Jessica Quintana

February 2024 led to the scariest few months of my life. My eyes and skin turned yellow with jaundice and scans at the ER determined I needed a stent for a blocked bile duct tract. I’d been having horrible back pains since July 2023 and going to PT. These came and went but never tied them to health issues. Scans also showed I had gallstones. What was supposed to be a simple procedure turned out not to be. (Sepsis and Gallstones)

I waited overnight for the surgeon. He placed a stent to open the tract. Cancer and autoimmune disease were ruled out, which led to a mystery of why this all happened. If I had no pain by 8pm that evening I would go home that night.

Almost 8pm on the dot, I reeled over in pain. Severe pancreatitis. During the procedure, my pancreas was ‘compromised’. A crippling, debilitating, stabbing pain. I couldn’t move, blacked out, and stayed in the fetal position for a full day. When I came to, I was loopy, in pain, and more was wrong now. My white blood cell count was way off among handfuls of other things. Tests and observation on repeat while I was in ICU.

I have vivid recollection of when it took a turn for the worst. I couldn’t breathe and felt like my heart was beating so hard it would explode, all the medical equipment alarms going off, staff rushing all around while trying to stabilize me.

There was a “robot” in my room with doctors surveilling me 24/7. After a couple days they recommended testing me for sepsis. Thank God they did. I had sepsis, which was causing my kidneys and lungs to shut down. My heart was working triple time trying to regulate my body – septic shock. Immediately on lots of antibiotics to fight the infection that caused the sepsis.

My levels were still unstable and had infected fluid pockets in my body, around my lungs and by my pancreas. Multiple procedures to extract it from around my lungs, two more surgeries to insert a drain near my pancreas and out of my hip for the fluid to exit. A feeding tube, eating wasn’t an option.

Then I got cellulitis, a skin infection, on my upper thigh which swelled and spread. (Sepsis and Cellulitis) Burning pain. Contracting bands on my arms and legs, shots in my stomach every morning and evening to prevent blood clots. Put on a BiPap machine, similar to a ventilator, I couldn’t breathe on my own. I would wake up anxious and felt out of my mind.

I was in ICU for 10 days then moved to PCU. Every morning surgeons and infectious disease doctors gave updates and recommendations. One told me the gallstones were the cause of the back pain I had been having. Everyone didn’t always agree on my treatment or how to move forward and often contradicted what the doctors had said the day before.

I wasn’t doing good. I couldn’t do anything for myself and accomplishments were moving from bed to a chair or increasing laps walking around the hospital halls. I was scared, weak, foggy, and I wanted to go home but I was scared to leave because what if something else happened and I didn’t have access to doctors immediately?

Day 16 my original surgeon strolled in the room, said I should go home, contradicting other doctors that morning. I stayed at the hospital thanks to my other doctors’ recommendations. I was hospitalized for 20 days.

March I was home recovering with a PICC line dripping constant antibiotics, medications to manage pain, drain coming out of my hip, and moved slow. I saw a specialist and infectious disease doctor every week and was improving. We decided that I should have surgery to remove the gallstones, but we could wait until after my wedding at the end of May. That’s right. All of this was happening leading up to getting married.

April 10 I had a procedure to remove the original stent. I went home but hours later I had back spasms and couldn’t breathe. Back to the emergency room. Scans. Gallstones tried to pass so my doctor immediately put the stent back in and had emergency surgery to take out my gallbladder.

The infections fused my organs together. Surgeons had to pull them apart causing bleeding and it wouldn’t stop. An hour surgery turned to 4. Unfortunately, I got another infection, much less severe, more antibiotics. In the hospital another 5 days. I got the PICC line and drain out of my hip before I left which felt fantastic! Back home recovering again, back to square one. Hurting again from the gallbladder surgery, unhealthy, lost a ton of weight through all this and couldn’t gain any back, didn’t have an appetite, and mentally not so hot.

Fast forward again and I was improving, worked half days in May and got married on May 31, 2024.

October I started having severe symptoms that led to a diagnosis of ulcerative colitis, an autoimmune disease. It can run in families (not in my family), diagnosed by 30 (I’m older) or after prolonged periods on antibiotics killing the immune system. I now get infusions every other month, 3 hour sessions getting meds through an IV.

So what did I learn? I learned to be patient in the healing process because as much as I wanted it to happen overnight, that was unrealistic and I learned to accept that. I learned resilience in a way that was foreign to me before. I learned how to better advocate for myself especially in a medical setting because no one knows your body better than you do. I learned that taking care of mental health is just as important and physical health. I learned it’s okay to not be okay.

I am so THANKFUL for the people in my life who got me through this. My husband, my family, the medical staff, my friends, and most importantly I thank God for protecting me.