5 weeks to go...

I got out of hospital 2 weeks ago after 7 days of IV abx. I can’t believe, given the severity of my diagnosis, how (relatively) little time I spent as an inpatient and how well I felt (after being stabilised in the initial hours) during it.

My right kidney still hurts, and I’m struggling with the pain and general fatigue and feebleness. Marathon training feels impossible. 

However. 

I am 28. I have survived septicaemia, meningitis, and more episodes of neutropenic sepsis than I can remember. I don’t know how many times I’ve been given adrenaline. I’ve had a spinal lesion and learned to walk again. I’ve been hit by a speeding car, and escaped from angry elephants in Zimbabwe. 

I can see off 26.2 miles.

Septicaemia?!

Marathon training wasn’t going brilliantly, and my first hospital admission of 2019 has buggered it right up!

It started off with the usual story: I felt generally unwell for a few days, my right kidney was a bit painful so I took my stand-by antibiotics, and on Monday my temperature was 38.3 so I called haematology.  Between calling the assessment line and arriving at the hospital I felt worse and worse, and by the time I arrived I was sweating and rigoring. Classic neutropenic sepsis.

That was 4 days ago and since then I’ve been on 3 types on IV antibiotics, had a kidney scan (my right one is inflamed, oedematous and bloody painful), and grown E-coli in my blood cultures. Pyelonephritis —> bactereamia (aka septicaemia!).

I still fully intent to drag my arse around 26.2 miles of London on 28th April. That’s got to be worth a tenner, surely?

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/emily-stringer2

Love Emily x