To be scared of Sepsis?

[bananaplease]

It seems to be in the news so much that people are dying from this and it happens without people realising.

Is it a new thing? I don't remember hearing about it much before, but that might just be the increased power of social media/news apps etc.

I might stop reading the news. It's so depressing.

One of then guys who died from it in the media stories was misdiagnosed by a nurse practitioner as having a chest infection when he actually had pneumonia.

So stay away from nurse practioners.

And remember the key symptoms to look out for:

High fever
Fast heart-rate
Breathlessness
Chills/shivering
Confusion

YABU at the current time but not so in 20 years time and we have much more antibiotic resistance and people in the developed world start dying in large numbers from simple infections and vital infections viral infections. www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21702647

It was a nurse practitioner who spotted my sepsis.

As far as I am aware the stand out symptom marking it out from other similar symptoms is cold hand and feet.

Apparently there is another jab for the sepsis? £70, DONE privately?

It’s worth having a contact in your phone about the symptoms . My dad nearly died from it . Sorry probably not cheering you up !!

Is it a new thing? I don't remember hearing about it much before, but that might just be the increased power of social media/news apps etc.

I wondered this as well, I'd never heard of it until a few years ago, and now it's everywhere, if it kills more than cancer how did We not know about it.

Surely you can't get vaccinated for sepsis? It's a systemic response to an overwhelming infection (of any kind) not a specific virus.

Or are you thinking of the strain of meningitis they don't routinely vaccinate for?

My son had it at 2 weeks old, he had been 4 weeks prem and we'd only had him home a few days. I knew something wasn't right, despite being turned away by the GP, who I'm sure thought I was some paranoid mother. Luckily the registrar we saw at A&E was much more on the ball and put him on IV antibiotics straight away. The anti-biotics caused liver problems which meant we were in and out of hospital for pretty much the first 9 months of his life. It was the most horrendous time and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy

YANBU at all, it is fucking scary.

I had it when DS1 was 2 weeks old, caused by mastitis and a nipple that became septic. Luckily the OOH doctor recognised it and sent me straight to hospital - he was on the phone to them before I'd left his office to say I was on my way. I was only in hospital for 36 hours, on IV antibiotics and oxygen, but was nowhere near as ill as some of those who've commented on this thread but I know I was extremely lucky that the Dr spotted it so quickly and I will be forever grateful to him. I felt so ill, it hurt to breathe.

I know two people who have died from it in the last year (both times contracted when in hospital for something else).

It has left me utterly paranoid every time anyone I know is ill, but my DC especially, that they might have it. Even when they just have a cold. I can't emphasise enough how important it is to been seen quickly if you suspect you have it.

It also left me so paranoid and anxious that I couldn't breastfeed DS2. I tried to breastfeed him soon after he was born but I was too terrified of it happening again that I just couldn't do it.

It terrifies me too. I think It’s the fact that any healthy adult can succumb to it not just elderly/young/etc. And it seems hard to distinguish from other illness. A dear family friend died of it, told she had bad flu by cottage hospital and was dead within hours. Another friend whose a builder lost his legs after getting a minor cut! So YANBU.

Colleagues father dies of it before Christmas, he was in his early nineties though, don't know whether that affects your ability to recover.

There is no jab from it, it can be caused by any infection that overwhelms the body (or more accurately, when the body tries too hard to fight a/any infection and end up harming itself)

It is not new. My great aunt died from it in childhood. It just didnt have an umbrella name (so you'll have been told that they died from the root cause infection rather than the resulting septic shock). Most death from childbirth in the olden days was due to sepsis. It was much more common then than now.

The media coverage is due to the huge IMPROVEMENT in survival rates in recent years but only if its treated fast.

I had sepsis after a section last year. Day five post section and I woke up feeling shivery and weepy, all I wanted to do was lie on the sofa and cry into the top of DD's head. I felt sickly. I couldn't eat or drink, the very thought of it repulsed me and when I tried some water it was so disgusting I couldn't swallow it. I was so cold, that's my main memory, being painfully cold. I told DH I was dying and he told me I'd be okay. MW on a home visit told me it was probably tiredness and my milk coming in.

Mid-afternoon I started throwing up. First my dinner from the night before and then green and brown bile, it stank and the taste was horrific. I had pains in my abdomen. Rang MW who said it was probably food poisoning or a bug from my other DC. Continued to shiver and spew. By the evening I was wearing a vest, a t-shirt, pyjamas, a cardigan, two pairs of socks, a dressing gown, and had a fleece blanket wrapped around me. I was still cold. DD did an exploding shit and all I could do about it was cry. I told DH I was going to bed to sleep it off. DH said no and rang OOH.

OOH sent a GP straight to the house who examined me and rang an ambulance. The paramedics stripped my layers off me and I cried because I felt like I would never be warm ever again. Before I left I told DH where my life insurance documents were because I knew I wasn't going to come home. It was weird, it wasn't like a fear or a melodramatic "I'm dying", I just felt very matter-of-fact about it all, I knew I was dying and I was okay with it. At least I wouldn't be cold any more. They had to give me gas and air in the ambulance for the pain. Arriving at hospital is hazy, like a dream. I threw up all myself and all over the floor when I filled the sick bowl faster than it could be swapped for an empty one. Someone helped me wash and change. A pipe in my hand and IVs hung up - fluids, two lots of antibiotics, an anti-emetic, IV paracetamol. I was writhing in pain, they felt like contractions. They were contractions, it turned out the infection was from retained tissue. I asked if I would have my baby soon. They said she's here, she came in the ambulance too, do you want her? What baby? I said, I don't have a baby. They took her away so of course I remembered about her then and asked for her. DH came to see me and I was chatting to him and the DC. I felt peaceful and floaty. We talked for ages but really DH wasn't even there, when he did come in he said I was passed out the whole time and we didn't have any of the conversations I thought we had. My BP was very low, 70/40 at one point, and my temperature was low. I always thought infections meant fever but it turns out the opposite is often the case too.

I had IV antibiotics for three days and then two lots of oral antibiotics many times a day for ten days. I still couldn't eat but that was the antibiotics rather than the sepsis.

I don't know how close I came, the doctor said if I'd been successful in my attempt to go to bed and "sleep it off" I'd have most likely been beyond help by the morning so I'd guess I came fairly close. I'm also now paranoid about infections and about getting sepsis again. I got a viral infection a few months ago and got the shivers, I had a panic attack because I thought it was the sepsis come back to finish the job. One of my back teeth is damaged from HG and needs pulling but when the dentist talked about it and about aftercare, as soon as she mentioned infection I burst into tears and refused to let her pull it out, now I can't ever go back because I'm too embarrassed.

I'm glad awareness has been increasing. OOH, the on call GP, and the hospital were shit hot on it, the MW who told me it was tiredness/milk/food poisoning/a bug was not so shit hot so obviously work is still needed.

Sepsis is a physiological response to infection. It's not an infection or "disease" in itself. You don't " catch" sepsis. You get infected and if untreated or if the infection is very aggressive, sepsis is sort of like the body's shock reaction.

Bearfrills yes the coldness, I thought I'd never get warm again. I had vest, pj's, thick fluffy dressing gown, thick socks, duvet and was still shivering uncontrollably, I just couldn't stop shaking.

Sepsis didnt used to go on death certs but you can quite easily find it in your family history. Things like:
Gangene
Pneumonia
Dog bite
Etc will most likely have been sepsis that actually killed them.
Nowadays it'll say "sepsis secondary to necrosis" instead of "gangene" but its the same thing.

riding it is utterly ridiculous to say stay away from nurse practitioners! Pneumonia is literally a chest infection, both terms are used interchangeably and often misrepresented in the media.
All manner of Dr’s miss things or misdiagnose in their careers also, human error will always be a factor in healthcare regardless of whether the diagnosing practitioner is a Dr or a nurse.

I am aware but not scared. I have anxiety issues anyway so I've read up on the symptoms and I keep a well stocked first aid kit in case of cuts bits scratches etc. I do think people don't cleanse wounds like they used to. I use an antiseptic tcp usually and a plaster if needed. If it starts looking red I get the savlon on it and if it's still not settled then pharmacist to get it seen. Illness wise it's not as easy to protect from but if myself or my family were suddenly very ill I would get them seen asap anyway.

In the UK now the health service is very sepsis aware and the government has handed out literature to GPs asking them to be on the lookout for it. If you are worried it's bad and you aren't being taken seriously just ask them could it be sepsis? They will check and double check even if just to cover their own arse. Not that doctors should have to worry about litigation but that's how the world works.

I will say all the I would be dead or lost limbs etc if I had left it another hour stories are scary. Read between the lines and what they are saying is I detected sepsis in time for me to be treated succesfully.

I am not saying it isn't an awful awful disease but you don't need to be scared.

As far as I am aware the stand out symptom marking it out from other similar symptoms is cold hand and feet.
It can be a symptom but its also possible to have sepsis and be hot all over.

I've lost someone to sepsis, it is very scary. If you can become informed and raise awareness that's great. Living in fear of something is not so good.

My dad has just recovered after 12 weeks in hospital with sepsis. They couldn't find the cause and eventually worked out it was an infection in his pacemaker. Very, very terrifying and I never thought he would come home. So lucky. Seeing him that poorly won't leave me though. I really thought he would die. I'm very scared of sepsis as even though he had it I'm not clear how I would know if someone else had the symptoms. I find it all incredibly worrying.

I do think people don't cleanse wounds like they used to

Now this I have been thinking about a lot lately. I think people have forgotten how to be ill and how to look after loved ones.
In the past you would know how to treat minor ailments at home so you would be more in tune with whats a normal cold/flu, and what's "not right and needs the doctor" if that makes sense?

I think we're too detached from that now to know when to panic and when to provide hot drinks and blankets.

I've had sepsis twice from infected eczema. I didn't realise how serious it was. Fortunately for me, the nurse did and pumped me full of iv antibiotics. After a couple of days of that, I had antibiotic injections in my bum every six hours and more antibiotics by mouth. By the time I'd finished with the antibiotics, my bum was black with bruising from the injections. But I lived to tell the tale.

My sister had Sepsis last year, from January to April she lost 5 stone. She is still not right yet.

Pneumonia is literally a chest infection, both terms are used interchangeably and often misrepresented in the media.

The comment about nurse practioners was actually tongue in cheek but for the po-faced - the poor man actually had pneumonia + sepsis - which was misdiagnosed as merely a chest infection and sent away with antibiotics. He should have been referred for an urgent chest x-ray and sent straight to A & E. It turned out he had an abscess on his lung which had partially collapsed. He died 10 hours after the diagnosis.