Ann Catherine L.

I had some female surgery. A few days later, I was a little achy and sleepy. I lost my appetite. I got out of bed on Monday morning and couldn’t stand up. I called my daughter and said, “I think I need to go to the hospital”. When we arrived I was taken right into a bed. My BP was 51 over 40. I was frozen. I couldn’t form a sentence. I was pumped full of different antibiotics until all the blood tests came back, then they used drugs that worked. I remember very little of my week in hospital. I had hallucinations and saw halos. With help, I walked to the bathroom, carefully climbing up and down a single step. On my sixth day, I discovered there was no step. (Sepsis and Surgery)

I insisted on going home on the seventh day, but I moved only between my bed and my big chair for a month. I was on antibiotics for six weeks. I had five more UTIs in the next six months, each requiring more antibiotics. I developed aphasia in hospital and, as someone who made her living with words, this was truly scary. (Sepsis and Urinary Tract Infections) How could I communicate if I couldn’t remember what things were called, or how they moved or colours? Along with the debilitating exhaustion, the low BP and anemia, I became depressed.

It’s been 18 months and I still have anemia, low BP and fatigue but the aphasia has improved. I’m still prone to worry that an infection will lead to sepsis again. I’m not the bouncy, lively woman I was, with loads of energy. I am lucky that my little local country hospital figured out immediately what was going on, and stuck me on relevant drugs quickly.

I know loads of people had sepsis far worse than I did, my late husband had it three times and it affected everything, from his heart down and finally killed him.

I don’t think people realize how dangerous it is. We aren’t warned of the symptoms after operations or infections. We should be.

My photo is of me before the sepsis. I look ten years older now.