Like every wrestling fan in the world, we franticly hunted for the download button on the latest episode of “The Art of Wrestling” with Colt Cabana in which his guest, CM Punk, was to “tell all” in this exclusive interview about him leaving the WWE, his treatment there and how he came to be so pissed off with wrestling.
We listened intently for 2 hours about his arguments with Triple H, his conversations with Vince McMahon, his absolute burial of The Ryback and somewhat The Undertaker too. However for your writer of this article, by FAR the most telling and most important part of this interview was the talk of CM Punk’s life threatening Staph virus and his claims that WWE doctors were simply incompetent. And here, is where your writer found the big hole in the CM Punk podcast.
Let’s assume for one second that everything CM Punk said was 100% the truth. Fine, I can live with that. However what I simply cannot accept is CM Punk’s claim that he had a giant lump on his back which WWE doctors diagnosed as a fatty deposit and as Punk says “They just gave me a ZPak and sent me out there”. He claims that it took until after he left WWE for another doctor to diagnose Punk with a massive Staph virus (Staphylococcus aureus) for which he had to have IV medication because WWE doctors misdiagnosed him, and that ZPaks were completely useless against Staph.
So here’s the problem.
Your writer of this piece suffers from a life-threatening illness called Cystic Fibrosis. I very rarely bring it up, unless it’s because we’re doing charity work for it. However I feel I must because it’s completely relevant. One of the most popular treatments for Cystic Fibrosis is a drug called Azithromycin. Also known in the US as a ZPak. A common side effect for suffers of CF is Staphylococcus Aureus (or Staph for short), primarily in the lungs or sputum (spit). Azithromycin is used to treat this and is highly effective and IN FACT a quick Google search or a simple link to a wikipedia article will tell you that.
Punk’s claim that WWE had no clue how to treat him is complete nonsense. They gave him a ZPak for Staph because that’s exactly what it’s for. If WWE doctors thought it was just a “fatty deposit” they would not have given it to him. What I’m saying is WWE doctors knew he had Staph AND were treating him accordingly. Exactly as they should.
Alright, I’m not a doctor but I have been taking Azithromycin all of my life (27 years) and I know exactly what it is and isn’t treated for. In fact it’s also used to treat Pneumonia, HIV in some cases and chlamydia. And no, I do not have chlamydia. The point I’m making is that this medication is used for a wide range of applications and WWE doctors were not “useless” at all.
However I’m not saying WWE doctors are completely innocent. If Punk had to go to a different doctor and have the Staph drained and be put on an IV drip, that means the Staph became resistant at some point to the medication. Azithromycin has an ingredient in it called Methicillin and Staph can develop to the point where it becomes Methicillin-resistant. Or to coin it it’s proper term Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus. People in the UK might more commonly know this as the hospital superbug MRSA. I’ve had it, it’s not nice.
And it’s just as simple as that. WWE doctors treated him absolutely as they should. He had Staph, they knew it and they gave him the appropriate treatment which is in fact, Zpaks.
But the infection further developed into MRSA and they missed it. That can happen sometimes and even the very best doctors in the world miss stuff. Not to mention the treatment in the US for both MRSA and my illness, Cystic Fibrosis is absolutely awful. The fact that WWE doctors missed it being MRSA is obviously a massive MASSIVE issue here, but the point of this article is to state that initially, the WWE doctors were in fact giving him the right treatment. It’s not to defend WWE or Punk.
CM Punk isn’t a liar, he just doesn’t have all the facts. And if he’s bending the truth about that, then you have to ask yourself what other parts of that story aren’t entirely true. What are your thoughts on the CM Punk interview? Have you heard it? Has it changed your opinion of WWE and/or CM Punk? Let me know in the comments section. I’d love to know your thoughts.
Further reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azithromycin – Azithromycin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staphylococcus – Staph
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methicillin-resistant_Staphylococcus_aureus – MRSA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cystic_fibrosis – Cystic Fibrosis
