r/sepsis

Hey everyone! I’m making this post just so that somebody can hopefully learn from my experience and spread awareness. I got out very lucky when after a kidney infection I retained fever like symptoms. But every time I checked my thermometer it said that my temperature was only slightly elevated. At the time I used an armpit thermometer with no clue at all that those do not work as well.

Bottom line… I asked someone to buy me an ear thermometer which did show that I indeed had a fever. At this time a few days had passed and I was VERY lucky with the timing as my CRP levels only started rising when I was again admitted to the hospital. Luckily they managed to treat the infection and I’m now at home.

If I had not bought that new thermometer with a higher accuracy then things could’ve turned out very differently.

Stay safe everyone, and please if you don’t trust your symptoms call a doctor and go to the hospital. It can’t hurt getting checked🙏🏼❤️

My dad was hospitalized for 3 days with urosepsis about a month ago. His appetite has returned, no cognitive deficits but he is not back to his normal baseline very fatigued but has good days and bad days. He’s definitely complaining of more joint and muscle aches. I tell him to rest whenever he feels like he needs to. I keep a close eye on his vitals, (BP, O2 sat, pulse and resp) I’m not sure what is normal and what is not? Is it normal to have days with energy and days with little to none? Are the body aches normal? Low mood?
He really doesn’t want to go to the doctor unless I make him.

Im just gonna share a bit of my story with sepsis. On March 1st I was in the hospital for a suicide attempt. I had been battling Guillain-Barré Syndrome and gave up. Due to my GBS they determined I needed a Foley catheter after straight cathing 3 times. Within 30 minutes I began feeling sick. Just overall off. I had a fever first 104. Then the 140s heartrate. I told the nurse and was told it was all anxiety. Last thing I remember was looking at the monitor and seeing my heartrate at 157 before passing out. For 6 hours I lay there unconscious with no one caring that 2h after a catheter insertion I had a high fever and high heart rate. Eventually my BP was taken and I looked at notes it was 63/28. Rapid response immediately called and I was shipped to the ICU. For 36 hours they tried to wake me doing various things such as sternum rubs and nothing got me. March 3rd I woke up and was hooked up to machines and dizzy. lightheaded with blurry vision. My kidneys got hit pretty hard. Nothing else interesting happened.

April 12th I felt this overwhelming wave of dread and needing to die. Within an hour of it coming on I was overdosing on sleeping pills. I arrived to the ER pretty quick because my mom found me and within 30 minutes 104 fever. They knew that wasn't supposed to happen so they began running bloodwork and shortly after my heartrate spiked to 130s. Shortly after my BP plummeted and I was in septic shock again. It was determined I had a UTI that caused 2 kidney infections which then caused sepsis. For 2 weeks I kept attempting suicide in every way I could even with a 1:1 sitter. Eventually the antibiotics began working and since then I have had 0 suicidal thoughts. Unfortunately during that time I was committed to the state due to them thinking I had just lost my mind and now im on a stay of commitment for 6 months.

My point of the post was to point out how much sepsis can affect your brain. Its very untacked about.

It was Wednesday May 8th 2024. I was at work, at a local elementary school. I work 1:1 with autistic kids. So I was with the little boy I worked with in his kindergarten gen ed room. My lower back was bothering me and my upper leg area near the groin. So I figured it was sciatic pain. I asked the classroom teacher if she could sit with him for a minute while I grabbed some Tylenol, got some and went on with my day.

That night was my nieces 5th birthday. So I went over to her party. I was still in a lot of pain and not feeling good so I didn’t stay long. When I got home I started throwing up. I figured I was getting a flu bug from the kids at school so I texted my principal and the classroom teacher and let them know I’d be out the next day, hoping it was a 24 hour flu kinda thing. I spent all day Thursday sick and in pain so I let them know I’d be out on Friday too. Friday I went to walk in care. They tested me for flu A&B, and Covid. All negative. They gave me something for the nausea and said if I was still sick on Sunday to go to the ER.

Saturday morning, May 11th, I woke up and I was still in a lot of pain, but the vomiting stopped. My boys had back to back baseball games so I got up and got everything ready. Uniforms laid out, cooler packed, I woke my husband who was the assistant coach and told him I was still in a lot of pain and it was hard to walk but I’d go to the ER after the games, I probably pulled a muscle or something. But he said no. There’d be no baseball. He was taking me to the ER NOW. So he texted the coach and woke our daughter to watch the boys and we headed to the ER 30 mins away.

When we got there I couldn’t get out of the car. I couldn’t stand and I couldn’t walk and the pain was unbearable. He literally had to lift me into a wheelchair. I felt like I could feel something moving in my upper leg. I panicked thinking it was a tumor because I have a neurological condition that can cause cancer. So when we got inside I told them what was going on and that I needed a CT scan.

My BP was scary deathly low. My kidneys and liver were shutting down. They could see an infection in my leg but they didn’t know what it was. I was in septic shock. They gave me morphine but I was still in pain. They gave me fentanyl but I was still in pain. They gave me ketamine. They worked. I kept passing out. I woke up and my husband was bawling over me. I passed out again and woke up, my mom and sister were there and they were crying too. I woke up and I was being loaded into an ambulance.

I woke up the next day, on Mother’s Day, in a hospital another 30mins away. Hooked up to a lot of IVs. The antibiotics weren’t working and I kept smoking a fever of 104/105f so they decided to remove the infection surgically. It turns out I had strep in my bloodstream. They got it out but I needed a wound vac. I stayed at the hospital until May 24th. I went home on my son’s 10th birthday. I still had the wound vac so I had home health nurses coming 3 times a week until I finally got it out on June 19th.

Pretty much the scariest time in my life. Until fast forward until December of 2025. Long story short I was diagnosed with adrenal cancer and had a 35cm tumor removed from my abdomen along with my spleen, kidney, part of my bowel, and part of my pancreas.

In April last year I went septic from TSS. I was in the icu for a few days on life support and this past year has been all about recovery and dealing with Post Sepsis Syndrome.

In my country there is very little awareness about identifying Sepsis or support for those who survive or for bereaved families.

This week I have accepted a role within a charity that's aiming to support all of the above. It works with the government to help create more awareness, work with those in the medical field to create a Sepsis pathway for treatment and identification and be a source of information for those who have survived or family of bereaved.

Im so excited to be making a difference

I didn’t expect to make it out of the hospital. I’m 16 years young, but I just wish I died. Dying is so, so easy. painful but easy. living is harder.

I can barely breathe most of the time. I get so air hungry, and I feel pressure on my chest then I get really tired. Sometimes my chest will feel tight and hurt. This has only happened after sepsis. anyone else feel this way? My vision also gets so weird. like blurry and things will seem too far away or too close. or like things are 2d.

I have a doctor appointment about this tomorrow, but I’m wondering if anyone else is going through something like This

My mother recently died from sepsis/septic shock after a very complicated medical course, and I’m trying to better understand what medically happened and whether there were things I could realistically have done differently as her primary caregiver.

She had FIGO Stage IIIC uterine carcinosarcoma and underwent an open hysterectomy only three months ago. After surgery, she had a UTI that was immediately treated and was resolved. Later, after her second chemo, doctors discovered kidney obstruction/hydronephrosis, which they believed was likely related to the tumor obstruction. Ureteral stents were placed first, her creatine was normalized. But two weeks later , her urine output was super low, so the doctors proceeded with a PCN.

Things declined very quickly after that. Her urine output remained low even after the PCN, creatinine worsened, and she eventually developed severe sepsis/septic shock. She later required dialysis and ventilation, and her blood pressure became extremely unstable despite medications.

I keep replaying everything wondering:
- whether the obstruction should have been caught earlier,
- whether PCN should have been done earlier instead of trying stents first,
- whether poor oral intake/nutrition could have significantly worsened the outcome (she was throwing up everything she was eating at the later stages)
- whether this level of kidney failure can genuinely develop within days in advanced cancer/sepsis,
- and whether this sounds medically like a situation that was already extremely high risk despite treatment.

I fully understand nobody here can judge a complex case perfectly without records, but I’m trying to understand the likely medical sequence and whether there were realistic missed opportunities versus an overwhelming disease process.

I was her primary caregiver through all of this, and I think my brain is struggling to separate grief from responsibility.

I want to be checked for adrenal insufficiency (part of post sepsis a fair amount of the time). I went to get labs done and get a note my work has been asking for for months yesterday but was sent to the er for abnormal vitals that could have indicated sepsis, mi or pulmonary embolism. Thankfully nothing of the sort was found. I'm struggling with my work. My word order, finding words, concentration and train of thought are messed up and having mental fatigue to the point of staring off into space. Tasks require much more effort. Anyone else encounter this and have a doctor who was able to help with it? I read some who were given corticosteroids, hrt (hydrocortisone)to help restore normal adrenal function. Anything you found that helped outside the doctor's office? Thank you.

Hi, 24f here, went into septic shock with biliary sepsis back in January 31st.
I usually have very thick hair- my hair is falling out like crazy now; it’s really thin, and I can’t even touch it without clumps coming out.

I know it’s normal for recovery, (at least I think so) but when did it clear up for you guys? What can help stop the hair loss?

Thank you

Currently hospitalized originally with MRSA. But now they’re really worried about sepsis. This is my first experience w sepsis and I’m not sure what to expect. I’m on iv antibiotics right now

10 /15/2025 R.I.P Michael

So last year around halloween i had to go to the hospital for pneumonia where i learned i had sepsis. I was at 2.5 when i had arrived and i had stayed for 3 days in the hospital. For a while i had total loss of strength in my legs and arms and had an inhaler but it had gotten better over the weeks. Now its may and im still having problems. Lately im having constant muscle pain in my legs(has gotten better after leaving my last job) still having lung issues with a recent cough from fluid in my lungs, and most notable a brain fog and extreme tiredness. Im 21 and although im aware post sepsis syndrome isnt as common in my age group, im worried i have it due to my immune system issues and history of infections. Does anyone who has had it or has it give me some advice? Im worried I'll embarrass myself if i go to a doctor.

Last week I was diagnosed with early sepsis. 12 days postpartum. At first I was diagnosed with a uti but the bacteria that grew in my blood was not from a uti and from an infection in my uterus. I still had high levels of infection in my urine so they believe I had both. I was on iv antibiotics and fluids for 5 days and have been home for 4 days now on amoxicillin clauv acid. The bacteria in my blood was cleared in the last test before I was able to go home. I obviously have been feeling pretty awful since which they said was to be expected. I’ve had low grade fevers until a few hours ago when I had the chills and then a fever spike to 39.1 after taking some Panadol it’s down to 38.5. I’m quite unsure on what to do. If I need to go back to my ED. Or is it possibly an effect of post sepsis.

Hey everyone,

I posted here a few weeks ago when I was admitted to the hospital a second time following a UTI that spread to my kidney and got trapped there due to UPJ Stenosis. I had a follow up appointment with the doctor and was very relieved to hear that although they gave me the diagnosis of Urosepsis at the time, it hadn’t spread to my blood and likely was an advanced UTI with early systemic reactions.

I recovered fairly quickly after my kidney was drained with a tube.

A week or two have passed now since then and my energy levels are… weird. In the morning I feel VERY energised. Almost more so than before I was helped in the hospital, only to crash later in the evening and feel absolutely lethargic. I want to go on walks to get at least some cardio in before I am having the kidney removed surgically in a few weeks… but, I can’t seem to muster the energy to do it. I’m a really active person who’s been a football player all her life and also recovering from an ACL tear still that I got surgery for last year. I’m afraid that if I don’t move I will lose everything I worked so hard for.

I’m really grateful that I made it out of the hospital the way I did. Because I know how much worse it could’ve been especially since my CRP levels spiked in the 300s on my worst day.

What also doesn’t help is that I’ve developed severe health anxiety since my last surgery, which was the ACL. I’m in therapy for it but this experience has pushed me down the ladder I was climbing. Now I’m so afraid again, for the upcoming surgery, for experiencing something like this again or worse…

I struggle with insomnia because I don’t want to miss a minute before going to have surgery. But also because I struggle with nightmares almost every other night.

I miss my life before all this and wish that they would’ve noticed my stenosis long before this infection. It ruined my kidney to the point where it’s 0,6% functional. Well… at least my other one has already taken over and appears to be very healthy. Which once again, I’m grateful for.

Sorry for the long rant, I hope you are all doing well and I can’t imagine having actually gone into sceptic shock because my experience was already quite awful. Sending lots of love and good wishes for everyone’s health.

So I am wondering… has anyone experienced something similar? How long does it take for energy to return to normal and is it common to get those “spikes” of energy only to later crash?