Deborah Hughes

My Journey:
On August 14, 2015, I went to the ER because I was in excruciating pain on my left side. I was sent home with pain medicine and was to come back the next morning for an IV Infusion. The pain got progressively worse during the night so I went back to the ER and was admitted.

My vitals were not good at all and I was put on pain medicine (morphine) and had to wait for my vitals to get stable before having surgery. My diverticulitis had burst into my body. (Sepsis and Perforated Bowel) I went into septic shock once before surgery and again after surgery in the ICU. The surgeon told my husband this surgery was a life and death situation.

I need to also say that I have a lot of allergies to most antibiotics. The infectious disease doctors had to come up with a plan of antibiotics that I could take. Thankfully the surgeon and infectious disease doctors were able to save me. About 12 inches of my colon was taken out so I had to have a colostomy bag. I was in ICU for about 5 days. I was in a regular room for about 1 week. When I was released I was sent by ambulance to a rehab center to continue my IV antibiotics and to do rehab.

A few days before I was to be released from rehab, I started having hallucinations. So I was sent to a Trauma Center. The doctors did not know what was wrong with me. Maybe a blood clot to my brain so they did a MRI but did not find a blood clot. They concluded that the hallucinations were due to all the strong medications I was on. I was given a drug for hallucinations. After about 1 week I was normal again. I was released on September 16, 2015, to go home finally. I had to have home nurse care for the colostomy bag and also my surgical site. The nurse care lasted about 1 month. Six months later I had surgery again to reverse the colostomy. I am better now but still not 100%. I feel very thankful to be a Sepsis Survivor.