Allyson Irvine

I took ill on the last day of February 2014. I went to work but as the day went on I just got worse, so I finished work. Luckily for me I lived above my shop which was a hair salon. To be honest from the moment I laid down, I do not remember much but I do remember the ambulance men being with me and getting me into the ambulance. Apparently I was being sick and it was not good. It was very dark and they were very concerned. They gave me a penicillin shot but I am allergic to penicillin, which my husband didn’t know about

Anyway I was rushed straight to IC and they were working on me but really didn’t know what was wrong and because all my organs broke down and just my heart doing all the work they gave me 10% to live. In the end they said I had meningococcal streptococcus infection. Mmy husband called my daughter to let her know what was happening and she let everyone know that I was really poorly.

The doctors was amazing and they did everything they could to keep me alive, The penicillin made my body double in size, but that was all, thankfully. I was in IC for 4 weeks and then put into high dependency unit for another 3, out of it mostly with the drugs. I went through a lot of test and eventually they moved me on to a ward but in a side room. This is when I started to see and come round to see my hands were black except my thumbs and my feet and ankles were black and rock hard. I had a panic attack I think as I went a bit mad, but I just didn’t understand what was wrong with me. My husband was there when the doctors came to explain to me what was wrong and they told me it was sepsis and they were trying to manage it through drugs, but eventually they had to tell me it was not improving and my only option was to have my legs amputated below my knees and for my fingers to be amputated where the sepsis was.

To be honest I was so out of it I didn’t take it in at all. They left me for a week for me to try and understand it, but I’m the end they amputated my fingers first and a week later my legs. (Sepsis and Amputations) I was gutted at first as I didn’t think I could live like this. I also had to give my business up so we lost our home too. My husband had to find a home for us, which he did and I had to learn to live with what had happened.

Now I am not saying it was easy – far from it. It was very hard to begin with coming to a new home, I had to learn to do things without fingers and legs and I did have some dark days, but I got there and now in my 3rd year of living a new life really, and it’s going ok. I can do a lot on my own. I drive now and I work as a volunteer for the mobility centre where I was taught to walk all over again, so I talk and go and see people who are or have amputation and not dealing with it very well. My life has changed but I am still here and very thankful for that especially when you know how life threatening that sepsis is and my heart goes out to all those families what have to deal with this terrible infection.
Sorry if this has been a long story but it’s my story of how you can survive this illness .