Christi Sailors

My name is Christi Sailors. On May 5th I was driving home from work, I had an hour-long commute. My abdomen started hurting. Then it started radiating around to my back. I thought to myself, this has to be a kidney stone. (Sepsis and Kidney Stones) Once I got home I went into the bathroom and laid on the floor for several hours. Eventually I made it off of the floor and went to bed. I took some medicine for the pain and was able to get some sleep that night.

The next day I was vomiting. In fact the only time I could get out of bed was to go throw up. I tried drinking lots of water in an effort to get the stone to pass but surprisingly enough I wasn’t in as much pain as the day before. I slept. A lot.

The next day, I still felt awful. I knew it was time to see a doctor so I got dressed and drove myself to a hospital. Once there a CT scan confirmed that I had a 4 mm kidney stone. I was given meds for pain and for my nausea, and told to follow up the next day if the kidney stone didn’t pass on its own.

I drove home in a stupor. I felt so terrible, but if the hospital sent me home then I must not be that sick. I got my meds, picked up my son and went home, where I immediately landed on the couch and stayed there the rest of the evening. My boyfriend came home and sat with me, took a shower, and decided he was going to go to bed. That was at 11 pm. He checked on me once more asking if I was ok, or if I needed anything. He tells me that I told him I was ok. I don’t remember that.

What I do remember was shaking. I got more blankets, but it only got worse. Violent shaking, shaking worse than I’ve seen someone with a seizure experience. I think at that point I realized I was in trouble, but then I must have lost consciousness because I remember NOTHING after that. Brian (boyfriend) woke up around 1 am because he thought he heard something….decided he should check on me and went looking. I wasn’t on the couch where he’d left me earlier. I wasn’t in the kitchen or any of the bathrooms. He then heard some horrid sound, which he later found out was me breathing, or trying to breathe. I was unresponsive, rapid breathing, and fever. He called 911.

I had some ridiculously low blood pressure, 60/40 or something like that, and a heart rate that, at its highest was 192 in the ambulance. They couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I was a healthy, strong 42-year-old woman who had no history of medical issues. My lungs were failing; they thought I was going to have a stroke or go into cardiac arrest and they didn’t know why. After hearing about my previous three days they started to put things together and informed my loved ones they had no idea if I was going to live. There’s a line, a point of no return and they knew I was there and they weren’t sure if they could get me back.

I was on a ventilator for three days. My kidneys had failed and I swelled from all the fluid that could not leave my body. They didn’t know if I’d wake up at all, wake up with brain damage, or wake up and be ok.

Nine days later I was allowed to come out of the sedated state they’d kept me in, and I was moved out of the ICU. I then spent another eight days in a regular room and thus began my recovery. I remember nothing of those days in ICU. I was then released to go home – I was a miracle. A case they often read about but don’t normally see come in to the hospital (a different hospital then my first visit) that sick.

Within three weeks, I was back in the hospital for residual infection. More IVs, more antibiotics, but this time when I left I FELT better!

It’s been almost three months and I’m doing really well considering all that I’d been through. My kidneys are only functioning at 50%, but working and I am so thankful.

I never heard of sepsis, or knew how sick I really was. I will forever be an advocate, spreading the word on this terrible illness and just how serious it should be taken. Now begins the adjustment, the post-sepsis syndrome, the worry that every little thing might be a reason to visit the ER again. (Sepsis and Post-Sepsis Syndrome) But I’m thankful to be alive and would not be here if not for the many people who took such great care of me!