Sarah Rosy

Survivor

March 2014, I had an appendectomy. (Sepsis and Surgery) Not long after the surgery I was still complaining of pain and mentioned this to my nurse and doctor. Both said it was probably related to the surgery I had. Yet I knew this pain was very different. Doctors cleared me to go home 24 hours after surgery despite the fact I was still in pain.

As soon as I was home I went to bed. Woke up early the next morning still groggy from the surgery but I could tell right away something was not right. I felt warm and asked my husband to take my temp. It was elevated so I told him to call the doctor. After this I don’t remember much. I kept coming in and out of consciousness and all I remember saying is, “Take me back to the hospital.”

The doctor was reluctant to readmit me. He told my husband it was probably unrelated to my surgery and I most likely had the flu! But my husband persisted and he agreed to readmit me. I was way too sick to get out of bed so my husband called an ambulance. When the paramedics arrived they assessed me and quickly realized I had sepsis. I’m told I was non coherent, shaking and had a fever of 104. Unfortunately they were not equipped or qualified to administer an IV. So they headed to the closest ER and radioed for another ambulance to meet us along the way. Halfway to the hospital we met up with the other paramedics and they started an IV. At the hospital they took me up to a room immediately. Took blood and urine and started antibiotics. They also sent me for a CT to see if anything was left inside me from surgery. Thankfully there wasn’t.

My family was frantic, trying to figure out what was happening to me. No one could give them any answers. And I had no clue any of this was going on. I have a faint memory of my grandma visiting me and holding my hand but that’s all I remember. It took several days of heavy duty antibiotics every 2 hours for the fever to come down and for me to feel my strength coming back. I spent 7 days in the hospital. But it took several months for me to make a full recovery. When I asked the doctors what I had, they said it was Norovirus. We never got a conclusive diagnosis from the doctors that cared for me. Only that they thought it was Norovirus. But both myself and my family all believe my sepsis was as a result of complications from the appendectomy. Even though we all questioned the doctors, they wouldn’t commit to a conclusive diagnosis.

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