100 Days to Healthy - We all need a good Why, Here's mine

I think it was Anthony Robbins who said that if we can find a compelling enough why to do something, then the how will take care of itself.

I'm sure you'll agree there's nothing like a near death experience to focus the mind!

In my case I woke up one day with a slightly tender knuckle on the little finger of my right hand. Almost as though I had given it a knock the previous day. Funny I thought I dont remember doing that. I did a days light work and later on that evening the hand began to swell, the swelling travelled down the forearm. Sleep on it I thought and if its worse Ill go see doctor or even accident and emergency.

I'm feeling pretty rough the next day and vomit once in the morning, I arrange to see doctor at 16:00. Doctor diagnoses Cellulitis and prescribes anti-biotics. He says to keep an eye on the swelling and if it continues to progress go and see accident and emergency.

I get prescription filled , take two pills and promptly vomit in the back of a taxi on the way back home. Expensive and embarrassing.

I take it easy to see if the antibiotics will take affect. Its not looking good the swelling is up to my elbow at this stage . I decide to call an ambulance at 03:00 . The Ambulance crew observe a heart rate of 130 bpm with vomiting and diarrhea. They diagnosed as possible sepsis and organise a specialist team to be waiting for me at Worthing A & E on arrival.

Im given intravenous antibiotics straight away, my arterial blood confirms very high level of sepsis, head off to Intensive care soon as.

Many litres of saline solution later, plus generous quantities of nor-adrenaline and finally they have a blood pressure high enough to work with. Heart rate is still quite high 117bpm. Blood pressure goes up very quickly when they try a couple of times to get an arterial line in. They settle on a four port central line in the neck. Pretty handy really, you can put in multiple drugs and take regular blood samples quite easily form a central line

Intensive care is just that, very intensive, no change in vital sign goes un-noticed. Of course i'm geeking out on all this stuff learning the indicators they are paying attention to. My temperature stays high for a few days as I fight the sepsis. My right arm is huge, im elevating my hand but its just draining lymph into my elbow tricep area.

Finally after a few days in the High Dependency unit i'm ready for a ward and get transferred down to a surgical ward. The crisis is over but there is still a lot of recovery for me to do before i'm well enough to leave hospital. I'm there for 9 - 10 days.

At the time I knew I was unwell of course , what I didn't realise is how close a call the whole episode was. Sepsis kills a large proportion of people who contract it and fast. I'm very lucky and extremely grateful to be alive.

I was perhaps unlucky to be in a moment of low immunity for the bug to take hold in the first place but that's a story for another day.

All of this happened in sync with sepsis awareness week and I share some of the graphic detail in the hope that if it happens to you or someone you know, you will be able to act quickly enough to stay safe. Speed is of the essence.

So do you think I have enough leverage, a big enough why to stay focused on my health for the next 100 days? Yes shouldn't be a problem really should it? :-)

#health