I Survived Sepsis due to Invasive Group A Strep - AMA

[NewNameWhoDis3]

Last December, when it seemed like every parent in the UK (me included) was on high alert for our children getting scarlet fever, or worse, the invasive kind that we read about in the papers...I got it instead.

I didn't even realise it was possible, but it damn near killed me. Now that I'm feeling stronger, I thought I'd start a thread to raise awareness.

I had very few symptoms of sepsis, and by the time it was diagnosed, I was almost in septic shock, where organs start shutting down.

All of this happened over the Christmas holidays/strike days; it wasn't a great time to be gravely ill.

During my 3 weeks in hospital, for 2 of them I was mostly unconscious or otherwise aware of how precarious my condition was, which was both a blessing, but also very confusing and has left me with large gaps in memory which is distressing.

I've been home a few weeks now and am much stronger, but it's relative. I can't walk far, am often breathless and can't actually do much without 'paying for it' the next day in terms of greater pain than I'm already in. It will last for months, and despite friends telling me I look great, I feel like hell most of the time. I'm not sure what my job prospects will be after this.

Apparently sepsis kills 1/3 of people who get it; roughly 120 people a day in the UK die of it. Invasive Group A Strep is rare, but unlike what the papers kept reporting, anyone (not just children) can get it. Here's a link to signs/symptoms in both adults and children - https://sepsistrust.org/about/about-sepsis/

If you've read this far, go ahead, ask me anything. I have loads of time! Otherwise, please acquaint yourself with the symptoms. I went from happy and well to fighting for my life within about 20 hours.

Thank you for sharing this OP; wishing you a fast recovery. I’m actually in hospital at the moment with Strep A pneumonia; did you find most of your symptoms were related to the sepsis rather than the infection? My temperature is spiking so I’m going to mention sepsis to the nurse just in case.

I too had Sepsis and then suffered from post sepsis syndrome. It’s a horrible thing to have and I was VERY lucky to have called an ambulance when I did. My plan to go to bed and hope to feel better in the morning would have resulted in me never waking up

Oh no I'm so sorry I've only just seen this - I hope you're feeling better by now? Pneumonia and strep A sounds like an awful combination. To answer your question, I'm not sure I could necessarily pick out what was the sepsis vs what was the strep A, symptom-wise - I just felt dreadful; my abdomen was painful nearly all the time, and often had the sensation of knives stabbing me internally, or something as if I'd been kicked, or hit by a bus - very sore, moreso than I've ever experienced before, all on the inside. I suppose that was my organs having been damaged...?

I also had breathing issues due to a chest infection which was awful to contend with - moving was painful; my breathing was restricted quite a lot and coughing up phlegm was excruciating. I really hope that your experience with it was different to mine as some of the nurses didn't believe I was struggling to breathe without pain as much as I actually was - so trying to breathe whilst not being seen as 'that patient' who can't be pleased was really stressful on some days 😕

The temperature spiking is so hard; it happened to me too and didn't seem relative to how I was doing overall - I could feel fine and then 20 minutes later spike a high temp, or feel too hot but then it wouldn't register on a thermometer for half an hour so in the meantime would be miserable.

Hope you did mention sepsis and got taken seriously. Feel free to PM me if you need to chat xx

This has made me teary. I'm pretty sure I have PSS as well. I can't seem to not relive the bits and pieces from ICU that I can remember, or stop thinking about how close I came to not making it. So many pieces in the chain of events worked in my favour just as blind luck, and in a way I feel guilty for it...one tiny thing being different - in my case, if my husb didn't wake up bc I was crying with pain, we wouldn't have had the conversation about going to A&E until hours later, and it would've been too late - so very similar to your situation - it really is terrifying how quickly sepsis moves - hours can mean the difference between death, or amputation, or organ failure...or survival.

Thank you so much for posting. I hate that you had this experience too but it really does help to read that others have gone through it and come out the other side xxx