My GP and I thought it was a superficial cellulitis.
I went to my doctor on Jan 10, 2023 because my right, inner thigh was swollen, red, hot and painful. I have a history of DVT’s so I thought that it was yet another clot. I’ve also had cellulitis before, so when it began to cause me more pain I was sure it was cellulitis. My doctor agreed. She gave me an immediate injection of antibiotics and wrote me a prescription to take for the next 7 days.
I have a rather extensive medical history, so she told me to watch for any new symptoms, like a fever, chills and worsening pain. I was told to go to the emergency room if any of that happened.
I’m very used to being weak and sick. I get twice a week infusions of fluids& electrolytes as well as iron infusions and quite a bit of blood transfusions. All of this because I have short bowel syndrome as well as a few autoimmune diseases.
So I thought nothing of it when I started feeling weaker. Then, almost over night I was unable to move much at all. I couldn’t bear my own weight and my leg developed these black streaks just under the skin. Thank god my son came to my house to see how I was doing. He called 911 and the ambulance took me to the closest hospital.
The doctor in the ER got me as stable as he could. Which involved drilling a hole in my shin and putting in an I/O with zero medications to numb me up. My BP was 72/34 so, nothing for pain either. I was in and out of consciousness but I do remember the nurse coming in and saying that the helicopter would be arriving shortly to take me to a hospital with an intensive care trauma unit.
I remember being loaded into the helicopter and I remember touching down at the new hospital. The paramedic that was in the back of the copter with me had put a pair of headphones on me, to protect my hearing during take off and landing.
I had three operations over a period of three days. They weren’t sure they could save my leg at the time. I was on some kind of pump that administered round the clock pain meds and woke up with a ventilator. They had gotten permission from my son to place the ventilator because of my low BP and inability to breathe on my own. I had that dang thing for 5 more days after the last operation. Using my clipboard and pad I asked if I still had a right leg. They didn’t have to amputate, but I did lose over half of my upper, right thigh. All total I was in hospital for 17 days, 10
Of which was intensive care. Then I had to go to acute care rehab for 16 days. Home healthcare for 2 months and now I’m able to go to hospital for follow ups.
But it was hell. I’ve been through a lot. Including a perforated bowel and colorectal cancer treatment and nothing was as horrible as this experience. We don’t know how I ended up with the necrotizing fasciitis and it was odd that I never developed a fever. But I will tell you this, I’ll never “wait and see” again when it comes to anything like this w er again. Having toxic septicemia and necrotizing fasciitis was the absolute worst. And I seem to be having some symptoms of PTSD with no one to talk to who really understands why it’s affected me so much.
This is a very condensed version of what I went through…but it was an ordeal that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.
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