Emily's report has only reported 'normal flora only' once. All of her other reports have been positive for staph a in addition to normal flora. We therefore assumed the 1 time it came back 'normal' she still had the staph, but just didn't produce a sample that happened to contain any.
We don't routinely treat the staph (only when she's sick), but do not consider the staph to be normal flora either, since it is infection-causing. Normal flora is only considered 'normal' because it's something that is supposed to be there and isn't anything that would make you sick, I'd think?
I would assume, if you have cultures that don't grow normal flora, it would be for the same reason you don't always grow the nasty bugs but may be assumed to chronically be colonized with them even if an occasional report doesn't show them; you don't always cough enough of it up to grow out.
I agree with Melissa's post on causes for symptoms that are not necessarily related to bacterial infection, btw. Allergies (of various sorts) and inflammation/asthma can make you VERY sick but respond well to various non-abx treatments... going untreated due to those causes also sets up an environment perfect for harboring future infection, setting up a vicious cycle. And sputum cultures can be quite spotty in what they catch> you can be harboring stuff pretty deep in your lungs that you aren't coughing up; doctors being concerned about growing something they can't identify is a common reason for doing a bronch.
We don't routinely treat the staph (only when she's sick), but do not consider the staph to be normal flora either, since it is infection-causing. Normal flora is only considered 'normal' because it's something that is supposed to be there and isn't anything that would make you sick, I'd think?
I would assume, if you have cultures that don't grow normal flora, it would be for the same reason you don't always grow the nasty bugs but may be assumed to chronically be colonized with them even if an occasional report doesn't show them; you don't always cough enough of it up to grow out.
I agree with Melissa's post on causes for symptoms that are not necessarily related to bacterial infection, btw. Allergies (of various sorts) and inflammation/asthma can make you VERY sick but respond well to various non-abx treatments... going untreated due to those causes also sets up an environment perfect for harboring future infection, setting up a vicious cycle. And sputum cultures can be quite spotty in what they catch> you can be harboring stuff pretty deep in your lungs that you aren't coughing up; doctors being concerned about growing something they can't identify is a common reason for doing a bronch.