Cindy Williams

On May 16 2012 I woke up with a horrible pain in my stomach. I put my daughter on the bus and walked into my house. The pain was unbearable and my son called 911. My husband met me at the ER. My bloodwork was off and there was an unclear area on my CT scan but the doctor said I was fine. He sent me home and said I had colic.

I felt horrible the next couple of days. My husband came home and checked on me during his lunch break only to find I gone to the bathroom all over myself, was soaking wet with sweats from a high fever and I couldn’t answer him properly. He called 911. I don’t remember much and a lot of it is what my husband or kids have told me. I was in total renal failure when the ambulance got me to the ER. My BP and hear rate were dropping and I couldn’t stay awake. I was hallucinating and apparently within 24 hours of being admitted, I crashed and was rushed to the OR for exploratory abdominal surgery. The doctor told my husband if he did not operate right then and there I would definitely die but he couldn’t guarantee I would make it off the table.

I had a lap band that had eroded and wore a hole in my stomach. The band was removed and the hole repaired. (Sepsis and Surgery) I was sedated into the point of I do not remember a whole month of my life. I awoke to being on a vent. I was told I had many blood transfusions, I had been on 24-hour dialysis in the beginning and now received it 3x a week. I was in four-point restraints because of hallucinations where I thought the staff was trying to kill me and I would rip things out and try to leave. I had a 10-inch open incision with a wound vac because I had septic shock. I had drains and a feeding tube. I suffered full body thrush, red man syndrome to the point my whole body hurt. I spent 6 1/2 weeks in ICU and then a few days in step down and then I went to a medical floor.

I had had spinal surgery in Jan of 2012, messed up by laying flat in bed for all that time. The hospital did not do any PT until I was up on the medical floor. Walking and sitting was so painful. It’s been 5 years of hell. I don’t sleep, I have nightmares, I can’t hold a conversation, I can not remember things, I can’t have water hit my face without screaming, the muscles in my throat are messed up from being tubed for so long. I still cough and choke. I am exhausted all the time, I can not function. I forget to eat. I forget to pay bills and I forget appointments. Well I forget everything. I know have kidney cysts, bladder issues and an enlarged liver. (Sepsis and Post-Sepsis Syndrome) I hate beeping noises. I am not even a 1/4 of who I was before. Before septic shock, my back surgery had given me the ability to use my right leg now I can’t walk far, barely can drive. I can not go to stores, grocery shop. I also just had to have hernia surgery. The whole 10 inch scar had hernias. Two were so big that the surgeon sewed them shut. He said the rest looked like Swiss cheese. I now have 10 inches of mesh.

It’s been 8 weeks since my surgery but fluid has developed and is hardening. I probably will have to have it drained. This surgery has brought back a lot of bad memories and bad nightmares, worse, I remember things I wish I could forget. My family suffers from the effects of this also. My friends are just about all gone. The anxiety and depression are horrible. I feel like a total burden. I have trouble holding things,
Reading and retaining . I get the shakes, I can’t hold things, I stutter and forget words. My handwriting is horrible.

All I get from people including doctors is that it’s been 5 years. It’s time to move on and not be so sensitive. The doctor who did the surgery is the same doctor who saved my life. He said I was knocking on death’s door and people do not normally come back from where I was.
He said it will never leave me and I know he’s right.