Mary Lawson

Survivor

On October 16 2013 I went to work feeling fine. By 5pm that day I felt like I might be coming down with something so I went home early. I continued to feel worse through the night so I called my primary in the morning. By the time I went to his office I felt like I was dying.

I was having trouble sitting up. He suspected sepsis since I’d been septic before 2 years earlier. He told me to go to the ER 5 minutes away, he was calling ahead to tell them I was coming and possibly septic, with a past history of sepsis.

Long story short, they left me sitting in the waiting room for 4 1/2 hours. They took blood cultures about 2 hrs after I got there, inserted an IV but never gave me fluids. During this time I asked repeatedly to lay down to wait, they said they had no gurneys, beds or Geri chairs for me to use. I told them I was in pain they didn’t care, I sat there dying with help a few feet away. Finally I couldn’t sit up in that hard chair anymore so I left the hospital and went home.

During that 2nd night I felt like I might not make it till morning. I called my doctor in the morning to ask if he had gotten any lab results. He was shocked to hear from me thinking I had been admitted. He said I needed to get to the hospital right away. Needless to say I went to a different hospital. By the time I got there I truly thought I would die. I was rushed back to a room where the attending doctor and nurses told me I had to call my family, I knew why they wanted me to, so they could say goodbye. I refused to call them, I was thinking to myself NO! I’m not dying today!

The rest is very fuzzy for me. I was taken to the ICU. I remember having difficulty breathing which was terrifying. I was trying to keep it together in front of my kids, it was awful. My family were coming into the room one by one, I later learned to say goodbye.

Fast forward- I was put on a ventilator and given a 10% chance of surviving the weekend. I survived. The sepsis was triggered by pneumonia caused by group B streptococcus. (Sepsis and Pneumonia, Sepsis and Group B Streptococcus) I was on the vent for 10 days, hospitalized for 2 months. I’m left with severe kidney damage, I’m ineligible for a transplant as they discovered I have a blood cancer, multiple myeloma. I had some toes amputated, and I have neuropathy in my hands and feet, but I’m still here! I try to appreciate life and the people I love but some days are better than others. I feel so fortunate that I still have my hands and feet, many others are not so lucky. (Sepsis and Amputations, Sepsis and Post-Sepsis Syndrome)

My advice is to trust your gut, demand the care that you’re entitled to. If I hadn’t been so worried about bothering them, about them thinking I was being difficult, I might have been treated promptly and recovered fully. Say the word, ask could this be sepsis? It could save your life.

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