Be Aware of Sepsis

I had Sepsis after a flu like illness. I did not have a raised temperature, just severe back pain. I was refused a home visit by my gp as I was not on the surgery list as ‘housebound’. Over a period of 16 days he left prescriptions for ibuprofen for my husband to collect and ‘diagnosed’ me with arthritis. Eventually, my husband managed to get another doctor to visit. She immediately ordered blood tests.
She rang the following day and said she’d had the results and an ambulance was on its way!
I spent the following day having tests and scans. I remember settling down to sleep after my husband left the ward. I woke up three days later in the Intensive Care Unit having no idea what had happened to me. I spent a week there followed by a four further weeks in hospital on twice daily intravenous antibiotics.
I was lucky enough to escape with just hearing loss in one ear. However, it took me over a year to fully recover.

I think we’ve got quite careless about minor and grazes cuts these days. At least my DH has. When I was young TCP or Dettol or even hot salt water would be sloshed liberally over any cut, insect bite or splinter (small splinters are called shivers here - is that a Norfolk word?). It really doesn’t take much for an infection to get in and develop into Something Nasty as my Nan used to say.

It can be caused by any infection, small or more severe, from an infected wound, tooth or something internal.

It is the body’s defence mechanisms that go into overdrive and sepsis results.

DH was in hospital when he got his bout - they did lots of tests and found that his was caused by e-coli bacteria. It was in his system - seems it can be there lying dormant - and then pop out and bite you when you are a bit low. They treated his with two very strong antibiotics given intravenously - they initially gave him two wide spectrum strong drugs but then more specific ones. He had no problem at all with the operation site etc and he had no infection visible on his body - but boy was he weak when he eventually came home about ten days later.

I had the misfortune of having Sepsis, Pleurisy and Pneumonia at the same time a few years ago. It was winter and I was run down, so when I first started to get heavy flu symptoms, with cold sores, terrible conjunctivitis and kidney pains, I put it down to just a bad case of flu and didn't go to my GP.

When I stopped weeing after drinking litres of water I reluctantly called my GP. I feared being seen as a hypochondriac, as wards were being blocked by people with flu, and I felt I'd be a burden on the hospital. However my GP came out straight away and within an hour I was in Intensive Care. I was severely ticked off for not contacting the surgery sooner.

The moral of this story is: if there's any other symptoms involved to what seems like a flu virus, it's worth having yourself checked out - Septis is as life threatening as Pneumonia and can be easily overlooked as other not so serious illnesses such a flu....

I think it can be bought about by an internal infection, as well as external ones.
So, a urine infection or that kind of thing. I think...

Well my friends is from bowel perforation..am truly ignorant about it...but intend to find out all about it..

So how is sepsis caused? Is it a bacteria that gets into a wound?

Thank you MissAdventure

Oh, I am sorry to hear that, farview.
Here's hoping she can rally and beat it.

Should have been having coffee tomorrow with my best friend of 60yrs(since we were 5).her daughter rang couple of hours ago,my friend is in intensive care with Sepsis from a perforated bowel and is very very poorly,am worried sick& shocked,she was texting me couple of nights ago.. praying she will be ok..

The accounts for any medical treatment either come from the local equivalent of the NHS office or if it is the top-up part from the insurance company. We pay the doctor €25 for a visit and we get some of that back from the health service and some from the ins.
The pharmacy works ina slightly different way and we give our health card and they make copies of the prescription and we don’t actually part with any cash but some prescription drugs cost over £50 a month.
It is good to see just how much things cost. When DH had an ECG and then an echo gram it was just short of €100. It is a very complicated system here because some things are reimbursed 100% and the ins. do not need to chip in - the cardio man is an example - the health service repaid us the total amount within a couple of days.

My brother took his sore finger to A & E in the middle of last night as he had a splinter from gardening in the week. He was horrified to be told its arthritis (Peter Pan syndrome!). I said 'be glad its not sepsis' - he had to agree in the end.

It kills 5 people every hour

It’s not rare at all silverlining sepsis kills 44,000 people a year in the U.K.

Didn’t someone post that fact already ?

I have read about sepsis that doctors dont always think about diagnosing as its considered rare ( not sure that it is as rare as all that) so its a good idea for everyone to ask doctors if it might be sepsis. Treatment is good when recognised, but needs to be given rapidly as delay can kill quickly. i also read that people on or recovering from chemotherapy are more prone, which does affect our family. It is very frightening.

Good point Panache and hope you are better.

In the past sepsis has been missed even after several visits to A&E and GP. Recently round here a GP and an A&E department has been disciplined for this which resulted in the death of a 10-year old at my GDs school.

A very interesting and extremely worrying subject, whilst you have altogether added some great information.
However as many of you have so rightly highlighted, the immense danger to members of the public lie mainly in the contradictory advice given to us both in the public domain as well as via or Surgeries and clinics.
Yes we hear and obey the call not to call out the G.P`s, or visit our A & E departments etc as they are already desperately short of staff ............HOWEVER......on the other hand this illness,Sepsis is a rapid killer and something we simply cannot take risks over.Yet there are no clear cut guidelines to follow.
With this reaching such a high rate in our communities it seems we need strict and firm guide lines so that we do not present ourselves at the Surgeries as time wasters, but save lives in the meanwhile.
Truly a real dilemna.
The more we discuss and bring it to the headlines the better.
Thank you luxdoh for starting off a very needy thread,we can but all do "our bit" in bringing it out into the open, highlighting its gravity and just how quickly this illness can develop into one extremely life threatening..........and even death.
I have just escaped the problem myself whilst very ill in Hospital, so am very aware of all it presents.

A friend of a friend died of sepsis in hospital a few days after a minor operation. She had fought bowel cancer several years before but it was sepsis that ended her life.

travelsafar I actually thought this was supposed to happen at one time. Perhaps it was scrapped because of the admin costs to GP surgeries.

I too know serial offenders who think it’s a weekly outing. Silly things like constipation and coughs, general aches and pains.

Weishwife so glad your DH is on the mend. I read the part of your post which said about recieving an account of the cost of medical treatment from your GP etc.This might be a good idea for the NHS to do.It may shock some people who constantly go to the gp for the slightest thing which maybe the pharmasist could advise on. I know several people like this who go nearly every week to their surgery for one thing or another. If they saw the cost involved it may make them think twice and really appreciate the service we have in the UK.

I gave DH lots of biotic yoghurts when he came home to assist with the gut bacteria. He was very weak too and he also had a bit of trouble with his blood pressure plummeting when he stood up - he just collapsed down onto the ground the first time it happened - after that he was very careful not to move quickly.

I swear by TCP and use it on all cuts . Not sure if it would completely prevent something from becoming infected though . I’m not sure how my wound became infected . I kept it very clean ( obviously not clean enough though) .

One of the problems in recognizing this is that there may not be a raised temperature as the person may be in septic shock. This makes one think there is not much wrong. Be warned.

Ooh my neighbour got it and nearly died. She is home but very poorly. All the antibiotics have left her with a gut problem which needs more antibiotics but well that is the trouble one thing leads to another.