Robert

My sepsis episode

Retired but still active, I was struck by sepsis in 2006, without really being aware of the severity of what was happening to me. Apart from chills, which I attributed to a slight fever (38.4°C), I felt no pain. Although I experienced intense fatigue from the first few days, I did not worry too much about it and attributed it to a neurological condition I had been suffering from for several years.

At the time, I was volunteering at a palliative care clinic. I did notice that the wound on my tibia, which I had sustained at the clinic after contact with one of the wheels of a patient's bed, was not healing. It was only after four or five days, and at the insistence of the nursing staff, that I decided to have blood drawn the following Wednesday. The results came in that afternoon and were not good. The doctor therefore decided to take a blood sample, a urine sample and some culture tests on Friday, during my visits.

On Friday afternoon, the first results came in, but for a more accurate diagnosis, we had to wait for the culture results. On Saturday afternoon, the director of the emergency department, whom I knew, called me to pass on the final results and asked me to be admitted to the hospital immediately. Ten minutes later, we were in the emergency room. The medical director, who was not actually on duty, escorted me to a room that was already ready, and a nurse hooked me up to a baxter. Then he told me I had severe sepsis (septic shock) and that it was a matter of days, if not hours!

On Sunday morning, I was transferred to the Internal Medicine Department, where it was determined that I had sepsis caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) of unknown origin, as well as a severe urinary tract infection.

I stayed there for about 10 days, in a state of extreme weakness that slowly subsided as the days passed. It was strange, I didn't really feel sick. The baxters of penicillin, cortisone and other medication followed each other in rapid succession. After 10 days, the treatment was complete and I could go home. I had lost eight kilos.