Marla Green

My journey began the end of Jan. 2020.

We had recently moved to a new area, and really didn’t know our way around town much.

After laying in bed sick and hurting in pain since, Thursday afternoon Jan. 31st, we called our doctor’s office first thing Friday morning to try to get in and be seen. We couldn’t see our new primary doctor because she was booked up solid, so I, was given the option to see another doctor we did not know in the same office, so they fit me in at the end of their day at 3:30 pm on a Friday. So we waited all day to go at 3:30. By the time my husband had taken me the to the doctor’s office, I was cold and shaking one minute, and hot and sweating the next, and still in a lot of pain. The doctor wanted blood work so he sent us on our way to the lab (which is in the office), and said he would call us when he got the results, and he sent me home with NOTHING to relieve the pain nor any instructions either! And to top it off, the lab he sent us to, had already closed and I was told to come back on Monday!!
(Obviously in hind sight now, that doctor knew nothing of the signs of sepsis!! Which is scary!!)

So we went home, but by early the next morning (Sat.) I told my husband to take me to the ER, because I couldn’t take the pain anymore.

When we got to the ER the doctors and nurses in the ER jumped on top of it almost immediately!!! (I later found out, the ER staff at this hospital, knew how to recognize the signs of sepsis!!!)

My blood pressure was off the charts, my heart rate was 173!!! They determined after blood and urine tests the culprit was sepsis which was set off by a UTI (Sepsis and Urinary Tract Infections) that I never knew I had, because I had NO symptoms of it!

They quickly moved me to a room in the hospital that they had already set up for me with IVs of antibiotics and probiotics, which they started immediately on me, one in both arms, along with steroid shots and insulin shots (to counter the boost in my insulin from the steroids). Monitoring me closely they also had me on oxygen 24/7 because I already had COPD, so they ordered pulmonary breathing treatments on me every 4 hours throughout the days and nights. (Sepsis and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder) That first day they gave me a shot of Ativan to help me rest as they kept the IVs going.

On the day my hospital doctor was going to release me, he told me and my husband I was very lucky that my body responded to the treatments so well, and that most people with sepsis are hospitalized for at least 3 weeks and sometimes months, and some unfortunately never leave. I told the doctor I attributed my recovery to not only God, but to their hospital staff from the ER to his care for me inside the hospital!!! It made a difference that they knew the signs of sepsis and moved quickly!

But I also give credit to God for guiding us to the right hospital! I believe it WAS a miracle that God guided us to that particular hospital, and I also believe in the power of prayer. We had so many friends and family praying for me, because we had stayed in touch with them on Facebook throughout my ordeal from the start on Thursday through the following Wednesday when I was released.

But I didn’t come through it unscathed though. I have brain fog, fatigue, the shakes, shortness of breath more than I ever have with my COPD, and my heart now races, but after many tests they don’t know why, so they have put me on heart medication 3 weeks ago to see if that will help. I am so thankful they did those breathing treatments on me in the hospital, or it could have been worse!!!!

Since my ordeal, I have studied up and read everything I could get my hands on regarding sepsis. Your website and support groups on Facebook have helped me tremendously, and enlightened me that I’m not going out of my head with PSS, that there are other survivors out there just like me, and others that I pray for, that we’re not as fortunate like me in their outcome.

I want to thank all of you for your stories, because if it wasn’t for you, I would have never known these left over side effects are pretty much to be expected after having sepsis. Before I found your website and support Facebook groups, I kept complaining to my husband how tired I still am, and how foggy my thinking is, and how I get winded in just a few short steps. I now know that these things are to be expected after having sepsis. So thanks to all of you, I know that!

They did find what was causing the UTI, (a prolapsed bladder and colon), and I had surgery to correct that last November. It’s been a long journey to get to that point, because the pandemic started a couple of weeks after my being released from the hospital, so all of my doctors appointments I had with neurologists, pulmonologist, cardiologist, and urologist were cancelled, as well as tests that they had ordered for me. So I had to wait for almost a year before I could get any help, and I had to live on antibiotics all that time till I could be seen. I guess I was part of the Covid “fallout”.

But I do want to say thank you all, for sharing your knowledge! I promise to pass it forward!!! I will be keeping all of you in my prayers, and will be praying for more healing for all sepsis victims and survivors!

Let’s spread the “Signs of Sepsis” to all corners of the earth!!
God Bless You!!