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.

I've had sepsis twice. I hope to God I never get it again. Scary.

As others have said, sepsis seems scarier and more ‘visible’ now because there has been a big public health awareness campaign surrounding it and NHS England did big push with the UK Sepsis Trust to raise awareness and improve early detection and treatment (therefore improving survival rates). Training campaigns like ‘Think Sepsis’ and the introduction of tools to identify patients who may be showing red flag signs of Sepsis on the standard early warning scores (observations) sheets have raised the profile of the condition in healthcare settings.

I had septicaemia after DS2, from an infected episiotomy wound. The midwife picked it up. She was very experienced though.

The midwife on the shift before, when I told her how crap I was feeling, and shaking with cold, and I asked her for a bottle of formula because I felt so rough, drew herself up to her full height and lectured me on breast is best!

If she'd spent a few seconds investigating why I felt so bad, I might not have gone into renal failure as it wasn't picked up until the next shift.

The night shift again after diagnosis and in a sideroom on a myriad of fluids catheter and I V antibiotics, I woke up to find her waggling my left tit in my babies face. I asked her what on earth she was doing. "Breast is best!" she trills...
I was only just this side of ITU and I felt the worst in my entire life. My IV antibiotics which were on a strict timed regime were now well overdue, but that came second to gratuitously waggling my tit in my babies face when I'd asked them to give him formula as I was so sick...

I've had sepsis. 1week in icu and 2 hours from death. Luckily my dh was quick on the google and sent me to hospital. I had sore throat and sickness so didn't want to bother the nhs. It was the rash that convinced him! I did feel strange but think I felt worse with the flu.
I have been doing lots of things with the sepsis charity. The fact you know it exists is great. You will google it if you get ill.
It has got 'worse' as before things like the original infection would be reported as cause of death . Now they are trying to ensure that they register sepsis as cause of death to really understand the stats.
And to the person up thread I have spoken to lots of the top sepsis people. A Vaccine has never been mentioned. Your body is overreacting. Can not be vaccinated against.
Awareness by everyone is the key.
We are all aware about strokes and heart attacks and breast cancer. So just be aware of this.
I think these flow charts are great
sepsistrust.org/education/clinical-tools/

to all those who have lost loved ones to sepsis or who have been otherwise affected by it

Ds had sepsis after contracting influenza A. It was terrifying, he had been to the gym the previous evening, woke up the next morning feeling awful with what we thought was tonsillitis. He went to the GP at lunchtime as I was worried about his breathing. GP phoned the hospital when he saw him,phoned me and sat with him whilst I got there. He told me to go straight there they were expecting him. By early evening he was in HDU, The influenza A had wiped out his white blood cells leaving him susceptible to sepsis.
It was really frightening the speed with which he deteriorated. I am so glad I'm a fussy mother who insisted I check on him when he text saying he was ill. Had he gone to bed to sleep it off instead of me sending him to the GP he wouldn't have survived.

The Sepsis Trust linked to earlier have loads of educational resources, including screening and action tools for all combinations of ill people and people looking after them. E.g.
this carers' screening and action tool for adults is aimed at unqualified people looking after adults - it's straightforward to use and could be useful for people to have in their house if concerned.

Sm40
Thank you for explaining that. I thought that vaccine would help as it also protects from some causes of septicaemia. I thought septicaemia and sepsis were the same. I’m trying to look more into it it’s very confusing.
I’m glad you are well!

Yes my DF very nearly died from sepsis had a central line of antibiotics and was close to death for a while. The consultant didn’t think he would pull though. A friend’s mum also died from sepsis they just thought she had the flu.

I'm a student nurse and we were learning about Sepsis today. As PP have said, it is a systematic response to infection rather than a thing you catch. 50% of sepsis in from lung infections, 25% from UTI and the rest wounds etc. Problem with recognition is many symptoms seem like other things, in a hospital with regular observations it is quite likely to be picked up now, but people with it at home may assume flu. Signs like very low blood pressure are obviously not something patients pick up on.
The feeling of dying (impending doom) should never be ignored.
Temperature can be tricky as it can be high or low depending on the stage. Same with colour, you can be flushed or pale.
Low urine output, high respiratory rate (breathless, rapid breathing) and high heart rate are the main ones we may be able to pick up at home.

It is good that we are hearing more about it, but cases and deaths are still rising. I have lost and nearly lost quite a few people I know to sepsis.

Antibiotic resistance is indeed terrifying.

Oh the side effect of sepsis and all the antibiotics they pump into you (3 different forms in my case) is the most upset bowels you have ever had. Seriously. When you're wiped out and then have a dodgy antibiotic bum on top...

Oh my god, I know exactly what you mean. Four days after being admitted and I had to ask the nurse for some Imodium when I spent an hour on the loo with the entire world falling out of my arse.

And the smell of the antibiotics, one of them stank like cat piss and the other killed my taste buds so nothing had any flavour.

As I had started responding to the antibiotics it was decided that they wouldn't risk further rinfection by removing the retained tissue and would adopt a 'watch and wait' approach to see if it was passed or reabsorbed. When I was eventually discharged I'd been home for two days and got up in the night to pee. As soon as I stood up I felt like I was peeing myself. The shame! Hurried to the bathroom, peeing the entire way, and put the light on to find it was actually blood. My pyjama bottoms were plastered to my legs and it was pattering onto the floor. Then it stopped. I shouted to DH and just as he arrived in the bathroom, it started again. I popped off to hospital, secondary PPH caused by the retained tissue coming away, and he was left with the clean up. Poor bloke had scrubbed bile off the bathroom floor several times a week and a bit before and then just when he thought it was all over he had to cleanup what looked like a murder scene 😂

My DF died from urinary sepsis. It was absolutely awful

I'm astonished by the symptom of feeling you're going to die, impending doom as pp mentioned. I'm astonished at the body knowing something is very wrong and sending the brain those signals.

Very worthwhile information.

So, is sepsis what used to be called septic shock?
And is it different from septicaemia, which is an infection of the blood?

Yes if we can vaccinate against the infection that may cause the sepsis then great! The source of my sepsis is unknown. I got toxic shock on the way! Which I had always assumed you just got from old tampons (definitely not the case with me!).
My top symptoms were
Sore throat (last winter assumed cold)
Sickness (bug going round)
Shivers (assumed bad cold!)
Dizziness (hAve low bp anyway)
Rash (ok time to see someone!)
My heart rate was up but I did don't know this!
I now have a long term heart condition but will take that over leaving 2 kids.
I was told I am still alive as I was fit and healthy.

any infection can cause sepsis. There will never be a vaccine for sepsis. Vaccines are for viruses. Sepsis is commonly secondary to bacterial infections.

(There are some bacterial vaccines but no vaccine against all bacteria!)

P.s. Yes sepsis = septic shock or at least on the way towards full on septic shock

Most infections of the blood ( is that sepsis? I'm still not clear) are cause by bacteria that normally live safely and happily in our noses and guts. So it's not about getting rid of the bacteria, it's about stopping them getting into our blood by cleaning cuts and being vigilant following ANY other infections like flu or UTI or a wound infection like an in grown toenail.

Thanks pancakeinmabelly!! That's makes sense to me now

God really shouldn't read this threads. These awareness campaigns are an utter nightmare when you have health anxiety.

It's mainly about cutting down on overuse of antibiotics so that if sepsis does happen, we have some tools left to right it with.
Brexit won't help either, AFAIK we get most of our antibiotics from France and we already have supply issues

The key with all sepsis is early recognition and treatment. So if you think you/your relative has sepsis, and you're taking them to A&E yourself, don't be shy about saying so. Don't wait until you've gone through their whole history, events leading to attendance, symptoms up until this point, when they started to feel worse, and then climax with 'so I read a thread on mumsnet about sepsis and wondered if s/he could have that?' just be completely bold and say "I think s/he has sepsis".

All A&E departments have to screen for sepsis as part of triage now, if a patient's observations are sufficiently abnormal (if they use NEWS it would be a score of 2 or more), so anyone with a high heart rate, low blood pressure, low oxygen levels, high or low temp, etc., would be screened for sepsis anyway.

I had what first appeared to be just a nasty tummy bug a year ago that somehow turned into sepsis then septic shock. I was only sick for a couple of days and my mum had come up to help me with the kids. She called the ambulance in the middle of the night as I was so dehydrated, couldn’t stop vomiting and was delirious. The ambulance guys nearly didn’t take me as I hadn’t been sick for long enough, it was just my very low blood pressure that persuaded them on balance to take me in. When I got to A&E they kept trying to rehydrate me but it wasn’t working, then my organs began failing and blood pressure nose dived even further. Luckily this was spotted by the critical care outreach service and recognised as septic shock. I was whisked up to ICU had a central line put in and pumped full of antibiotics. A week later i was out of danger but it took a lot longer to recover fully. It still feels strange that I was so close to death I don’t think I have fully processed that even now. I am however so very grateful to the doctors who saved me, people are always complaining about the NHS but the service I experienced was amazing.

The scary thing was they didn’t know what infection caused it, I had no cuts, no evidence of any other infection apart from a tummy upset. I tested negative for every bacteria and virus they just don’t know what caused it.

I lost my mother to Group A streptococcal necrotising fasciitis which led to overwhelming sepsis, in may 2016. AKA The flesh eating bug.
She went in for an operation on to correct a deviated septum and I picked her up from hospital on the afternoon the next day, she was vomiting and saying she was in a lot of pain, this was odd as she hadn't been told it would be a painful.
The doctors felt it was a reaction to codeine and discharged her.
I took her home and she just told me she wanted to sleep so I let her. The next Morning I received a call from her lodger, he had checked on her and found her with her entire face swollen, she was retching, confused and couldn't see. I called an ambulance but by the time she arrived in resus she was in cardiac arrest.
She was bought back and put into a medical coma.
Her face was black and she was in deep sepsis.
They removed most of her face but I was told they didn't expect he to survive and that she would have brain damage and likely be blind with harrowing disfigurement. So I removed life support. It was traumatic and terrifying and I am yet to cope with what happened to her.