Charity Morales

August 12th 2010, I was diagnosed with stage 3c colon cancer at the age of 34. I went in for a hemi-colectomy on August 25th 2010. On the third night after surgery I was not well. That night around 1 am, I began feeling extremely cold. I called the nurse in. The nurse brought me a warm blanket and took my vitals.

People started to come in and out of the room in a panic. A doctor came in and said that my vital signs were showing something wrong and that they needed to take me back for emergency surgery immediately. (Sepsis and Cancer)

I called my husband, who was home (2 hours away) and off I went, rolling down the halls of the hospital. The nurses and doctors were actually running as they pushed my bed down the hall. They were getting everything ready and all I remember is my back pain was so bad that I asked them to please move me from my bed to the operating table after I was asleep because I couldn’t bear the thought of laying on that hard surface. Once again I fell into the rare case category of one of those “risks” my surgeon had told me about. I had gone into sepsis.

The staples that closed my incision had completely come apart and I was very sick. I woke up in the ICU on a ventilator, with both hands tied to the bed. There was a tube in my nose and I was attached to machines on either side of me. There was a PIC line on my right arm, tubes everywhere. (PIC line: peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) is a long, flexible, thin tube inserted in a vein to provide intravenous access to treatments.) I did not know I was in the ICU until a few days later. I was just so confused.

My family asked about removing the breathing tube, but the anesthesiologist said “No, give her 30 more minutes.” 30 minutes? WTF? I gave him both middle fingers with my hands tied to the bed. This experience was unbearable, but the nurses got a kick out of me flipping him off.

The doctors came in and told me I had a septic infection and they had to put in a temporary colostomy. I was devastated. My surgeon assured me she would reverse it in 6 weeks. She knew this was going to be difficult for me to hear. After 4 days in the ICU, and a 16-day hospital stay, I was released form the hospital on 2 more weeks of IV antibiotics.

Recovery was very difficult. My weakness, and fatigue were horrible. I slept most days, but I was glad to be home. I began chemo 6 weeks later and have been able to complete treatment as well as have my colostomy reversed. I do believe I have residual issues from both sepsis, and chemo, but it is not possible to determine which symptoms. I am 15 months NED (no evidence of disease) now, and believe that I have made a full recovery.