Cara MacWilliam

Survivor

Nine years ago, I thought I had a really bad cold. I was in a lot of muscular pain, stiff sore neck, light sensitive, high temperature. I was like this for a few days, but kept getting worse. I eventually thought I should get checked out by my doctor. She immediately sent me to A&E thinking it was meningitis.

It took them some time at the hospital to work out what was wrong. I was immediately admitted though, and a few consultants and doctors came to see me. It got to the stage when my lips had started to turn blue. Then they got the results of sepsis, and got me on an IV and antibiotics. They contacted my family and told them I was really unwell and to come. However, not once were we told I had sepsis. I only found that out two months later.

It took them until much later in the day to work out where the infection was coming from, when they sent me for a chest x-ray. It was an atypical pneumonia (Sepsis and Pneumonia), which caused a lung abscess. I feel lucky that it was found and I was treated.

Sadly, ever since I have never been the same. I suffer from muscle weakness, nerve pain, very poor stamina, sleep issues, balance problems and terrible cognition. Overnight my life changed. I was 33 and had to give up work, although I tried to return to very few hours per week. It’s only recently that I heard of post-sepsis syndrome. (Sepsis and Post Sepsis Syndrome). I have been diagnosed with ME but now I do wonder if they’ve got it wrong? Nine years ago PSS wasn’t talked of.

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