Evelyn Kikta

After eight awful days in the hospital, three of them in ICU, they let me come home a week ago. It seems unbelievable that I was SO sick, so fast. I apologized to friends that had no idea about the whole thing, but everything happened SO fast.

The summary- I am a nurse practitioner and I was sitting at work on Thursday, the 21st, morning feeling like I MIGHT be coming down with something – just achy and temp 99.2. By 2pm, I felt REALLY achy, chills, and dizzy. I took my temperature to see it was 102.9.

That night, I had a steady sharp pain on the right side of my chest, along with the all-over excruciating body aches but I figured that I had the flu – no cough, no GI issues, no cold symptoms. I took some Aleve and laid on the couch feeling awful until I started feeling short of breath and I knew something was really wrong. So at 5 a.m. Friday, I called my work to say I wasn’t coming in and I drove myself to the ER, two miles away. (Delirious I guess, but I just wanted to go NOW and didn’t want to bother my hubby and kids. Seems really stupid, but blessed and thankful that I went when I did.)

My BP was 68/48. Pulse 130. Respirations 44. Apparently I had severe sepsis and pneumonia, and early stages of septic shock. The rest is a very painful blur. The docs say if I was 20 yrs older, I would have died. I just turned 50 and am overall very healthy. I did a 5k just 10 days before all this hit.

I am eternally thankful that the ER staff at FL Hospital North Pinellas recognized my symptoms and initiated their Sepsis Protocol immediately. So, now I am at home to rest, rest, rest (still no cough) and finish my antibiotics. Doctor visits and lab tests all this past week are great. Please add me to your prayers, my kids need their energetic mommy back! And I need to be able to eventually return to work.

(update from SA: Evelyn is back at work now. She says, she remembers hearing someone in the ER say, “Enact the Sepsis Protocol. Get the Sepsis Box” and 12 people swarmed her bed.)