Erin Sheats

Hello everyone, my name is Erin, and this is my story. I was 27 years old; it was October 14, 2016. I woke up and called out of work. I felt so ill. I had a fever, extremely lethargic, the thirstiest I’ve been in my entire life, and I literally slept all day. Next day, I did it again. Woke up, called my boss, and said I couldn’t make it in today. She told me that I was going to have to be seen by a doctor and get a note clearing me to be missing work. This freaked me out, I was terrified to lose my job so I said I would go and get the note.

It took every ounce of energy I had to drive myself to the E.R. Thankfully I made it there safely. Once I arrived, I rolled a wheelchair to sit down in, they took my temp and vitals. Things were abnormal, I was sick, and I thought I had the flu. They ordered the normal bloodwork panel, and once it returned, they noticed immediately that my labs were abnormal. Below is a copy of my labs over the next couple of days to follow.

Component Your Value 10/14/2016 Your Value 10/15/2016 Your Value 10/16/2016 Your Value 10/17/2016 Standard Range Flag
WBC 20.8 K/uL (H) 19.6 K/uL(H) 22.3 K/uL (H) 22.3 K/uL (H) 4.0 -11.0 K/u H
RBC 4.14 M/uL 3.96 M/uL 3.45 M/uL (L) 3.45 M/uL (L) 3.80 – 5.20 M/uL L
HGB 13.4 g/dL 12.6 g/dL 10.7 g/dL (L) 10.7 g/dL (L) 11.7 – 15.5 g/dL L
HCT 37.2 % 36.7 % 30.9 % (L) 30.9 % (L) 35.1 – 46.5%) L
MCV 90 fL 93 fL 90 fL 90 fL 80 – 95 fL
MCH 32 pg 32 pg 31 pg 31 pg 26-34 pg
MCHC 36 g/dL 34 g/dL 35g/dL 34g/dL 32 – 36 g/dL
RDW 13.5 % 14.0 % 14.5% 14.4% 10.0 – 16.0 %
Platelet 194 K/uL 185 K/uL 236 K/uL 343 K/uL 140 – 440 K/uL
MPV 11.0 fL (H) 11.6 fL(H) 10.3fL 10.1fL 6.0 – 10.8 fL H
Segmented Neutrophils (Auto) 87%(H) 82 % 77% 40 – 75% H
Lymphocytes (Auto) 7%(L) 12% (L) (Manual) 15% (L)
(Manual) 27 45% L
Monocytes (Auto) 6% 5%
(Manual) 6%
(Manual) 3 – 9%
Eosinophils (Auto) 0% 0 – 6 %
Basophils (Auto) 0% 0 – 2%
Absolute Neutrophils (Auto) 17.0 K/uL(H) 18.5 K/uL (H)
(Manual) 14.0 K/uL (H)
(Manual) 1.8 – 7.7 K/uL H
Absolute Lymphocytes (Auto) 1.3 K/uL 2.7 K/uL
(Manual) 3.1 K/uL
(Manual) 1.0 – 4.8 K/uL
Absolute Monocytes (Auto) 1.2 K/uL(H) 1.1 K/uL (H)
(Manual) 1.1 K/uL (H)
(Manual) 0.1 – 0.9 K/uL H
Absolute Eosinophils (Auto) 0.1 K/uL 0.0 – 0.5k/uL
Absolute Basophils (Auto) 0.0 K/uL 0.0 – 0.2 K/uL
Potassium 3.9 mmol/L 4.1 mmol/L 3.5 – 5.5 mmol/L
Sodium 135 mmol/L 138 mmol/L 133 – 145 mmol/L
Chloride 97 mmol/L (L) 102 mmol/L 98 – 110 mmol/L L
Glucose 142 mg/dL (H) 107 mg/dL(H) 65 – 99 mg/dL H
Calcium 9.3 mg/dL 8.6 mg/dL 8.4 – 10.5 mg/dL L
BUN 9 mg/dL 9 mg/dL 6 – 22 mg/dL
Creatinine 0.5 mg/dL 0.8 mg/dL 0.5 – 1.2 mg/dL
CO2 22 mmol/L 17 mmol/L(L) 20 – 32 mmol/L L
eGFR African American >60.0 >60.0 >60.0
eGFR Non-African American >60.0 >60.0 >60.0 L
Anion Gap 16.0 mmol/L 19.0 mmol/L mmol/L

They diagnosed me with sepsis secondary to pyelonephritis, which is a kidney infection. I didn’t even know I had this infection. I was in such agony. I felt like a human pin cushion literally. I felt as if there weren’t any more veins the nurses could go in to get blood because they had gone in all of them already. After day 4, I finally was beginning to return to somewhat normal blood work, enough to say that I was going to survive sepsis!!! At that moment, I thought, wait, I could have died from this??? They handed me a pamphlet that said exactly that, “You Survived Sepsis.” That made me think long and hard about a lot of things in my life.

I didn’t have a clue how close I could have come. I had a 2-year-old son at the time, so thank goodness my father felt well enough to take care of him while I was in the hospital. I am so thankful for my second chance, and I try to let everyone know about this disease and how quickly things can change in a moment’s notice. Two years later, on the very same week, I would have never imagined it then, but unfortunately, I would lose my father to sepsis. Same exact time frame, two years later, same hospital. I will write a tribute to his story. Thank you for letting me share mine.