Surviving Necrotizing Faciitis (warning pictures are included)

I'm a 32 year old stay at home mom of 4 kids, living in Vancouver, WA with my husband and my children. This is my story of surviving necrotizing faciitis.

On December 17th, 2012 at 10:01am my husband, Neil, and I welcome our 4th child into the world, a beautiful 8lb 4.6oz baby girl who we named Cheyanne Elizabeth. We knew that we were done having children and so I made the choice that ended up changing out lives forever, I got a tubal ligation done. There were no abailable ORs that day, so my tubal was done on December 19th, 2012. That day we were told that everything went great and that I could go home that afternoon. As the day went on something didn't feel right to me, something was wrong, something serious. I told the OBGYN on that night that I didn't want to go home that night, that I needed to stay, so she agreed to let me. I was in a lot of pain, I couldn't sit up, get up off of something or even really walk on my own. They had me on Ibuprofen and dilauded for the pain, so those masked all the other symptoms you would get with the infection.

On December 20th, 2012 I was sent home against my wishes. I continued to tell the dr that I didn't feel right, that something was wrong, but she chose not to listen to me. 2 hours after being discharged I started to ache from head to toe, got the chills, and ran a fever of 102 degrees. I called the dr's office and she was on call and told me to rest and take my medication. If I was still like this in 2 days, to return to the ER or the Dr's office.

On December 22nd, 2012 we went to urgent care. Nothing stopped, it got worse, my stomach was swollen, red and very hot. The Dr took one look at it and said it was an infection and to go straight to the ER, so we did. The Dr at the ER took me in for an ultrasound and told me I had a few pus pockets, gave me IV antibiotics and sent me home with antibiotics and pain medication, told me it would go away in a few days, but it didn't, it only got worse.

On Christmas Eve I felt well enough to take a shower, so after all the kids were asleep I took one. When I got out it was Christmas morning. I sat on the edge of our bed getting dressed, when I smelled something so disgusting and fowl, a smell that I will never forget. I went into the bathroom to check everything out and as I bent down there was pus and blood all over the floor, my incision site ruptured open. I called for Neil and grabbed a towel. I told him to wake the kids up, we had to rush to the ER. As he got the kids up, I called my mother-in-law to tell her what was going on & she sent my sister-in-laws boyfriend to meet us at the hospital and get the kids. They get me into a room, start an IV and the Dr ordered a CT scan and my records from the last ER I went to. When he got all the results back he told us I had necrotizing faciitis, that the last ER should NOT have sent me home as the infection was very noticable in the ultrasound he did. He told us that I will be going in for surgery within the house, we were waiting for the General Surgeon to come in. As soon as he arrived he looked me over and sent us up to surgery. A few hours later everything was done. He told my husband that a day, maybe 2 and it would have gotten toxic and they wouldn't have been able to do anything but give me IV pain medication to keep me comfortable till I passed away. I missed my children opening their presents and seeing their faces light up, my baby girl was just a week old.

On the 26th, an amazing plastic surgeon did another surgery, he put in a wound van in hopes to be able to clean it all out and close me up for good with no skin grafts or more surgeries. They took out a total of 30x15x10cm area of my abdomen and part of my abdominal cavity. I had the wound vac in for 3 days. On the 29th I went in for what we hoped would be my last surgery. The Dr called Neil after the surgery to tell him it went great. They didn't have to do a skin graft and was able to close me up all the way. He put a drain tube in. On New Year's Eve I was discharged from the hospital and got to start off a new year at hom with my husband and kids.

**Pictures**

 This was right after the first surgery. Under all the gauze I am totally opened up, you can see all my insides. 

This was after the 2nd surgery with the wound vac in. It shows how much they really took out of my abdomen. 

This was taken on January 1st, 2013, only 3 days after the very last surgery.

This was taken 1 month after the last surgery. 

Letter to Dr. ********

Dear Dr. ******
On December 19th, 2012 I went in and got my tubes tied, you were the dr on that night. I told you I was not ready to go home & wanted to stay one more night, you agreed to it. On the morning of December 20th, 2012 you told me that I was fine & I could go home, but I told you that I wasn't fine, I told you and the nurses that something was wrong, something didn't feel right & you ignored me. If everything was find I shouldn't have had to put the head of my bead all the way up & the foot of the bed all the way down just to get out of bed. I know that if I was a Dr I would be questioning that & trying to see if something was wrong with my patient, but you didn't, you blew me off like it was nothing, like what I had to say or what I was feeling meant nothing to you. 2 hours after leaving the hospital I started having pain all over my body, then I got the chills, then a fever.

In the end, because you didn't want to take a closer look at what was going on, you sent me home on a death bed. I had a newborn baby & 3 other children at home that almost lost their mom because of you. I could have missed out on all the special moments in my children's lives, my daughter wouldn't have known who her mom was or anything & my youngest con wouldn't have been able to mentally understand what happened to me, that I was gone forever, his poor lil heart would have been torn to shreds. My 2 older sons would have been ripped from the arms of the only man that they knew as their dad, into the arms of their biological father who is abusive towards them. Their poor lil hearts would be shredded and they would be in fear of him every day.

In my opinion you shouldn't be practicing medicine if you can't even listen to your patients concerns and problems. We tell you guys about our concerns because you are supposed to be there to help us, to find out what's wrong with us & try to make us better, but you obviously can't even do that. You think that just because your a dr you know if there is a problem or not just by us telling you our symptoms or concerns, but in the end you don't know our bodies like we know our bodies.

Thanks to you & one other doctor, I can no longer sleep much at night due to flashbacks, I have a big scar across my stomach that is a daily reminder of what happened to me, I can't attend a family function without the fear of something triggering my emotions, thoughts, or fears and me having a major breakdown. I now suffer from PTSD, depression, anxiety, & panic attacks because of it all. You were my dr at the time, you were supposed to protect me, you were supposed to make me feel better, but instead you made me worse, you lost my trust in you as a dr, you sent me home to die. I don't know how you can live with yourself & continue on practicing medicine. My life has been turned upside down because of this. This all could have been prevented if you would have just listened to me. What saved my life was me going in to take a shower, it softened up my incision to where is ruptured open and the ER doctors who saved my life. I will be forever grateful to them, as they are the ones who truly saved my life.

 

Welcome To My Blog

First off I want to thank you for stopping by my blog and taking the time to read it. Let me start off by giving you a bit about my background.

From the ages of 4-13 years old, I was molested by 2 people (1 guy - our neighbors/babysitters son & 1 female - a cousin). I was verbally, mentally, physically, & emotionally abused by my dad from a young age up until I was 22 years old. I was also verbally, mentally, & emotionally abused by my ex-boyfriend for about 6 years & physical abuse happened towards the end of our relationship, when I was 26 years old. I am also a survivor of a serious infection that almost cost me my life. After I had my daughter I got my tubes tied & caught an infection called necrotizing faciitis, 2 dr's send me home as they did not want to listen to me when I told them something was wrong with me. I almost died Christmas morning because of it. Now I deal with flashbacks, PTSD and anxiety due to it.

I am starting this blog to get my voice out there and helping other through anything that they have survived. We need to be there for each other and support each other through these tough times.