Staphylococcus aureus - A Staph Infection Directly in my Knee Joint

Bird Fans, I was hospitalized on Saturday, September 5, 2009 with a severe, life threatening Staph Infection (Staphylococcus aureus) directly localized in my left knee. Doctors drained a huge amount of thick, orange/pink pussy fluid out of my knee, put me on heavy pain killers and antibiotics. Soon later, they were operating on my knee, cleaning out all of the infection.

Just like with my DVT, I am a reasonably healthy triathlete, swimmer, cyclist, and runner. To get a life threatening infection, out of the blue, is weird.

I now know that the infection, while very serious, avoided many serious complications. The infection stayed outside of the knee joint, maintaining the integrity of my knee. It stayed out of my blood stream, and it was a relatively treatable strain of Staph.

Here's a pre-surgery picture of my knee. Notice how swollen the left knee is.

I don't know how I got the infection. Was it a bump that I hadn't noticed? A cut that allowed the bacteria to get in? Did I pick it up at the gym, the pool, or school? Who knows.

I didn't notice any problems in my knee until the middle of the day on Friday, September 4. I felt a slight pain on the knee, as if I had bumped it, although I couldn't remember bumping my knee. As the day went on, the knee felt more sore, and it began to swell. When I went to bed Friday night, it was difficult to walk. I tossed and turned until early Saturday morning, as the increasing pain made it difficult to sleep. When I finally stood up around 4am, the pain was incredible. I drove directly to the emergency room, where my treatment began.

Here's the knee after surgery. It took a pretty long incision to clean it out.

The surgeon told me that my knee had been infected for a long time. He says I am lucky to have caught and treated the infection when I did.

I am recovering well. I can comfortably walk short distances already, and hopefully the knee should be full strength within a few weeks. I have one month worth of oral and IV antibiotics.

Any other athletes out there with experience having Staph infections? Has anyone had one directly in a joint, like I did? If you're an athlete, triathlete, gym rat, swimmer, runner, cyclist, or active person who picked up a staph infection, let me know. Leave a comment below!