Hayden Butler

Survivor

On April 1st of 2016 I had a Lap nissan done to rid me of acid reflux and repair a hiatal hernia. Throughout the next week I felt fine and thought I was getting better. However my girlfriend noticed something different. She said I felt warm and pale. I told her constantly I am fine and it’s nothing to worry about.

2 days later everything would change. On the 9th I would wake up and go to the bathroom like a normal human, but as soon as I finished something was very wrong. My abdomen felt as if I had drank gasoline and then swallowed a match. I felt the worst pain I have ever had in my life. It was just a severe burning stabbing pain. For the next half hour I would play stubborn and debate with my parents what we should do.

After taking my temp and checking my blood pressure, we made our way to the hospital. As soon as i stood back up that’s when it hit me. I couldn’t even stand on my own feet anymore. I was beyond dizzy and lightheaded and I could feel my body temp rising. The whole time my parents are helping me to the car I was struggling with a weird cough or a severe hiccup. My body was trying to throw up but it couldn’t due to the surgery I had a week prior. This would just cause way more pain in my abdomen.

After a 15-20 min drive to the hospital I was practically limp. I was just sitting in a wheelchair with a blanket on me not even moving and barely breathing. After what felt like an eternity I was finally taken back to get looked at. After a scan it was discovered I had an abscess in my abdominal cavity which would later be discovered to be riddled with bacteria. As soon as this was noticed the word sepsis finally came out of the doctors mouth. Before I knew it my room was filled with specialists because unknowingly to me, I was drawing close to septic shock quick. When we left the house my temp was 99, at the ER it spiked up to 104.5 and my heart rate shot to 150. The doctors wasted no time getting me the help I drastically needed.

Within half an hour tops I was hooked up to 2 IVs that were pumping antibiotics and I would go through 4 bags just in the ER. All the while this is happening I couldn’t even think nor had any strength to want to move. With every minute going by and seeing everyone frantically moving including my family and girlfriend, I was prepared to say my goodbyes.

After 1 week and having the drain in place a new problem arose. after a few CAT scans, it was showing that my intestines have slowed down and began to go into shock. I was becoming full of gas and bowels and my body was struggling to release it. The following day they gave me a shot which would quickly release everything in my intestine. Due to this I can now say I’ve been to the lowest point in my life where i had to lay in my own crap. They had to do this shot twice in order to wake my intestine back up fully and out of shock. I would spend 2 weeks in the hospital until was sent home with the drain and a PICC line in my right arm.

All together I would need 2 months until I would return back to work and about 5 months until I felt close to 100% again. Due to this experience of having to recover from a surgery and sepsis I would lose 30 lbs and drop all the way to 100 lbs. I would have to be helped with all my showers, run my IV at home through the PICC line and sleep in a recliner the first month after returning home due to everything hanging off my body. My family and girlfriend would have to help me with a lot, which didn’t make me feel good. To be only 20 years old and look and feel like an 80-year-old man is something I never imagined. This experience helped me learn a lot about my health and life. To this day I now take nothing for granted because I know I wouldn’t be here if anymore time was wasted on that day. I make the most of every second because the next one could be the last, and I’m beyond thankful to be alive to type this but I’m also thankful to have endured it because its only made me stronger mentally. If anyone ever notices a slight difference in their health or someone else does please give it some thought to get looked at.

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