Emma Moss

I felt completely fine in the lead up to my diagnosis. Monday night I woke up with a pain that I can’t fully describe but I knew something was wrong and that I needed to go to the hospital. I got up and got dressed but felt too weak to go so I lay back down. After a while I woke my partner, who then brought me to hospital.

Once there I did some blood tests and x-rays which came back clear so I was sent home with a high fever and a viral infection. (Sepsis and Viral Infections) The next few days I spent in bed, with little to no energy to do basic tasks. Deep down I knew something wasn’t right and I was really sick so I made a phone call to the doctor who again confirmed it sounded like a bad viral infection, I think this made me feel embarrassed that I was over reacting.

I do not remember much from the next few days, other than being sore and collapsing a couple of times. On Thursday night it became so bad that my partner rushed me back to hospital, I was immediately placed in an induced coma for the next 7 days. I had pneumonia which lead to me going into septic shock. (Sepsis and Pneumonia, Sepsis and Septic Shock) This was a terrible time for my friends who stayed with me the whole time in hospital and my family who live in Ireland and could not make it over to me due to Covid.

When I woke up, I did not realise how serious my illness was or how long the recovery would take. Almost 4 months have passed since I went into the hospital and I’m still suffering from the effects of it. Tiredness, anxiety, hair loss, breathlessness are the main symptoms that affect my day to day life.