Stacy Kesinger Stubbs

In early September of 2015, I began experiencing night sweats and disorientation. I would wake up soaked in sweat, with a sore and swollen throat. On the morning of September 7th, I woke up with a tongue so swollen that I could not speak. I felt so horrible I couldn’t take it anymore and we headed to the ER. The emergency room nurse took my vitals. I had a temp of 102.6, pulse of 54 and BP of 92/56. I was taken back to an isolation room and examined. Doctors drew blood gases and looked at my tongue, which had a white coating and what looked like canker sores covering its entirety. I was in so much pain and so disoriented that that I could barely keep my eyes open.

A doctor came in and said that we really looking at a case of sepsis, and that I would be admitted. I also had pneumonia. (Sepsis and Pneumonia) I don’t remember much of the following 5 days. I was on IV antibiotics and 3 different pain medications. I was given breathing treatments to clear my lungs and Lovenox shots in my stomach daily to prevent blood clots. I felt like I had been punched in the stomach and bruised horribly.

An infectious disease doctor took a swab of my tongue and throat and diagnosed me with Coxsackie B3 virus, a highly dangerous strain that left unchecked, can rapidly cause heart failure, brain damage, or death. I left the hospital on September 12th, still on antibiotics and pain meds, and still unable to speak because of my swollen tongue. For the next 2 weeks I laid in bed drifting in and out of sleep, subsisting on Ensure shakes. All in all, I went from 130 lbs upon admission to 113. It took about a month for the swelling in my tongue to completely subside, and almost a year later, the surface is still numb. I was left with extreme fatigue and barely able to function for 5 months following my diagnosis.

I am still completely unaware of how I contracted the virus, but very thankful that we caught it before it got any farther. It was the most painful and miserable experience of my life.