I had an abscess, got a culture and was diagnosed with a bacterial infection. what exactly is tested in a culture? will anything severe come up?

Culture: All a culture means is they take the sample--pus, presumably in your case, and they put it onto a dish coated with material that is bascially food for bacteria. They incubate it at body temperature and see what grows. A variety of bacteria can grow, depending on what causes the infection--some are more serious than others. A culture does not test anything else. Ask your doctor for your results.

Abscess: An abscess is an infection, a collection of bacteria. The material from the infected area is cultured to determine what types of bacteria are present and what antibiotics will work best. Untreated infection can become life threatening.