Ok, my mom went to the doctor a few days ago because her elbow swelled up and started hurting. It had a small blister on the tip. They told her it was a spider bite. They said it got infected. She got antibiotics and went home. Three days later, it still hurt, she was short of breath, still swollen, blister is bigger, and it had a red streak going down her arm. The doctor told her to go to the ER that it was serious. At this point he also tells her that some of the medication he gave her was for treating MRSA.

So we get to the hospital and they tell her that's what she has. It's a staph infection and she should be out in one to two days. I called her today to see how she was doing and they have made a new rule that only two people can be in the room at a time and they have to wear gloves to be in there. Now apparently she has strep infection? I thought this was only in your throat. The doctor said that this was worse than staph. I've looked on a few websites to see what this is, but they all bring up strep throat. I was wondering if anyone could tell me what this is and if it's serious. Or maybe if I misheard her and this is why I can't find anything.

Thank you.

Strep is the throat staph is an infection that leaves sores on the skin.

Here are pics of staph infections
(caution nasty looking)
Image Result (http://s2-us2.ixquick.com/do/show_picture.pl?l=english&cat=pics&c=pf&q=staph+infection&h=431&w=640&th=97&tw=145&fn=staph1.jpg&fs=54.2k&el=alltheweb_pics_1&tu=http:%2F%2Fimages3-us2.ixquick.com%2Fcgi-bin%2Fsf%3Ff%3Def4cf007f013ff8ce1ed13ba89a2c0b4.jp g%26anticache%3D45061&rl=NONE&u=http:%2F%2Fwww.lewrockwell.com%2Fklassen%2Fklass en111.html&rid=LILMORNPROPM&oiu=http:%2F%2Fwww.lewrockwell.com%2Fklassen%2Fsta ph1.jpg)

Staph comes from staphlococcus aureus.

Staphylococcus aureus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staphylococcus_aureus)

MRSA is Methicillin Resistant Staphlococus Aureus. Methicillin is a drug that, in the past, was very effective against staph infections.

Strep is Streptococcus.

Streptococcus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streptococcus)

It's another common bacterium. It can affect lots of places in the body. Rheumatic fever, for example, is a streptococcus infection that affects the heart valves.

I wish your mom good luck and hopefully she will get better soon.

Thanks so much you. They got the infection out and she's better now. I really appreciate the help.