Allison B.
Ten months ago on a Tuesday, I developed what I thought were cold symptoms – a sore throat, low grade fever (100) and a swollen lymph node in my neck. Overall I felt okay, it wasn’t anything too unusual. By Thursday, my lymph node was VERY swollen. I called my doctor’s office, and they gave me some suggestions over the phone to help my throat, etc. Later that night, my fever went up to 103.
On Friday, one of the doctors finally agreed I should be seen. He tested me for Covid and flu, but not strep because my throat looked clear. That night, I started in with vomiting and diarrhea, and by Saturday night my temperature was up to 104. I called my local ER, and the doctors I spoke with over the phone told me it “sounds like a virus that needs to run its course.”
Monday morning, I drove myself to the ER, luckily only 5 minutes away because I felt so awful. By this time I was also developing some redness on my right hand. Within hours of going there, I was in septic shock. I remember my blood pressure being in the 70s, and the nurse was in disbelief. She wheeled me to a different room to recheck it, only to get the same result.
I was transported by ambulance to a larger hospital, where they found I was in septic shock due to group A streptococcus. (Sepsis and Group A Streptococcus) My swollen lymph node was the start of an abscess, and I also had cellulitis in my right hand/arm. (Sepsis and Cellulitis) I had surgery on that so they could clean it out and make sure it wasn’t necrotizing fasciitis (luckily it was not). I spent a total of 10 days in the hospital, with 2 days in ICU on vasopressors to get my blood pressure back up.
Ten months later, I still get tired a lot more easily than before sepsis. My memory has been greatly affected as well. I have arthritis and pain in my right hand where I had cellulitis. I’m 32, and never thought anything like this would happen to me. I had heard of one other person locally that had died from it, but was dumbfounded when the ER nurse told me they were following their sepsis protocol. After I processed what happened I realized I’m SO lucky I went to the ER when I did.
