To ask about sepsis?

[Viviennewestwoodsknickers]

My FIL (66yo) is in hospital with sepsis. They haven't identified the source and are waiting for flu swabs to come back. He's struggling for breath, can't move between bed and commode without becoming exhausted, and is convinced he has lung cancer due to coughing up blood.

In the meantime, he's in isolation with visitors strongly discouraged and having to kit up in aprons and masks etc. All totally understandable.

Has anyone been through this? The family are not great at pressing for information from the hospital, and visiting hours are pathetic (3.5hrs per day on all wards, not because he's in isolation) meaning no one can be there when rounds happen. FIL is too ill to talk much about what happens at rounds and we don't know what's really happening or how concerned they are. He's also a very depressive man, and being alone for 20+hrs a day is making him mentally very paranoid and sad.

He's booked in for an MRI today, but no one has explained quite what they are looking for.

He's on a drip and oxygen, we assume IV antibiotics, but that seems to be about it.

Any experiences?

Been on both sides - patient with sepsis and a relative to someone in ICU. It's worse as a relative! All I can suggest is his NOK rings the ward and asks to be kept updated and also notify them of his low mood, it is a "thing" to end up with ptsd type conditions after a serious illness and ccu/icu/isolation stay so push the medics for answers and support.

Has a Chaplin been in to see him?

Your husband can ask to speak to a doctor and you can be there for rounds, just say that’s your wish. Had he already had a ct scan?

My mother was in hospital a couple of years ago with sepsis. She was 83 at the time.
She was extremely ill, the sepsis was from pneumonia. She had an irregular heart beat, ridiculously low blood pressure as well as the chest symptoms.
She was treated with oxygen, fluids, antibiotics and medication to regulate her heart. It was a worrying time for us all.
Keep asking for information, make one person the one who rings or visits regularly to gain information, they can then let the rest of the family know.
I would make sure I was there when the doctors came round. It took my mother several months to recover, but she was quite frail before the illness.

The ward clerks are frankly rude to the family and one hung up on me on the phone yesterday when I was asking how he was! I understand they are not clinicians, but I was asking to speak to someone who could update me / DH (I make most of the calls because he hates using the phone).

He hasn't seen a Chaplain, I wonder if he'd appreciate that. He's not religious, but would probably like the chatter. Mind you, he'd likely assume they'd come to deliver the Last Rites, so would need to manage that!

He has had chest xrays, which we believe were clear. No CT.

Chaplains are there for emotional wellbeing and support and a general natter. May be worth asking for them to pop up for a chat

Mum was in with it a few months back. She is 74. She had IV antibiotics which made her feel horrible, but she bounced back very quickly and was out after a few days, and back to normal after about a month. Hope your FIL has a similarly speedy recovery.

MIL is there every day, but she doesn't ask questions, and then passes on half information.

I'm concerned the family are massively underestimating this situation, as they are a lovely relaxed bunch but this time it's a bit more serious.

BumPowder, how are you these days? Any long term issues for you?

I'm well thanks. Took about 8-12 weeks for everything to settle down, including the after effects of the antibiotics. But once i got moving around properly my appetite came back and I could rebuild muscle mass from where I had been immobile for a while.

Does the hospital have a bank of volunteers? If you think a chaplain might look a bit suspicious, they might be able to ask someone to pop in to spend some time with him. I used to volunteer for the lunchtime shift on an elderly care ward and one of my specific roles was to chat with the patients in side rooms, which can be very lonely places, but iirc there were also volunteers who could be sent to drop in on particular patients who needed a bit of support.

Thank you Penguin, I'll find out.

Hmm you should complain to pals about the clerks. I am a nhs manager and if they were my team I’d want to know. MRI usually takes a bit more arranging than ct, ct is cheap and easy. So if they are going straight to mri it’s because whatever they are looking for is best shown by mri. No idea what that is but you should definitely be able to get that info from the doctors, be persistent.