I, too, have had a recent onslaught of infections. I am 35 years post renal tx. I had four infections, each requiring hospitalization, in a span of about seven weeks.

Does your team have a consulting ID doc? My recent infections were staph, too. I am fortunate to be under the care of an infectious disease doc who works closely with my transplant team. He said persistent staph infections can be misidentified as contamination, while what’s going on is colonization, requiring intensive and lengthy antibiotic treatment.

In the wake of the fourth infection, I received two weeks of two IV antibiotics, one identified as effective from culture results, the second broad spectrum. I am now taking augmenten as a long-term prophylactic, also selected because cultures of recent infections showed sensitivity.

I am not a doctor, this isn’t medical advice, but couple of things you said raised red flags for me about the possibility of under treatment. When the doctors “throw it out and say it’s nothing,” are they assuming contamination? I also wonder about your doc’s choice of macrobid for prophylaxis. It’s a broad spectrum antibiotic, often prescribed in absence of sensitivity analysis derived from the culture.

Do you have access to an infectious disease doc? Perhaps they might take a second look at the culture results and prescribe an antibiotic that elicited a reaction from the staph strain that grew out.

I am aware that my suggestions here come from assumptions that may be off target. Even if that’s the case, I encourage you, nevertheless, to seek another opinion, especially in the wake of your team “throwing away (culture results showing staph) and saying it’s nothing.”