I recently was discharged from the hospital after 8 days in the ICU. I am a 31 yr old female, normally very active, athletically fit, and could previously do pretty much anything I put my mind too. I had initially went into the ER with severe abdominal pain on October 6,14. At that time I was rushed into emergency surgery after a ct/scan showed 3 cysts on my left ovary and one of them was leaking fluid into my uterine cavity.
During my laproscopic cystectomy, the Dr.'s also removed my appendix and realized I had severe stage 4 endometriosis. I spent 4 days in the hospital following and went home.
I slowly started to develop a slight fever about 5 days later, which was climbing more and more each day. I spoke with my Dr. over the phone, and she advised me to come in only if the fever was accompanied by pain, nausea, or vomiting. Within a few days it escalated to the a fever of 103.5°, the worst chills in my life, severe leg and foot cramping (charlie horses) followed by profuse sweating, speach impairment, disillusion, and blurred vision.
I was brought back into the ER on October 17, 2014 going into septic shock. I could not speak, walk, stand, or move on my own. My blood pressure was so low, they could not give me anything for the pain except tylenol. They ended up inserting a catheter I.V. into my neck, in order to pump Nor Epinephrine straight to my heart so I wouldn't die.
I remember several nurses telling me that night that, I was the sickest person in the ENTIRE hospital. (That was an eye opener of what was yet to come) The next eight days in the ICU, where the ABSOLUTE WORST days of my life! I can't remember how many times I woke up screaming for them to just let me die.
Apparently, I developed an infection as a complication from my first surgery, which led to an 11cm absess forming in my abdomen, which now had to be drained. They surgically implanted a drain tube from my belly, that emptied into a little plastic squeeze bottle that was saftey pinned to my hospital gown. I had no idea during this time, why or how sick I was, or that I was even diagnosed with Sepsis. All I was told, is that I had an infection and was very ill.
I was sent home with oral antibiotics for 10 days. 2 pills 2x's a day. Even though they were making me sick to my stomach each day, I finally took the last of them yesterday. I stopped taking all pain pills almost immediately after coming home because they told me, more than likely it was only adding to the irritation of the antibiotics making me feel sick.
Some days are worse than others, and it feels almost as if I had more energy in the first few days returning home, than I do now. Even though the antibiotics said to avoid direct sunlight, I have found the sunlight to be one of the best healers for me physically and mentally. I have gone out on 2 bike rides, which I over did it a little on both but it felt good to regain some strength back even if it only lasted a few hours. I feel the cognitive decline in my everday interactions with people and family, and its so very frustrating. My words just are there like they used to be, my spelling is also off now, and my arithmetic is not something I even want to engage in after all this. I hope these are not long term effects but only time will tell, as Im learning a whole new meaning of "PATIENCE!" I wouldn't wish this on my worse enemy but can honestly say, for me it was a blessing in disguise. It has forced me to completely turn my life around, change directions onto a better path, have a new appreciation for life, and ultimately it has forced me to stop smoking cigarettes after 15yrs, which to me is a huge achievement, I wouldn't have done... Had I not gone through this terrible time.
Just remember, THERE IS A LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL, it just takes very small baby steps and an extreme amount of patience to get there. If your still here and reading this, then obviously it was not your time to depart this earth and like me, we survived! Keep your head up, roll with the punches and it will get easier.... In time ; )
