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 forgot to mention I had it some years aho but it was treated immediately when I had mastitis. It came on suddenly and the uncontrollable shivers and a temperature like flu stating were my only symptoms. I just knew this felt very different to the flu. Luckily I had my BIL staying who was a doctor and he picked up on it immediately.

Yes, sorry you did, my apologies.

Protect our weapons: less abuse of antibiotics.

And this is where it gets tricky. Sepsis campaign: about early recognition of sepsis and appropriate treatment. Much bigger problem on a day to day level: people pitching up to their GP and A and E with viral infections and their over treatment with antibiotics. Finding the correct balance is hard. On this thread there are pp who admit they're paranoid, understandably so. You're correct about individualised response. One of the hard things to accept with some sepsis deaths is the likelihood that that person's complement response could have been so severe and quick that it may not have been possible for them to be saved. The classic example is the teenager with meningococcal septicaemia who is a bit fluey, then a few hours later has fulminant DIC. Identification of those individuals at risk would be useful.

I'd also like to see a shrinkage and desktop version of viral respiratory PCR that a GP could have on their desk or in their surgery, get an answer in a few minutes like urinalysis. Would still need clinical judgement but could help convince people that antibiotics don't help. That's a medical engineering project for someone!

Look the risk is the same but people more aware. Most people will be fine after a wound
It is resulting from serious infection. So you would know you werent well. Temperature increased respiratory rate and heartrate. Low urine output. Low blood pressure.
Get quick help if sonething 'isnt right'.

Look the risk is the same but people more aware. Most people will be fine after a wound
It is resulting from serious infection. So you would know you werent well. Temperature increased respiratory rate and heartrate. Low urine output. Low blood pressure.
Get quick help if sonething 'isnt right'.

I had sepsis following on from the flu. Thanks to dh who got me to hospital in time. In hospital for 10 days, I’m icu for some of the time. I was on oxygen , Iv antibiotics in both hands and more oral antibiotics than I have ever seen.If I had arrived in hospital 2 hours later, they couldn’t have done anything so I was incredibly lucky. The care I had at my local hospital was amazing but it has made me and dh more wary anytime anyone gets a cold.

The NICE Guidance is very specific about how care providers should manage sepsis recognition and treatment. If they are following guidance, then sepsis should be picked up. The symptoms of sepsis are characteristic, and by that, I mean that regardless of what is causing the sepsis, a septic patient will have (eventually) low blood pressure, high heart rate, high respiratory rate, low O2 saturations, low urine output, high or low temperature. Other signs are change in behaviour, pale skin, feeling of Doom.

You can get sepsis from anything. But the key is not to present at hospital for an arterial blood stab every time you have an illness, in case it's sepsis (please!), but knowing what is normal for you/them, and what feels very abnormal. Watch closely if your family are ill. Keep them hydrated.

Here is the NICE Guidance for risk assessment for sepsis.

The nice guidance is helpful for hcps but I think lay people would struggle to be aware of low bp, fast heart rate, and low oxygen and would be unsure re the temperature particularly if they had had flu. And I think it would be hard for parents to spot these in their children, with the exception of high temp obviously.

Can I direct everyone to the blog on here by the lady who lost her dh to it, clearly directing us too the jab... For mennigacocol, menw or something. Says students at uni can get it.
If anyone has a quick read and then tells why it's not a useful jab.

I too have health anxiety and am thinking of getting this jab

All the world I am sure those symptoms a re how dd presents with chest issues all except the temperature and fever

It's a nightmare, I have felt doom and death in the past with flu. I just wouldn't know when it's taken turn for worse!

And my dh massively under plays any illness, he kept looking at me when as though I was at drama queen when I had a debilitating nasty ear infection a few years ago, had shivers then, bad shivers... Wrapped in blankets but high temp, sore throat... He thought I was being ott.

Meningococcal sepsis would be very rare in adults. I would recommend everyone get any vaccine going because it all helps, especially children. Most sepsis in adults would be from nose bacteria and gut bacteria. Staph and e. Coli.

I had septicemia from a severe kidney infection which they reckon I had for eight months (I had so many different antibiotics and none of them were strong enough to beat it). I felt like my body was dying, I knew it was, I felt so bloody awful and it was absolutely terrifying. My dh called out of hours because there had been no urine in my catheter bag for hours and in the middle of the night my catheter bag filled with blood (no urine just thick blood). OOH Doctor took one look at me and called an ambulance. I felt so guilty, it was my daughters birthday party that morning, she had just turned eight. I remember praying constantly that I wouldn't die and crying because I didn't want to die.

The hospital was honestly amazing! Their Sepsis pathway worked fantastically in my case and I was barely in the room before they had an IV cannula, antibiotics and fluids/ vitamins/ minerals into me. I was wired up to a heart monitor which kept going off as my heart rate was through the roof, my chest hurt as well. I had sent my husband to the party to distract my little girl and our ds, my Dad came to the hospital to see me but I was out of it and there were that many Doctors/ nurses around my bed. He is normally so positive, my Mum told me that he burst into tears when he got home as he was so terrified.

Thankfully the antibiotic worked really fast! By the time my dh and dc came in to visit me, I was already looking better than I had in months. The Doctors didn't mention sepsis or septicemia around me, they just said I had a bad kidney infection. I was glad in a way, as their confidence in my recovery took away my anxiety. After a few days, I was told that my body had gone into Septic Shock after Urinary Sepsis. I know how lucky I am to be here. I am also terrified, as I am prone to UTI's due to long-term catheterisation. I am waiting to see a Urologist, to discuss whether a Supra-Pubic catheter would be better.

I have been told that my body is now resistant to the go-to antibiotics for UTI/ kidney infection. I am honestly petrified that another infection will kill me. I have had another infection since and it took three different types of antibiotics to clear it. Antibiotic resistance and Sepsis terrify me. My body was dying, I could feel it and it is an absolutely awful feeling.

Staggeringon reading your post felt so strange, that was just like my mum, but we were too late

This thread terrifies me and yet df had wound in leg for a months and months, a hole oozing... Swollen... AND that never turned bad.. And then he had a catheter in at home and poor hygiene and that never turned bad either. So... Not every infection etc will turn bad.
I wish a small bloody pick test you can do at home could be developed so we know whether it is or not not.... Ie litmus paper thing

What a scary thread. Interesting too.

When I grew up in a developing country, people were very cautious with cuts and wounds always disinfecting them.

A couple of decades later I did an extended paediatric first aid course, when volunteering for the NCT and the training instructors said nothing about cleaning, or disinfecting wounds and scrapes. I put my hand up to ask about it and they laughed in my face saying that was not needed at all.

Do you or don't you clean wounds and scrapes and if yes, what method is best?

to all who have had personal experiences with this disease.

Yes very common. Sepsis is where there is an overwhelming systemic response to infection. So you can have scepticaemia for instance, without sepsis, or you can develop sepsis from a relatively minor infection. My daughter has immune issues, so has been hospitalised with sepsis of unknown infectious origin, and has also had scepticaemia from a strep infection that had entered her bloodstream, but thankfully was caught before she deteriorated. So yes it can be a fine line sometimes.
After I had my 2nd child, I felt a bit fluey after a few days, blacked out one morning and was rushed to hospital, turned out I'd had a womb infection and my system had simply gone into overdrive. Took a long recovery. Had never been ill up till then, so was a huge shock!
Not something to dwell on, but definitely needs better awareness, although I do think things have improved in the last ten years.

NeversayNever2
Nobody is saying its not a useful jab. But its not a sepsis vaccine. Its a vaccine against that lady's husband's underlying infection that led on to sepsis.

Having just read Pillow post, I should also add, a neighbour of ours cut her leg gardening one day. Tiny cut, ended up infected and she never came home. Was very sad, she used to always stop and chat while walking her little dog.

Please be reassured that you are much LESS likely to die of sepsis nowadays because it IS being picked up and sucessfully treated much more regularily. So many people who have been saved really have no idea how close they came and will just tell you they were in hospital for a few days "on a drip". These are people who would have died in the past and were home from hospital within a week.

Dont start bathing yourself in disinfectants: that leaves you open to colonisation. Instead learn what normal healing looks and feels like. We were better at this in the past.

I wonder if recognition is higher in farming communities? We are very detached nowadays from nature and i expect that people who are used to tending cuts etc in animals are better at spotting abnormal responses in each other!

Whilst its incredibly important to get the symptoms of sepsis out there and known, IMO there is also a need to educate more about "normal" healing and immune responses. People arent recognising the abnormal because they dont know whats normal, OR theyre seeking medical advice about normal body responses because they have lost all confidence in home treatment so present for every illness straining services that need to trear the abnormal.

oohloolalala we were so convinced about it being another virus, especially as we had been on plane the week before. The embarrassing thing is that my DH is a Doctor!