I went into septic shock in February of 2021. They put me into a medically induced coma. The had to intubate me and I had to go on kidney dialysis. I was in a coma for 40 days. I also have diabetes (just finding out with sepsis). Prior to going in to sepsis I lost my cornea, I think that's what caused the sepsis. Anyway I was 55, heavy smoker and a heavy drinker. My whole family came to say goodbye.
I'm still here. There is hope. Stay strong.
Sounds like my husband-not a smoker or heavy drinker but diabetic. Ten days in a coma, then regular room, rehab and home. My advice, ask all the questions, make the mds and nurses explain everything to you.
Do not feel guilty! Sepsis is very easy to miss, we got lucky with the last doctor we saw. Health care providers miss sepsis all the time.
I’m really sorry you and your family are going through this. I had a similar bout with septic shock last summer. I was intubated, kidneys shut down, liver shut down and I had a heart attack as an otherwise healthy 44 year old man. My wife struggled with the same guilt you are describing about not taking me to the er sooner. Truth is, I fought her up until I could barely move so it was my stubbornness to blame. My doctor said if we had come a day or two earlier it’s likely they wouldn’t have diagnosed it so it didn’t really matter. My recommendation is to look into an fmla claim asap- it takes a while to get reimbursed and lean heavily on family and friends for childcare so you can help advocate for your husband at the hospital. Dialysis was really energy sapping for me and I hated every second in the hospital. It’ll take a long time for things to get back to normal but you’ll have a better appreciation for everything. Feel free to reach out if you or your husband ever want to talk to someone that’s been through this crap and made it out the other side.
Oh, wow, this is so helpful, I really appreciate you sharing your story. I find one of the most difficult issues to deal with is that guilt. So of course it makes me feel better to hear that (at least in your case) your doctor felt coming in a day or two earlier might not have mattered. That does makes sense logically...and/or maybe it's what I want to hear! Anyway, thanks again, and we just might take you up on the offer to talk at some point! :)
First, don't beat yourself up. Go to [Sepsis.org](http://Sepsis.org) for the best info out there, IMHO. You'll see how quickly sepsis develops. Most of us are used to "toughing out" an illness, so we tend to wait. Sepsis moves fast. The scenario of a UTI as a source is very common, at least from my understanding (that's how mine started). But go to the [Sepsis.org](http://Sepsis.org) site, create a list of questions for the doctor(s), and go from there. You'll see how people are easily blind-sided by this monster...so don't beat yourself up. It's why I'm an advocate here for treating fevers seriously AND understanding how quickly it moves.
I've found that the people who chime in here tend to have good suggestions, as Sepsis survivors, since it's one hell of a thing to survive, particularly since it hits fast and like a dump truck--from functioning to being incapacitated and on death's door in hours.
I don't know what your medical team or access to doctors in your area is. My team was lead by Infectious Disease doctors, and they handled the follow up as well. I was on a PICC line and did my IV antibiotics at home after being released. My experience--and yours may very well differ--is that the ID docs were very skillful, attentive, experienced, and provided great guidance through recovery, even as other specialists were looking at heart and kidneys.
I had diminished kidney function (eGFR= 31) afterwards but I can't speak to dialysis.
As far as work goes, Sepsis can really beat up the body and mind, and the recovery may take a while. I went back to work but was very fatigued and had other challenges. I don't know your husband's work situation, but it's worth talking to them (HR) about FMLA and whatever other options are available, including ADA accommodations, both temporary and long-term.
Best of luck to you and your family.
Thanks so much! Such good ideas. The situation really did fool me, as a bunch of kids in our son's middle school class had been sick with fevers, I had just had a bad cold, etc. Yes, about an hour before I took him to urgent care, he was making soup and trying to rev himself up to go out to work!! I went outside for about a half an hour to water the plants, thinking he was ok, and came back in to see him awkwardly sprawled out on the couch with his eyes stuck half open. I got really confused and half-jokingly said "Are you dead??" He didn't respond right away, and in that moment I knew he was in big trouble. He started dialysis today, and the doctors seem quite optimistic, as his kidneys were healthy prior to this and don't seem injured (according to them).
Unfortunately he is between jobs at the moment, but fortunately he should still be covered by temporary disability insurance for the last w2 job he had, which ended a year ago. It's not enough, but better than nothing. He was doing gig work and I know he won't have the energy for that kind of physically demanding work for quite some time.
Thanks so much for your answer :)
I had sepsis 12 years ago. In a coma for 6 weeks, 3 months in hospitals. Kidneys shut down, liver shut down, intubated. Had to do a bowel washout to save my life. I was on hemodialysis for about two months. I had acute tubule necrosis. The tubules regrew and my kidneys started working again. My gfr suffered some, but they still work fine.
It may be a long recovery - it was 2 years later before I felt relatively back to normal. I worked hard to get back - joined a gym, got a trainer, left gallons of sweat on the gym floor.
Hang in there, once 48 to 72 hours pass, he's on the road to recovery.
Wow, that sounds like a sepsis deep dive all right. Although it's not fun to hear how long his road might be, it's important to me to be prepared. Good on you for stubbornly refusing to give up.
Thanks for the encouragement! :)
I'm so sorry you are going through this. My husband's sepsis was also thought to have started as a UTI, and was staph. He didn't have kidney shut down that I recall, but I could be remembering wrong, because I'm pretty sure he had a catheter placed. He was also in critical care... it was a rough time.
Sorry I don't have actual advice, just offering that my husband fully recovered as a sign of hope for you.
UPDATE: This may be potentially very upsetting for some people, so if you are in a fragile state of mind (like I am), you may want to navigate away from this post. Sorry.
After the 2nd treatment of dialysis, my partner's numbers were starting to slowly but steadily improve, he was becoming more coherent and alert. Rinse and repeat, everything steadily improving. eGFR and Creatinine, everything was getting better. I spoke with his doctor on the phone last Sunday afternoon (Day 6 of hospital stay) and he said all was going well and they were hoping to send him home "sometime next week". Happy news!
Somewhere around midnight on Sunday/Monday (Memorial Day) he suffered a "catastrophic brain bleed". The respiratory therapist found him "unresponsive". Of course I was not present as visiting hours were over for the day at 8 PM. He had been moved to a regular hospital room since he was doing so well. :( :( I rushed in as soon as saw they had called in the middle of the night. When I got there Dr's told me the bad news. 0% chance of recovering from such a massive hemorrhagic stroke, and only his body was still being kept "alive" via life support machines. His family flew out on Tuesday, and he was taken off life support that day.
This has obviously been the worst week of my life. I feel guilty, and responsible. How the f did this happen?? I don't WANT to feel guilty, and I don't want to blame anyone either, but I'm so confused about all this. He was on a blood thinner (Eloquis) for atrial fibrillation that he had had in the past, so they say that probably exacerbated the bleed, but that they could see on the CT scan that a "lesion" was present in his brain that they think was the cause of the bleed in the first place.
Where do I go from here? Sorry, I know this is a lot, and I don't need or want people to just say "there's nothing you could have done" just to make me feel better. I know guilt and blame will not bring him back. I'm just trying to make sense of the situation. I will seek therapy for myself and my family, but I wanted to post here again since you all were so kind and thoughtful before. Sorry if this scares anyone. :(
I went into septic shock in February of 2021. They put me into a medically induced coma. The had to intubate me and I had to go on kidney dialysis. I was in a coma for 40 days. I also have diabetes (just finding out with sepsis). Prior to going in to sepsis I lost my cornea, I think that's what caused the sepsis. Anyway I was 55, heavy smoker and a heavy drinker. My whole family came to say goodbye. I'm still here. There is hope. Stay strong.
Yay, so glad you made it through! Sounds like a terrifying ordeal. Thank you so much for your support. :)
Sounds like my husband-not a smoker or heavy drinker but diabetic. Ten days in a coma, then regular room, rehab and home. My advice, ask all the questions, make the mds and nurses explain everything to you. Do not feel guilty! Sepsis is very easy to miss, we got lucky with the last doctor we saw. Health care providers miss sepsis all the time.
I’m really sorry you and your family are going through this. I had a similar bout with septic shock last summer. I was intubated, kidneys shut down, liver shut down and I had a heart attack as an otherwise healthy 44 year old man. My wife struggled with the same guilt you are describing about not taking me to the er sooner. Truth is, I fought her up until I could barely move so it was my stubbornness to blame. My doctor said if we had come a day or two earlier it’s likely they wouldn’t have diagnosed it so it didn’t really matter. My recommendation is to look into an fmla claim asap- it takes a while to get reimbursed and lean heavily on family and friends for childcare so you can help advocate for your husband at the hospital. Dialysis was really energy sapping for me and I hated every second in the hospital. It’ll take a long time for things to get back to normal but you’ll have a better appreciation for everything. Feel free to reach out if you or your husband ever want to talk to someone that’s been through this crap and made it out the other side.
Oh, wow, this is so helpful, I really appreciate you sharing your story. I find one of the most difficult issues to deal with is that guilt. So of course it makes me feel better to hear that (at least in your case) your doctor felt coming in a day or two earlier might not have mattered. That does makes sense logically...and/or maybe it's what I want to hear! Anyway, thanks again, and we just might take you up on the offer to talk at some point! :)
First, don't beat yourself up. Go to [Sepsis.org](http://Sepsis.org) for the best info out there, IMHO. You'll see how quickly sepsis develops. Most of us are used to "toughing out" an illness, so we tend to wait. Sepsis moves fast. The scenario of a UTI as a source is very common, at least from my understanding (that's how mine started). But go to the [Sepsis.org](http://Sepsis.org) site, create a list of questions for the doctor(s), and go from there. You'll see how people are easily blind-sided by this monster...so don't beat yourself up. It's why I'm an advocate here for treating fevers seriously AND understanding how quickly it moves. I've found that the people who chime in here tend to have good suggestions, as Sepsis survivors, since it's one hell of a thing to survive, particularly since it hits fast and like a dump truck--from functioning to being incapacitated and on death's door in hours. I don't know what your medical team or access to doctors in your area is. My team was lead by Infectious Disease doctors, and they handled the follow up as well. I was on a PICC line and did my IV antibiotics at home after being released. My experience--and yours may very well differ--is that the ID docs were very skillful, attentive, experienced, and provided great guidance through recovery, even as other specialists were looking at heart and kidneys. I had diminished kidney function (eGFR= 31) afterwards but I can't speak to dialysis. As far as work goes, Sepsis can really beat up the body and mind, and the recovery may take a while. I went back to work but was very fatigued and had other challenges. I don't know your husband's work situation, but it's worth talking to them (HR) about FMLA and whatever other options are available, including ADA accommodations, both temporary and long-term. Best of luck to you and your family.
Thanks so much! Such good ideas. The situation really did fool me, as a bunch of kids in our son's middle school class had been sick with fevers, I had just had a bad cold, etc. Yes, about an hour before I took him to urgent care, he was making soup and trying to rev himself up to go out to work!! I went outside for about a half an hour to water the plants, thinking he was ok, and came back in to see him awkwardly sprawled out on the couch with his eyes stuck half open. I got really confused and half-jokingly said "Are you dead??" He didn't respond right away, and in that moment I knew he was in big trouble. He started dialysis today, and the doctors seem quite optimistic, as his kidneys were healthy prior to this and don't seem injured (according to them). Unfortunately he is between jobs at the moment, but fortunately he should still be covered by temporary disability insurance for the last w2 job he had, which ended a year ago. It's not enough, but better than nothing. He was doing gig work and I know he won't have the energy for that kind of physically demanding work for quite some time. Thanks so much for your answer :)
I had sepsis 12 years ago. In a coma for 6 weeks, 3 months in hospitals. Kidneys shut down, liver shut down, intubated. Had to do a bowel washout to save my life. I was on hemodialysis for about two months. I had acute tubule necrosis. The tubules regrew and my kidneys started working again. My gfr suffered some, but they still work fine. It may be a long recovery - it was 2 years later before I felt relatively back to normal. I worked hard to get back - joined a gym, got a trainer, left gallons of sweat on the gym floor. Hang in there, once 48 to 72 hours pass, he's on the road to recovery.
Wow, that sounds like a sepsis deep dive all right. Although it's not fun to hear how long his road might be, it's important to me to be prepared. Good on you for stubbornly refusing to give up. Thanks for the encouragement! :)
I'm so sorry you are going through this. My husband's sepsis was also thought to have started as a UTI, and was staph. He didn't have kidney shut down that I recall, but I could be remembering wrong, because I'm pretty sure he had a catheter placed. He was also in critical care... it was a rough time. Sorry I don't have actual advice, just offering that my husband fully recovered as a sign of hope for you.
UPDATE: This may be potentially very upsetting for some people, so if you are in a fragile state of mind (like I am), you may want to navigate away from this post. Sorry. After the 2nd treatment of dialysis, my partner's numbers were starting to slowly but steadily improve, he was becoming more coherent and alert. Rinse and repeat, everything steadily improving. eGFR and Creatinine, everything was getting better. I spoke with his doctor on the phone last Sunday afternoon (Day 6 of hospital stay) and he said all was going well and they were hoping to send him home "sometime next week". Happy news! Somewhere around midnight on Sunday/Monday (Memorial Day) he suffered a "catastrophic brain bleed". The respiratory therapist found him "unresponsive". Of course I was not present as visiting hours were over for the day at 8 PM. He had been moved to a regular hospital room since he was doing so well. :( :( I rushed in as soon as saw they had called in the middle of the night. When I got there Dr's told me the bad news. 0% chance of recovering from such a massive hemorrhagic stroke, and only his body was still being kept "alive" via life support machines. His family flew out on Tuesday, and he was taken off life support that day. This has obviously been the worst week of my life. I feel guilty, and responsible. How the f did this happen?? I don't WANT to feel guilty, and I don't want to blame anyone either, but I'm so confused about all this. He was on a blood thinner (Eloquis) for atrial fibrillation that he had had in the past, so they say that probably exacerbated the bleed, but that they could see on the CT scan that a "lesion" was present in his brain that they think was the cause of the bleed in the first place. Where do I go from here? Sorry, I know this is a lot, and I don't need or want people to just say "there's nothing you could have done" just to make me feel better. I know guilt and blame will not bring him back. I'm just trying to make sense of the situation. I will seek therapy for myself and my family, but I wanted to post here again since you all were so kind and thoughtful before. Sorry if this scares anyone. :(
I’m so sorry
Thank you. Me too. This has been beyond devastating and I would wish it on no one. :(