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- Jesse Zimmerman: Hi, my name is Jesse Zimmerman. I'm a lab instructor at UW-Green Bay. I'm also a mom of two beautiful young girls and I'm married and I live in Northeast Wisconsin. I teach microbiology at the university now, but my passion for biology and microbiology started from my experiences in high school. 

I was very much a type “A” personality in high school. I had to get straight A's and if I even got an A-minus, it was very hard on me. I don't know. I think when you have that Type A personality, your room has to be perfect. Your grades have to be perfect. You want to have everything in order. And I was very driven to make sure that I got into the best school possible and to get the best grades possible. And just to make sure that, um, my path ahead of me was, um, was ready to go. 

Well, I was 15 years old when I saw the first boil. It appeared on my knee. It was a rather large. And at that time, I wasn't really sure what it was. But I wasn't particularly scared at the time or were alarmed. But when the doctor came in, she took one look at it and she started putting on what they now call PPE. And uh, when she puts on the extra gown and the extra pair of gloves and this large visor over her face, I was a little taken back. It was a little daunting for someone at around 15 years old to see someone put on this much gear for what I thought was just basically a large pimple or a boil. And, um, I thought maybe it was something a little more serious than I originally thought. And so she lances it and tells me she needs to take a culture of it. She had called in antibiotics for the first boil. But as time went on, one boil turned into 20 boils and it was within a week that my legs were covered. And at the time, we had no idea why, why is this spreading and why is it spreading so quickly? And what can I do? Because I'm taking my antibiotics and it seemed like it went away for a little bit, but then it came back with a vengeance. All of a sudden, it just exploded and it was, it was everywhere. 

Maybe a few days after I'd been on the antibiotics, I had a call back, and I was told that I had MRSA. But, of course, at the time, I had no idea what MRSA was. I had no idea even what an antibiotic-resistant infection was. What I didn't know then that I know now is that antibiotic-resistant means that the bacteria has changed in some way that we can no longer use the drugs we used to use to treat them. So we were going to have to try stronger drugs. And my treatment plan was going to include different drugs over the course of the upcoming months. 

And so, now I've been on antibiotics for, uh, I'd say probably about 10 days and they went away for a little bit, but then I got a resurgence and they spread through my legs yet again.  And then, it was gone for a little bit. And a couple of months later, I had a resurgence on my arms. And unfortunately, this ends up going on for most of my high school career. On and off, I had infections through my sophomore, junior, and senior year. 

I always was afraid somebody would find out and some people did find out. They were afraid they'd catch this terrible infection that I had. I felt like I was ostracized, that nobody wanted me near them. I remember one friend wanted to have me over for a sleepover and was very concerned that she would catch it. Certainly, um, that person and people who came to visit me in the hospital, absolutely, they treated me differently. And, um, and that was hard at the time. 

It was just kind of waiting, again, when's it going to come back? And you never knew when. And it could be when I had a cheerleading meet and I didn't have the ability to cover my legs. So, it was just kind of always lingering in waiting. When is it going to come again? 

So when I found out that I had another option for an antibiotic that would be stronger and could wipe this infection out once and for all, I was incredibly excited to try something else. We were prescribed Bactroban Nasal, which is a... It's a gel that's, uh, put in a syringe and you squeeze it up your nose. 

It was a sigh of relief no longer having to worry about the boils or people knowing. And it's, uh, was like a, a load off my shoulders.  It was three years of having infections and not just the pain, but just the emotional responsibility of, "Am I going to pass this on to somebody else?" 

What I went through in high school was tough, but I'm hoping that it can inspire someone to go into the field of microbiology. Maybe they'll find the next antibiotic and then someone doesn't have to go through what I went through. It's what inspired me to choose my field. And I love what I do.  
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