My brother was diagnosed with MRSA back in late November or early December. He had the kind that infected his skin, and he had abscesses on his arms, etc. He was given antibiotics, and the abscesses went away. I guess everyone thought that everyone was okay, and he went on with his life. About three weeks ago, he started having severe kidney pain. He doesn't have insurance, but he was able to get into the free health clinic pretty easily because he's HIV+. They tested him several times over three weeks and everything came up negative, but he had white blood cells in his urine. Two days ago, they sent him to the emergency room and after running MORE tests, they diagnosed him with CA-MRSA (community acquired methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus). Apparently his earlier bout with MRSA didn't go away, it just spread to his kidneys, and now his kidneys are filled with abscesses. So he will be spending a full week in the hospital, on a heavy round of antibiotics. There was also discussion about going into one of his kidneys with a syringe to remove the fluid from the largest of the abscesses. We'll see, though. The two main things that bother me most are his HIV, and the fact that he's had this for so long and no one knew. I hope he's going to be alright! It's times like this that make you kind of evaluate your relationships with people. My brother and I get along on the surface, but in all honesty, I have so much anger and hostility towards him. *sigh* I need to work on that one of these days. Anyway, I just thought I'd share that. I might go into more detail about my issues with my brother another time. We'll see. :smile: