Leslie L.

The week prior to December 4, 2023, I did not feel well. My coworkers had indicated that they all had the flu. I kept testing for Covid, which was negative. I thought I had a really bad case of the flu. Then my speech became slurred and my mental state changed. My family called 911. I was rushed to the ER/Trauma and I have very little memory of the next few weeks. I woke up without a colon and on dialysis. This was a very difficult situation being as I only have one kidney since donating a kidney to my twin sister decades ago. I was told that every organ had failed in the early days at the hospital. Just when things were looking better and I left the ICU after 3 weeks: I developed bleeding ulcers and had many transfusions waiting for my Christmas Eve surgery.

My occupation is a mental health therapist. I utilized all of the skills and tools to remain mentally positive. It was a long road. After the long hospital stay I had to go to a rehabilitation center. I was unable to lift my foot an inch off the ground. I could not stand. My muscles had atrophied while the doctors just tried to keep me alive. After 50 days: I was finally able to go home again. I was in a wheelchair. I had physical therapy, occupational therapy, and daily nurse visits. I started the long road to my “new normal.” I found myself crying every day. I was now home. In my own bed. With my husband and furkids and could see my adult children and grandchildren, but I was so sad. Every night I had to talk about the experience. My adult son listened to me every night. He also made me do my physical therapy exercises every day. Even when I said: I’m tired.

My husband helped me at night when I was scared. I started needing a light on in our room so I would know where I was upon waking. I went from standing with support to using a walker to the “big day” when I walked from my bedroom across the living room to my home office!

I have been home now almost a year and a half. I’m still facing another surgery: the reversal of my ileostomy. I never got full feeling back in my left foot: I have nerve damage that I have to be medicated for. My pancreas was left “brittle” from septic shock so I have to take insulin and wear a continuous monitoring device to track my glucose numbers. But I’m alive and grateful. And I know so many don’t make it. I had never really heard of sepsis and had no idea what septic shock was before this happened to me. It is now my life’s mission to raise sepsis awareness and provide sepsis education to prevent deaths.