Having shrugged off a UTI in September 2022, dog-mum and bride-to-be Rachel Flynn from Edinburgh swapped a hen-do in Marbella for dramatic dash to hospital with septic shock. She shares her powerful and moving account here.
On Wednesday 7th September 2022, Rachel was ecstatic; it was her last day of work before heading off to Marbella for her great friend’s hen do. Or so she thought.
She went to the office as normal but started to feel a bit ‘off’ around lunchtime, so she ordered herself a delicious lunch to her desk. Alas, even that didn’t sort her out. In fact, as the afternoon went on, Rachel was noticing how she was shivering and feeling ‘freezing’ yet sweating profusely. Embarrassed and confused by what was coming over her, Rachel made a quick escape from the office for the short trip home.
But a journey home that should have taken just 10 minutes took Rachel nearly an hour. Feeling as though she was getting more and more unwell by the minute, Rachel pulled over to call her GP twice, getting increasingly concerned. “I just couldn’t believe how unwell I was feeling”, she said. “My body ached, the shivers and shakes were debilitating, and the pain in my head was a living hell. But my GP suggested I was coming down with the flu, and to take the evening to see how I was feeling.”
Upon finally arriving at home, Rachel caught one look of herself in the mirror in her hall and almost didn’t recognise the person looking back at her. “My lips were blue, and my skin was grey. I crawled upstairs – unable to walk – and climbed into bed. The shivers and shakes were terrifying – like a horror film. With my head under the covers, I somehow managed to call my GP one more time. She immediately advised that I call 999 for an ambulance.
“Straight away an ambulance arrived, coinciding with my poor fiancé returning home from work. It suddenly dawned on me how quickly this had all happened, and how much of a fright he must have had. The paramedics were incredible though and did a great job of keeping us both calm and collected.
Rachel recalls the moments that followed to be some of the most upsetting. As the paramedics quickly tried to take blood samples, run tests, and examine her, she recalls being in and out of consciousness. Refusing to get into a wheelchair, Rachel again attempted to crawl but finally had to be carried into an ambulance. Leaving their beautiful new home with the cream carpets and white bed covers covered in blood, the pair realised that this was the least of their worries. All that mattered was being reunited at the other end of the journey to the hospital.
When her ambulance arrived at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, the paramedics demanded a bed for Rachel despite initial push-back from nurses. “My blood pressure was scarily low, and my heart rate was through the roof. My body temperature was the highest it had ever been. The doctors and nurses said I was like a puncture in a tyre, but you couldn’t find the hole. They knew I was in septic shock, and that I had an infection somewhere, but had no idea where.”
As doctors and nurses gathered around Rachel to discuss her case, the machines she was hooked up to started to sound an alarm – almost like they were shouting for the doctor’s attention. This would be the first of two occasions that would see Rachel rushed to resuscitation.
“The doctors immediately started a course of the strongest antibiotics in the hospital. They described it as the “domestos” of antibiotics – killing all the good and the bad.
“The days that ensued were the worst of my life. Every night between 3am and 5am things would take a turn for the worse – it was like clockwork. It would come on gradually then all at once: the shakes, the debilitating headaches, the shivers. It was like I was possessed! At times I didn’t know if I’d make it; I couldn’t comprehend how anyone could feel so terrible and ever be the same again. At times all I could do was cry – I didn’t recognise myself. I couldn’t bear to be in the body and pain I was in any longer.
“The drugs that were meant to make me better made me worse at the same time. The dozens of cannulas left bruises and marks like war wounds. It turns out that a urine infection that I hadn’t given much thought to a few days earlier had in fact spread to my kidneys, which then led to sepsis. I was also diagnosed with something called meningism, meaning my organs were all incredibly inflamed – my brain being one of them, which made the doctors think I had had a brain haemorrhage. The three lumbar punctures that ensued made me cry and hurt even more. The CT scans made me even sicker. The sight of my fiancé and mum broke my heart as I knew this was hurting them too.
“The days – nearly weeks – that followed after leaving my house that day are still a huge blur. I often have flashbacks and struggle to place myself, but my fiancé helps where he can. We’re still trying to make sense of it all and process what really happened. One firm memory though was seeing the ICU nurse again after the weekend – she said she couldn’t believe I was still alive. That was hard to hear.
“Once I left the hospital, it took me days to step outside alone. I’m delighted to be getting closer to being more like myself every day though. I know I couldn’t have got through it if it weren’t for the support of my incredible family and the wonderful nurses who cared for me.
“I still get anxious when I see the spare room – the room where it all went downhill. I’m trying my hardest to erase certain memories from my mind, but it’s funny how the smallest things can bring it all back, like the smell of my moisturiser or the blood spots on our carpets. I look forward to being over all the trauma but until then I’m working on myself every day. The PTSD I have is often debilitating, and often it controls me more than I can control it, but I’m proud to say I’m getting it more under control.
“To this day I still struggle with health anxiety. The best thing I did was take myself for a private kidney scan. It gave me a whole new lease of life knowing that my kidneys were ok, healed, and free from scarring and infection. The same day I got the results, I managed my first spin class and signed up for the Edinburgh half marathon! For ages I felt like a piece of glass, and like I could shatter at any moment. I felt so fragile, but this news made me feel stronger than ever. My mindset in that moment completely changed, and I’m loving raising money for Sepsis Research FEAT as a result. I feel like I’m regaining control.
“To anyone reading this today, I urge you to be vigilant. You know your body better than anyone – don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Familiarise yourself and your loved ones with the signs and symptoms and don’t ever be afraid to ask for help or a second opinion. Oh – and hug the people you love a little bit extra today! Just for me.”