Caitlin Forsyth

Survivor

My name is Caitlin Forsyth and I am 20 years old, living in Scotland. This is my story.

I gave birth to my beautiful son on 7th September, 2015, by emergency C-section. It was quite a traumatic time and for the weeks following it, I struggled greatly with recovery. Things did start to improve though and we were enjoying being new parents. On November 15th, 2015, I began to feel quite unwell, a sort of unwell that felt very much like the flu. My symptoms included having a high temperature, so much so that my body went into rigors, pain in all my joints and having chills. Anyone would have said just go to bed and sweat it out. I, however, spoke to my health visitor for advice, thinking it was mastitis from breastfeeding. She encouraged me to contact my doctor for a telephone appointment.

The next day, I went to the doctor for a standard check up. My temperature was nearly 40 degrees Celsius. I was advised to go to hospital to get examined. I really didn’t expect to be there any longer than the afternoon. How I was so wrong.

When I reached the hospital, various checks were carried out. My temperature continued to remain high and my blood pressure was dropping. Blood cultures were taken and I had a catheter put in. When my blood tests came back, my CRP levels (levels of infection in the blood) were very high. We were told that normal level is around 5. Mine was 245. At this point my temperature also peaked at 40.6. I was feeling rather breathless and was put on oxygen as my levels also had dipped. Little was said as to what was wrong with me. Later in the evening, I was taken for a CT scan, as the doctors thought a swab may have been left inside me during the C- section. The scan came back clear, other than there being a pocket of fluid around my pelvis. A breast ultrasound was done to rule out that it wasn’t an infection in my breast. I also had a chest X-ray done to check that it wasn’t coming from my lungs either. As the mystery continued, the only thing they could do was put me on a wide range of antibiotics to try combat the infection. (Sepsis and Pregnancy & Childbirth)

After 6 nights of being in hospital, the consultants spoke with me and confirmed that it was sepsis of an unknown source. This was for sure a shock to the system. I never really knew what sepsis was until that day. Reality really set in that if I never contacted my health visitor and went to the doctor’s, the poison may have spread to my vital organs and I may not have been here right now. Sepsis has left me feeling rather weak and also with severe paranoia of becoming seriously ill again. But, the reason I am sharing my story, is to spread awareness that sepsis can happen to anyone- old or young- and symptoms can be that of a common flu. It is always best to get checked out. I have always had good health but never did I imagine I could get sepsis. It nearly killed me but I am blessed to say that I survived it.

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