me. This continued for six days and nights.
Night 6 was when I literally thought I might
not make it. The whole time up to this point
I was just thinking “fight through it.” But this
night I came out of a hallucination with a
nosebleed and began to puke nothing but
blood. I hit my call button and no one came
to help for what seemed like ages. I couldn’t
breath in my nose and I could barely get a
breath in through the bloody vomit and
my tightening throat. I remember filling up
several cardboard bowls, running out and
puking all over the floor and sheets and
thinking “this is it. I’m not going to die of the
infection. I’m going to suffocate covered in
my own vomit.” For two hours this continued
and with my free hand I sent out I love you
texts to my family and girlfriend while I
struggled to breath. I wasn’t’ accepting my
fate. I fought my ass off for breaths. Finally
the vomiting stopped and my stomach and
insides felt empty and crunched into a ball. I
chugged water, breathed deeply for a while
and then passed out for a couple hours,
thankful beyond reason to still be alive,
appreciative of every breath.
Day seven came and a few doctors finally
arrived to a more stable me, took a blood
test, and returned a few hours later. It
appeared I had three different infections and
one was a severe one that attacks tendons
and muscles. They said if I were a smaller
person with less muscle before the blood
and bones I’d have lost the leg. If it climbed
quicker through thinner tissue and reached
my abdomen or heart I would have died. If I
had given up mentally and accepted it rather
then fought, it could have been worse than
it was. This was the most severe case these
doctors had seen in their area of the country.
The first 6 days I was on penicillin to fight
the infection. This was enough to maintain it
and not let it spread, but not nearly enough
to combat and begin killing it. So finally on
day seven a blood culture tells them what
particular antibiotic to give me and they
begin the new IV. The first week was basically
a wash of no healing or progress.