Tamara Wroclawsky
March of 2011 changed my life forever, I survived death. I was in and out of the hospital for months prior, missed diagnosed over and over again and put on tons of antibiotics and prescription drugs. I later found out this contributed to my issue. I was also supporting my family of four on my own since my husband lost his job years prior. The stress was another huge contributor from what I’ve been told.
I had severe stomach pain, back pain, and diarrhea and couldn’t keep any food down. I was throwing up bile for weeks at a time. I knew something was wrong, terribly wrong, but the doctors weren’t listening to me. My room became this dark horrible place were I suffered alone everyday. I was hallucinating demons. I would scream for my husband and tell him they were going to get me. He felt helpless. He had to remove everything from the room that was triggering me including some art on the wall that I could have sworn had devils in it moving around and trying to grab me.
March of 2011 changed my life forever, I was stuck in bed for weeks unable to even lift my head. I tried to get up on my own and fell to the floor screaming in pain. My husband rushed in…I had a 104.3 fever and was rushed to the hospital. The doctors immediately checked me into ICU for septic shock, low blood count, and tachycardia ….my whole body was infected so severely that my organs were shutting down. My body was fighting itself. It was very painful. They did many procedures on me to try to find out why I had this. I felt like a science experiment. I had a team of doctors including a infectious disease doctor telling my parents and husband they will do everything they can to save my life.
My husband brought a photo of my kids and put it near my bed in ICU. I remember not being able to move or talk, but I would look to the photo and in my heart I wanted to fight, but my body wasn’t letting me. I wanted to die and have it be over. It was the worst nightmare of my life.
After a colonoscopy and a endoscopy they discovered hundreds of ulcers in my stomach and colitis in my colon. I believe this was the main contributor to ending up with septic shock. All the antibiotics that I was prescribed for multiple misdiagnoses for months were stripping my stomach lining down to nothing.
During my ICU stay they also wanted to rule out meningitis so they gave me a spinal tap. I ended up having major complications, to much of my spinal fluid was leaking out. That was the most pain I have ever experienced in my life. The day my spinal fluid was leaking out, my parents can only explain it as the girl from the movie exorcist. I was screaming for someone to help me. I just kept saying, “I’m done… I can’t do this anymore… I’m done!”. My parents held me, crying and praying. They said they thought that was it, I was going to die. After a emergency spinal patch, I went completely limp, slept for hours. When I woke I felt relief, and peace come over me. I looked to my mother who stayed with me every minute in the hospital and said, “mom, I feel better”.
Thanks to the doctors, my husband, parents, God and my fight to survive for my children I made it. I survived septic shock and many complications that go along with it and that led up to it. The doctors still can’t pin point why I had all these problems, but all agreed high stress and waiting too long to see a doctor had a lot to do with everything. If you feel like something is wrong and experience any of these symptoms you need to really speak up to the doctors and fight to have everything completely checked out.
The doctors told me if I waited another hour to come back to the hospital, I would have died in my room that day. I suffered for months after septic shock with more recovery at home. I suffer from PTSD to this day. (Sepsis and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) I cant even go into a hospital without a complete panic attack. Talking about it puts me right back. Certain foods trigger my PTSD. I still get flare ups of ulcers, which triggers my PTSD. I have changed my mindset on everything, on life. I live each day like its my last and try to help encourage other to do the same.
I will never be completely normal again, but with God’s help I have been living my new normal. I thank Him everyday when I look onto my children’s eyes for saving my life.
