Renee Turner

My story starts with a cyst on my right ovary during pregnancy. This was my fourth pregnancy that was full of complications (including the cyst). So it wasn’t a surprised that I went into labor a month early. It was supposed to be a scheduled c-section where I was going to have the cyst and ovary removed because of concerns the specialists had with it. But since I went into labor a month early, my doctor was on vacation so another doctor preformed the c-section and decided to leave the ovary in place. So we left the hospital with our new little bundle of joy and I went home to heal thinking everything was okay. (Sepsis and Pregnancy & Childbirth)

Unbeknownst to me the ovary had other plans. It ballooned to the size of a small watermelon over night and I woke up felt it and thought the doctors left a sponge in me or something. I knew it was a problem because I was feeling worse then I ever had from my c-sections before and I had a fever and extreme chills at times. But this was 3 days before Christmas so I thought I would try to wait until after Christmas. I didn’t want to leave everyone to go back to the hospital for what I knew was going to be another surgery. Big mistake. The next day the cyst exploded in my stomach and I had to rush to the ER because of the severe pain and vomiting. This amazingly though was my saving grace because that cyst was a symptom of the sepsis that was ravaging my body and if I had waited till after Christmas like I was planning, the doctor told me I would have been dead.

I spent the rest of what was left of the year on intravenous IV antibiotics and drainage tubes coming out of both sides of my abdomen, after the surgery they had to perform to clean out my stomach and finally remove that ovary. But I made a full recovery and learned (the hard way) to take fevers and chills or anything out of the norm (like a huge lump in your stomach) seriously after surgery.  (Sepsis and Surgery) Because if you don’t you could pay for that mistake with your life. Please take all surgery seriously even a c-section and watch how you feel afterwards.