Judy Jeter

My name is Judy Jeter and I hope all this makes sense. It all started June 27, 2009, 4 days after my 25th wedding anniversary.

I was in my car on the way to get dinner for my family. While sitting waiting for the light to change, I was shot. This bullet traveled thru 2 wooden sheds, a small metal building a wooden fence, and my car door, in my left side, lodging in a muscle an inch and a half from my spine. This bullet came from a SKS semi automatic high-powered rifle. I knew I was hit, but did not have my cell phone with me.

I stopped a very kind woman and she called 911. By the time the police officer arrived, I had passed out. He shook me and asked what the problem was. I told him, “I believe I was shot.” As he looked in my car and saw not one drop of blood, he proceeded to ask if I was on drugs…of all things!! Anyhow, I never bled out. He asked where I was hit and I showed him. He backed up and called an ambulance.

At first I didn’t think that I was shot, it was only by God’s merciful grace that I did realize this happened to me. Before they took me to the ER, I gave the officer my wallet and asked him to go tell my husband what had happened, and to meet me at the hospital.

The ambulance took me to UAB Hospital trauma unit. From this point it’s all a blur. I know the doctors did several surgeries on my abdomen from internal bleeding. The bullet took out parts of my intestines and my ureter. I was in a medically induced coma for 2-3 weeks, with a trach and ventilator. Total hospital time: 2 months. Four weeks in the trauma ICU, 2 weeks in step down, and another 2 weeks in rehab. During the step-down phase, I was taken to interventional radiology to have a nephrostomy tube put in my left kidney to drain urine out, because of my ureter damage.

By August I was well enough to go home. I had nurses and physical therapy coming to my home for another month. I was using a wheelchair and walker the first month I was home. My husband was a Navy Corpsman for 20 years, so he knew the correct procedure to change my bandages and clean the tube in my back. With all the careful preparation, I still came down with an infection.

I will never forget the day the doctors told me I was in septic shock. Earlier I had started running a fever, I was extremely thirsty, and trying to make my way to the kitchen for some water. I made it to the kitchen but became very weak to the point I couldn’t stand up. I had to hold on to things just to get my balance. I gave out one room short of where my telephone was. I finally got to my phone called my sister who lived next door to me and told her to come over right away. I was very disoriented, couldn’t speak well. I seriously thought I was having a stroke.

My sister took me to the ER and my temp was 105. At one point my blood pressure was 72/24. In the ER they drew blood and next thing I knew I was in ICU. My hair started falling out during my GSW stay, but it didn’t get bad until I came down with sepsis. Then every bit of my hair came out. I was on IV antibiotics for 7 days. Total time in the hospital for this was 10 days. When I first came home from the GSW, I didn’t leave my house for anything. After a while I ventured out to eat with my family. One week later I was septic. This happened in October of 2009.

Since then I’ve had 2 surgeries. My last scare with sepsis was just this past June 2013. I was diagnosed with sepsis syndrome and MRSA and sinus infection. I’ve had a lot of sinus infections in my life, but not one like this.

Over the years I have noticed different changes with my body, namely short-term memory loss and very vivid nightmares of being in the hospital, which I could not figure out why, they took such great care of me. It wasn’t until I saw an article about post ICU syndrome and sepsis that all this wrong with me started making sense.

With everything I have read in the past month, well needless to say I am still in the overwhelmed stage. I looked forward to learn more about this and talking to others. I felt for such a long time that it was maybe the results of the GSW, but now I know all this are the results of sepsis. (Sepsis and Post-Sepsis Syndrome)

List of things that are different since sepsis:

• Memory loss
• Hair changes, more gray, less body
• Dry skin
• Depression and anxiety worse
• Random fevers, above 101
• More sinus infections, UTIs
• Extremely tired
• Brain fog, among other things.

I am so grateful for finding this website and what I have learned so far. Just taking one day at a time. God bless you all. ~Judy~