Cheryl Byrum

On Dec 19, 2017, I was having a reversal surgery and my kidney taken out. Before all this I had my colon taken out and I just finished chemo also. (Sepsis and Surgery, Sepsis and Perforated Bowel, Sepsis and Impaired Immune System ) I was excited about this surgery because I was getting my pouch taken off.

Well I had both surgery done and it seems everything was good, but my stomach was getting bigger and not smaller. I wasn’t feeling right. It took the hospital 11 days to find out I had a leak from the reversal, I had black out and found out I was in a severe septic shock. My family told me they had to do CPR a couple of times on me. They rushed me for emergency surgery.

I do remember them putting tubes in my nose and rolling me into surgery and remembering them telling me to breathe. The next day I woke up with tubes in my mouth. I know I was in ICU there for week but ended up staying in the hospital for a month and then going to rehab to learn how to walk again, but I am alive. And this year I had the same reversal surgery at a different hospital without complications. I was told by the disease doctor at the time when all this happen he thought I wasn’t going to make it. I guess I prove them wrong. I just want to say we are all fighters no matter what the situation is.