Brianna Martin

It’s been a little over a year now. It was July 2016 when my life completely changed. 2016 was supposed to be a great year and it didn’t turn out that way. In April I gave birth to my second child, a little girl. Everything was going good except a nasty c section incision on my lower stomach. Life was perfect, until I started getting the worst pains of my life in my upper right stomach wrapping around to my back. Hating hospitals and pushing it off as one of my frequent kidney infections, I waited a week and I tried flushing my system with lots of water and cranberry juice (always works for me). But instead it got worse and worse until I could barely breathe. So me and my fiance took a trip to the emergency room.

Tests were run, ultrasounds done and lots of poking my stomach. My fiance had left because he had to get back to the kids and I said I would be ok. 5 minutes after he left the doctor came in and said my gallbladder was going to need removed, he had never seen stones so big and had no clue howI managed the pain so long. So I was rushed to St. Louis to get prepped.

After surgery everything was ok. I still had a stint in my bile duct that needed removed two weeks later but otherwise not bad. (Sepsis and Surgery) A few days into my recovery I started getting night sweats and going from burning up to freezing. Silly me thought I caught a really bad bug, I mean it felt like the flu just times 10. And there I was again not learning from my previous mistake refusing to go to the hospital. I was determined to wait it out. But again it got worse. Some days weren’t as bad but still bad enough. I couldn’t stand up without losing my balance. It was hard to talk and everything started seeming darker like someone dimmed the sun. Finally I agreed to go to the hospital. My mom took me this time and it came back I had a kidney infection. Relieved I took my antibiotics and went home even though it didn’t feel like that was only it.

I still felt bad and the day I went to get my stint removed, I was feeling worse than ever. I got my kids’ things together and waited for my mom and grandma to come get me to drop the baby off at her sitter and then my mom, grandma, and my 2-year-old were off to St Louis for my procedure. I slept the whole way there. I remember saying “I feel extremely hung over” to my grandma. We got there and everyone quickly noticed how I was unable to walk, so I ended up in a wheel chair. My daughter brought her favorite stuffed life-size Elsa doll with her on the trip and she saw I was off so she said, “here mommy hold Elsa. She makes me feel better,” and then tried handing it to me, but at that point I couldn’t move my arms to get it so she had to put it on my lap.

I couldn’t even smile to let her know mommy was going to be ok. I could only stare at her. I felt trapped in my own body unable to move or communicate. It didn’t feel real. We got to the room to sign in and a nurse took my vitals and sent me to the ER there. I had a temp and my vitals were low. So in the ER I fell asleep in the waiting room in my wheel chair… normally sleeping in a wheel chair would be impossible but not that day it was as comfortable as any bed. Then a nurse took me and wheeled me into the back but instead of going to a bed I was wheeled into a small office-like room and the nurse proceeded to ask me questions about how I felt. Her voice sounded shaky and with a more than serious look on her face. I knew something was wrong but I couldn’t do more than roll my eyes and drool on myself. So I was quickly put in a bed and was hooked up to all sorts of machines and IVs. I remember getting a surge of energy enough to scream “I’m cold! I’m so cold!” and as soon as I got blankets I kicked them off because at that point I was boiling.

I passed out. When I came to a little bit, I over heard the doctor that my heart rate was low, so low that if they can’t get it up and it keeps going down I was going to die. It didn’t faze me though to sick to care/ understand. then I woke up again later on and my dad and little brother was there with my mom. My grandma took my daughter home. I saw my mom, she was bawling her eyes out, and when she saw my eyes were open she ran over and started telling me, “you’ve got to take care of yourself better, or your going to kill yourself.” I fell asleep again and the rest of the day was blurry and confusing but I knew I had to fight, so I did. My babies need their mom.

I was admitted into the hospital and a few days later I was allowed to leave with antibiotics. They said it started in one of my heart valves but I had made a remarkable recovery in such little time. So I went home and scheduled a doctor’s appointment for the following week to get checked out again. When I went she said I was ok except now I have a heart murmur. Ever since that day I look at life in a different light. Life is fragile and no one is immune at any age ( I was 21) and I’ll admit it still scares the hell out of me. There hasn’t been a single day since I got out of the hospital that I haven’t had at least one terrible anxiety attack. I literally live in fear. But I’m lucky I made it out ok, without having anything else affected. I have a heart murmur but that’s not as bad as what it could’ve been, and I’m glad I learned from my own experience. I now know what to look out for so now I can help get it treated it if it where to ever occur again to me or anyone I know before it gets to the point where I was.