Christopher Kirejczyk

I am a person without a spleen, so sepsis has always and continues to be my bete noir. I lost my spleen because I had a blood disorder 40 years ago (ITP was my diagnosis) and the last-ditch medical treatment back then was to remove the spleen, after months of ineffective treatment with steroids. Today this is no longer the recognized treatment; they now have medicine to treat the out-of-control immune system attacking the spleen.

My spleen was removed and my blood disorder was resolved, and the prognosis back then was that people, post-surgery, without a spleen, could basically live normal lives. Another reason that people have their spleens removed is a result of car accidents, where the spleen is damaged beyond repair. Unlike the other organs, the spleen cannot be replaced or donated or harvested to grow anew. I was a young man when I had my spleenectomy so I had no reservations or questions for my oncologist and surgeon at the time of the operation. But now that I am older, and living without a spleen, I am terrified and vigilant and anxious and perhaps a little paranoid about my health and status of my immune system. We all know that the spleen plays a critical role in immunity. (Sepsis and Impaired Immune System) So people without a spleen, and the other large group of patients who are also immunocompromised, are basically fighting a battle with their hands tied behind their backs.

We have to be more vigilant and aware and proactive. Reading these testimonials on this great website keeps me alert and helps to ring the alarm bells for a disease which is so deadly and under diagnosed. I was and have been for the longest time, a person who scoffs at medications and doctor’s visits for things like sniffles and sore throats. But my thinking has evolved and changed over the years as I have aged and my immune system has too. I now keep a dose of antibiotics at home and when I travel. My primary care physician knows my medical history and agrees to write my prescription for antibiotics even when i am not sick, but purely as a preventative move.

My closest brush with sepsis was a few years ago, and I was completely clueless. Thank goodness my wife is a nurse and was able to recognize the symptoms. I had an ailing and aging dog at that time. My dog bit me on my hand, something the dog never did, but he was not himself and basically going through sickness and close to death. (Sepsis and Animal Bites) My puncture wound was small, and I believed the old-wives tale that dog saliva is not only good but curative and healing. What nonsense that turned out to be! Anyway, a few days later I was in the shower and noticed that there was unusual coloring on the forearm side of where my dog bit me.

I “took care” of the dog bite with a band-aid. There was a long and red and pronounced line along my left forearm. And it was basically one of my veins, but is was swollen and red and bulging, but caused me no pain. I showed it to my wife, and said I was going to work. She looked at it and said that we were not going anywhere but the ER. Basically my blood was being infected and I believe that if I went to work that day and did not visit the ER things could have gotten much worse, quickly. I was given rounds of IV antibiotics and spent a few days in the hospital. One of the doctors told my wife that the infection had even entered my brain.

Now I will go to urgent care when I have a bad cough or a bad cut or if I am not feeling right or weak or sick. I have had Covid 3 times now, and I am a very careful and serious about hygiene and public spaces. Also, I have been vaccinated for Covid, multiple times with all of the boosters and all of the shots. My advice to people is to treat every symptom and every abnormal condition with alarm and deep concern. The worst that can happen is that they send you home from the ER or Urgent care with a clean bill of health, and then you can sleep the night calmly and with no worries or concerns.