law a couple of months ago. At the time, she was undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer, so they were keeping a close eye on her blood for any sign of illness or infection. Well, one fine day they say that the lab has found an infection in her blood. The word “septic” is used. It’s some form of staph, they say, and into the hospital she goes for close monitoring and IV antibiotics. Several days later, they get another report from the lab: sure enough, there’s staph in her blood sample, but it was a kind of staph that only exists on the skin. Translation: her blood sample was contaminated, probably by the nurse when it was drawn. All in all, I suppose that was the best possible outcome following the original diagnosis, but it’s not always easy to see it that way. ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2008, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-alarm-a-not-so-funny-april-first/443583/6 "2008-04-01T21:58:01Z")
Whew! What a relief that must have been. Too bad you’re out $80, though. ---
**Author:** ![picker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/picker/32/13969_2.png) [@picker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picker)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2008, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-alarm-a-not-so-funny-april-first/443583/7 "2008-04-01T22:21:59Z")
I wish I made eighty bucks everytime I played an April Fool’s joke… Glad to hear you’re okay, though