Jessica Edwards
I am a paramedic and have been taught to know all the signs and symptoms of sepsis – yet that didn’t make me immune from becoming a victim of it myself. However, by being able to recognize what was happening and advocate for myself in the ER, I was able to survive a moderate case over 2 years ago.
My story began when I noticed that I had developed an abscess on the inside of my butt cheek. I went to my doctor (who is also a friend of mine and former boss) and was prescribed an antibiotic and was told to apply warm compresses to help with pain. He said that if it didn’t get any better in 3 days, to come back and they would perform an incision and drainage (I&D) procedure. Needless to say, I was back in his office a few days later for the incision surgery. It took about an hour and drained quite a bit from what I was told. Again, I was to continue to take the antibiotics and was also given pain medication. This was at about 1pm.
I took my antibiotic pill around 3pm and took half of the pain medication at 10pm (again, I’m a paramedic and had to go to work so I didn’t want to have any narcotics in my system while working the next night). At approximately 3am, I woke up in horrendous pain EVERYWHERE. My joints, all my muscles, even my hair hurt! I was sweating profusely, yet was freezing. I was hyperventilating and after having asthma for over 30 years, I knew it wasn’t from that and know how to control my own breathing. I had a headache, my vision was blurring and I felt completely dehydrated. I knew something was very wrong.
When I arrived at the ER, a nurse I knew triaged me and immediately alerted the doctor. Blood tests came back positive for sepsis and I was admitted to the hospital. About 6 rounds of clindamyacin via IV were given over the next 2 days and morphine given for pain when checking the abscess wound. It turns out that I had a special case of staph infection and the doctor told me that if I hadn’t recognized what had been happening, it could have been much worse.
She admonished me for driving myself to the hospital but discharged me, knowing I would be able to take care of myself on the outside knowing what to look for.
Long story short – even though I’m a medical professional, sepsis can happen to anyone. Know the symptoms and take care of your health. Advocate for yourself and don’t ever feel like “oh I don’t want to bother anyone – it’s probably just the flu.” Sepsis kills and believe me, I have taken plenty of patients in my ambulance to know the devastating effects. Stay safe everyone!
