Kerstin Gigi Ott-Alarcon
It was a normal Sunday of March 27, 2011. I was spending some quality time with my husband and stepson when my tummy started to hurt a little. I kept on laying down and didn’t have much of an appetite. I kind of just felt like sleeping although we had committed to a dinner invitation to a fancy restaurant with some good friends that evening, so around 6pm I got myself ready and we headed over to meet up with them, although I felt kind of queasy. The only other thing I had noticed was an itching, burning rash on my chest.
While we were waiting for our table I started to feel very weak and increasingly sick to my stomach. At the time everybody started to order from the menu. I had to excuse myself and go outside to get away from all the food aroma filling the air.
By now I had major stomach pain and started to vomit out in the parking lot while I was sweating profusely. I was in such agony from one hour to the next and I started to fade quickly. I stayed and waited in the car while everybody finished their dinner. Now a strange double vision had also set in and I’d begun to feel delirious. Once at home I barely made it up the staircase to the bedroom. I just couldn’t control any part of my body. Later on I got to know that I just had enough blood circulating through my body to reach to my head.
Through the night I kept on moaning loud from the pain in my stomach and quickly started to deteriorate further. My skin was clammy and I was soaked in sweat and felt so hot while my skin was ice cold to the touch. Every 30 to 45 minutes I crawled to the toilet to vomit until I was just dry heaving. Finally around 6am Monday morning I cried out for an ambulance because I knew I couldn’t walk or stand upright. I had never felt so sick in my whole life. However, my husband insisted on helping me out so he dressed me in fresh PJs and carried me down to his car. He was determined to take me to the ER. In after thought we should have called the paramedic’s to get things going immediately.
We drove straight to the emergency room at the Hilo hospital. I was put into a wheel chair and rolled straight into a special observation room. My blood pressure wouldn’t even register until after about 10 to 15 minutes when the nurse on duty finally, after countless trying, was able to find it. It was 55 over 30. (I should basically have been gone already). After that, it all came to a blur. Later on I was told that I had caused quite a commotion… Doctors and countless of nurses around me sticking needles in to my ice-cold collapsing veins. Four IV bags for severe dehydration, two on each side and three antibiotic bags attached immediately, because my white blood count was in the 2200 range. Now it was just a matter of figuring out what kind of infection had gotten to me causing this toxic blood poisoning through out my whole body (called sepsis/septicemia/septic shock).
The doctor told me that I was suffering renal (kidney) failure from dehydration and they suspected bilateral pneumonia. (Sepsis and Pneumonia) Meanwhile they rolled me in and out of CT scans between one blood test after the other. I was needle stuck from head to toe in my neck, arms, hands, and feet after they later on gave up and surgically inserted a central PIC line or central venous line going from my upper arm to a major heart vein to enter into my heart. This would be the way all fluids, medications and such could successfully be administered.
By the end of the day in the ER, I was put into the ICU and there hooked up to endless monitors. All through the night hospital crew came in every hour to administer more fluids and medications etc. I stopped counting at around 20 IV bags.
By the next morning my body had swollen to about double the size to almost unrecognizable. I had developed peripheral edema from all the fluids and meds they had to give me for the low blood pressure and kidney failure.
Later that day I developed hypoxia, a lack of oxygen causing lung distress affecting my breathing and this time, I was convinced I wasn’t going to make it. Once again I had a large crew surrounding me and ER doctors were called for. My lungs had a gurgling noise as if I was drowning and all my vitals once again went down. My body was just not able to keep the correct fluid balance and therefore affected the connecting tissues, and blood didn’t return to the heart efficiently.
Now all IV fluids were disconnected instead and the next step was to set me up with catheter and other devices to keep track on my fluid output instead. Thank God by late that evening I had stabilized. The next day I was able to move from the ICU to the medical unit and they kept me in the hospital for a week while I slowly got better on a strict fasting diet.
Altogether, recovery took about 8 weeks. I was very weak and slept a lot and I suffered slightly altered cerebral function with memory lapses and with that came the depression. Every night while going to sleep I was shook up with this strong horrifying dreadful anxiety, which lasted for 6 months.
I know now I was a lucky one. Forty percent of people diagnosed with severe sepsis don’t survive. I could have been one of them, if I had waited even one hour longer. Therefore, the importance of early detection is key.
I will always fear sepsis. I had never even heard of the word before. Only about 30% of people know the term and that is why I want to do my part and share my story so more people can learn the symptoms and listen to their bodies better.
I want to raise all the awareness I possibly can to help save lives!
