A week ago today I had some mild flank pain…nothing that I was too concerned about. Friday the discomfort was still there, yet very mild. I thought that it was probably my kidney, but I just drank some water and honestly it was such a minor discomfort I didn’t think about it hardly at all.
Saturday I felt just tired, and not really hungry. I only ate one meal on Saturday, and thought that maybe I was coming down with some sort of ‘bug’. I went to bed, only to wake up in the middle of the night with excruciating pain, sweats, and chills. I didn’t want to move. It was a rough night.
Sunday morning I wasn’t doing any better and I had a fever…my discomfort was severe enough that I knew I needed to go see a doctor (and I’m not one to run in to the doctor – nurses are the worst patients!). I thought that I could possibly have a kidney infection going on.
I was right.
We were actually supposed to be heading to the beach that day to have one last summer hurrah with a friend, so our car was all loaded and ready to go. I told my husband that I think he needed to take me to urgent care on the way, so he did.
The doctor was concerned because both my fever and my bacteria levels were really high, so she gave me an antibiotic injection as well as a prescription for a very high dose of oral antibiotics and told me that if anything got worse I needed to go in to the hospital.
Not wanting to miss out on our weekend, I actually attempted to go to the beach afterwards which turned out to be a bad idea. I began to feel chills, pain, and kind of almost lethargic in the car. We literally drove all the way to the beach and I knew that we had to turn around. Of course the kids were pretty upset about this and were verbalizing their arguments about leaving, but I knew I needed to get back home. I had my husband run into the store and pick up a thermometer before heading home and my temperature read 104.1. I quickly took more Tylenol and attempted to drink some fluids.
After a long drive home I went straight to bed. All night long I tried to get my fever down, but it bounced around from 100.5-103.0 still.
Monday morning I felt as if I could barely move and couldn’t get my temperature under control, so I went to the ER, where they ran some blood tests and did a CT scan and confirmed that my kidney infection had in fact spread to my blood AKA sepsis. I was admitted to the very medical surgical unit that I had worked at as a CNA for 6 years.
Needless to say I spent a couple of days in the hospital overcoming the worst of everything, and now here I am a week later lying at home, still in shock of how quickly I seemed to have gotten sick, since I apparently was asymptomatic for so long.
Today was the first day that I had enough energy to get up and wash a few dishes, and catch up on some emails. It’s crazy to feel so weak. I went for 5 days without eating which sounds insane to me – and I’m just now eating a little bit here and there.
So my friends, I guess if there’s one thing that life always reminds me of is this: you can’t take it for granted. You can’t take your health for granted. I know I’m thankful I have mine back today.
~Melissa