Kari Kaalaas

Survivor

Tonight I am not feeling well. I have diarrhea. I have a fever. My head is aching and my hands are numb. This takes me back to August 2008. On the 1st of August 2008, I gave birth by C-section to a beautiful healthy boy. I had to have a C-section because I had had a very difficult pregnancy and I was exhausted, not sleeping, crying, and vomiting constantly. (Sepsis and Pregnancy & Childbirth)

Everything seemed to go just fine. Three days later I was home and happy. However, I had trouble breastfeeding and on the fourth day I developed a fever. I went into the hospital and they said I had an infection in my breast that would slowly go away if I got medications to stop milk from being produced. Once I started on those I got better very fast. It is now believed that these medications covered up the early symptoms of sepsis. For the next week I was supermom! On the 13th day my husband went out with his friends for the first time since the birth and I was home alone with our son for the first time.

Then came the headache….It got worse and worse. When my husband got home, I went straight to bed. A few hours later I started vomiting. I thought I had gotten the flu. I told my husband that there was no way I was going to pass on the flu to my child and told him to take him over to my mother-in-law first thing in the morning. And so he did.

Throughout the day I was laying on the couch, I couldn’t lift my head it hurt so bad. I couldn’t walk to the bathroom. I had to crawl and take breaks on the way… About 4 pm my husband came by to check on me. I was not in good shape and just as he was about to leave, I passed out. When I came to, he was on the phone with my doctor. The doctor wanted to send an ambulance, but I refused. I did not want the neighbours to see me like that. So instead my husband called my brother-in-law, an anaesthesist nurse, to help carry me down the stairs. On the way down to the car (we lived on the 2nd floor) I passed out three times.

At the doctor’s office, the doctor was busy with another patient. While waiting I had to use the bathroom. As I couldn’t stand without passing out, a nurse came with me. When she looked into the toilet and saw what came out of me was minty green I remember she opened the door yelled at another nurse: “GET THE DOCTOR NOW!”

Next thing I know, I was at the emergency room at the hospital and I remember being very confused…..I only had the flu I thought…..The doctor, who happened to be a friend of a friend of mine was in charge. They sent me up into a room where I had a nurse watching me all the time. After a while, I lost the ability to speak. Words came out, but they were total nonsense. I remember the doctor leaning over me saying: “Do you realise that we can’t understand you?” I nodded.

There were about nine doctors standing around my bed shaking their heads, looking at my purple feet, saying the words “kidneys are failing” and “sepsis” a lot. I had several tests and X-rays done, and was getting intravenous antibiotics.

After a few hours I remember suddenly feeling very clear. I remember telling the doctors: “I feel fine now. I think I’ll go home.” I remember seeing their horrified faces and one doctor saying: “shock.” They rushed me down to the ICU and on the way, I called my mother, a nurse. She knew I was in the hospital, but she didn’t know why. “They keep saying “septic shock”” I told her, and she started crying. I asked her what that meant. She said: “blood poisoning.” I remember thinking that sounded serious.

When I got to the ICU, my blood pressure was 76/29 and my CRP (C-reactive protein) was 360. I received blood transfusions and the next day I was operated on. They found a tiny bit of the placenta still left in my uterus.

Day by day I started getting better. After ficve days in the ICU under constant surveillance I was sent on the gynecology ward. And after two weeks, I got to go home.

To this day I suffer a bit from what I suppose is PTSD. (Sepsis and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) Whenever I become ill, my first reaction is an overwhelming fear of sepsis. I was so close to dying, the doctor that I knew told me later that if my husband hadn’t been home when I passed out, he probably would have found me dead in the evening.

After sepsis I find it harder to do sports as I am constantly out of breath. But other than that I am in good health.

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