Pamela Easley

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My Mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer May 11, 2017. As scared we were from the cancer diagnosis, the doctor was hopeful that they could do surgery and remove most of the cancer. She had the surgery on May 22nd. Her recovery from that point was horrible. (Sepsis and Surgery) She developed a pulmonary embolism and the bacterial infection C-Diff. (Sepsis and C. Difficile) She threw up constantly and couldn’t eat anything. After almost 2 weeks in the hospital, recovering, she was released into my and my sister’s care. We both took a week off from work to take care of mom. I took the second week. Mom was off and on ok. She vomited almost everyday and was weak. She kept telling me that she was so weak. She was one to succumb to her troubles, so we pushed her to be stronger.

After 2 weeks of constant care, I went home. That night my sister called and said that mom had a high fever- 104 and we should take her to the ER. When we got there the doctors thought she had pneumonia and a bad infection. (Sepsis and Pneumonia) They took vials of blood and cultures. She was admitted to the ICU and stayed for a few days. The did treat her for sepsis. They did scans and X-rays, after another week or so in the hospital, she was released. They said they really didn’t know what was wrong but she seemed to have an infection.She continued to vomit even though she was eating nothing. Her mouth was so dry she could hardly talk.

When she was released she was in a better state and could walk and get around a little. We had several doctor appointments to take her to including one to her oncologist to discuss chemo. We went to her appointments but she had to use a wheelchair because she would get weak and winded. The oncologist and his office practically made fun of her for using the wheelchair and expected her to be further along with her healing. Of course, my sister and I had never dealt with this so we thought the DR knew best. We pushed her more. We scheduled physical therapy, we instructed them to push her.

After a few days of this, mom was so weak. She couldn’t walk at all. She was winded, she was throwing up, couldn’t eat. It was so hard to watch her in this state. Finally, on a Sunday, we called an ambulance to take her to the ER again. She kept her room and apartment dark, so when we saw her under the lights of the hospital we knew something was wrong. She was pale, almost grey. Her BP was so low, barely 80 systolic, her heart rate was 130, slight fever and she was panicking. After another multitude of tests, it was determined she had pneumonia, UTI, anemia, low potassium, high heart rate and low BP. (Sepsis and Urinary Tract Infections) They said they would treat her for all of this, even sepsis, but they couldn’t determine exactly where the infection was coming from. They took more and more vials of blood. It was determined that she needed an IVC filter to prevent blood clots from moving to her heart, so they put that in. All the while, they couldn’t put their finger on what is was. She was vomiting so much but hadn’t eaten. The swelling was unreal, her fingers were so swollen they were bluish. They finally decided to try an NG tube, which pumped all the bile out of her stomach and rested her bowels. She was even moved from ICU to a room and then back to ICU 12 hours later because her BP was low. They said her BP was low because they gave her ativan for anxiety.

She finally went to a room and within 48 hours she was released to a rehab facility. This was on Friday, July 14. I have 4 children and my youngest, who is 6, hadn’t seen her grandmother in weeks. I took her to see her “Mae Mae” on Friday. Mom called me on Sunday extremely disoriented. Sunday my mom coded during a sponge bath. They intubated her and put her in ICU. That was the last time I talked to my Mother. She passed away on Tuesday July 18th. The ‘pressors’ she was on couldn’t keep her BP up. Her kidneys were failing and she had very little urine output. Tuesday evening the nurses and doctors said that she was on full life support and that there was nothing they could do. We signed a DNR and within an hour she was gone. It was the worst thing I have ever witnessed.

I WISH that the doctors and staff had actually explained that she had a severe illness such as sepsis. They only said they treated her for it, like it was not the real issue. I wish that I had GOOGLED Sepsis, like I did everything else. Granted her quality of life with cancer was not a good outlook but at least we may have had more time.

I miss her everyday. I wish I had listened to her when she said she was so weak. I had no idea. There needs to be more sepsis awareness.

Source: Cary Brantley (Pamela's daughter)

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