Beth Gilbert

Before I had sepsis, I thought it was very rare.

The night before I was diagnosed, I went to the pub with friends despite feeling as though I was coming down with the flu. I was so fatigued and lethargic but put this down to having had a busy week at work. I left early to try to get some rest, but I started having a niggling pain in my stomach that felt like burning as I tried to sleep, which I put down to eating a heavy meal not long before bed time.

At 3 a.m, I woke up absolutely freezing cold and shivering. The pain in my stomach was still there, but was now coming in waves and I felt as though I had the worst trapped wind ever. Getting back to sleep was now impossible due to the pain and the fact that I was shivering despite being in a warm bed on a mild night. I gritted my teeth and carried on taking paracetamol thinking it was probably the start of a bug.

Stupidly, I got up to go to work as normal, even though the pain was getting worse and I was shaking like a leaf. I sat at my desk and burst into tears because I felt so poorly, and then when I began vomiting, my manager took one look at me and sent me home. I drove myself, despite now feeling very dizzy. I went to my parents’ house and my mum was shocked at the sight of me. I collapsed onto the sofa and could not warm up despite wearing layers of clothing and blankets, and lying in front of the fire. I vaguely remember my mum calling the GP to get me an appointment but at this point, I was apparently very confused and talking nonsense to my mum, which I don’t remember. She tried to stand me up to get me into the car but I collapsed and had to be carried by my brother.

At the GP’s surgery, I had my temperature, pulse rate and respiration rate measured. I was struggling to stay awake but apparently my temperature had reached 40 degrees, my heart rate was 120 bpm and I was breathing way too fast. I was immediately sent to hospital where I was placed straight onto an emergency ward. Once my stats had been taken again, a team of doctors and nurses came running in, hooking me up to drips and attaching all these wires to my body which I didn’t understand as I was so out of it. Apparently my blood pressure had dropped dramatically and I was seriously ill. I vaguely remember someone telling my mum that I had blood poisoning and that I was very very ill. I was begging for blankets but my temperature was so high that I needed cold flannels on my body to try and bring it down.

After a week in hospital, I was finally allowed home to my family. Tests showed that the sepsis was caused by an infection in my abdomen, which now may have caused Crohn’s disease, but I survived. At 22 years old, I nearly died at the hands of this horrible disease, but I am still here.