Carly Gray
They named me the Unicorn case as I was a healthy 31 year old prior and then this. On Thanksgiving ’22 I wasn’t feeling right, thought I was coming down with strep or something my oldest son brought home from school. It started as a sore throat for a few days maybe a week. The Friday after Thanksgiving, I felt very weak, my body didn’t feel right it was achy and I was short of breath. I recall being downstairs in my home and it took everything in me to get up from the couch and go upstairs to my room.
By Saturday I wasn’t keep anything down not even a sip of water and didn’t move from our bed from then to Tuesday morning when husband rush me to the hospital. He uncovered me to check on me in hopes of getting my to get to the bath. But my body was discolored, gray and bruised. When we arrived at the ER they said I had 40% chance survival and had I waited I would’ve died at home. By then I was hallucinating and delusional. After not being able to eat or drink for 4 days upon arrival they stuck me all over couldn’t get a IV so they put a central line in my jugular which went straight to my heart as the infection had already reached major organs and I needed some serious fluids and antibiotics.
I don’t remember much of the hospital stay especially the ICU days and the days leading up. I’m grateful to have no lasting brain damage. I continue follow-up appointments to make sure there was no lasting damage elsewhere. There was an ICU nurse who has been there 30+years and hadn’t seen some of the tests they ran on me, they took 30+ vials of blood and that was just upon first arrival. Getting sepsis was ultimately pinpointed to my IUD which ironically I had an appointment scheduled in February to get it taken out. But this happened first. (Sepsis and Invasive Devices)
When they pulled the IUD out I was on the verge of needing dialysis like they were about to take me back so we were preparing for that in the midst of everything else going on. But with the IUD being pulled organs and everything began to stabilize more by the moment and day until dialysis was no longer up in the air. I’m forever grateful to my husband who I fully trust as my voice, my choice, with my life, he knows the WHOLE me. The WHOLE woman he married was in his hands. And he did the thing. I can truly say between him and all the doctors and nurses although I was terrified, I felt safe. I was and will continue taking life moment by moment because you never know what the next one holds.
I lost most, of not all, muscle mass and 10+ pounds, I relearned how to walk and regained physical strength, I’ve been through a lot since. It’s changed the way I see life. The hard things in life open doors to something beautiful and that is the silver lining to pain, on the other side is immense joy. You can’t have one without the other. Not to mention the affect it’s had on my family and everyone around us. I’m grateful for the care team for all they did to save and sustain my life, which is now put me in a position to spread awareness of sepsis as well as support others who have been through the journey. As a women’s life coach and breathwork facilitator this has allowed me to approach my own healing in a graceful and impactful manner.
