A bad hangover?
The truth was something far more deadly...
Dragging myself out of bed, my head throbbed, my whole body ached.
And I knew exactly what the cause was – a stinking hangover!
It was last September and I’d just returned from a long weekend in France.
I’d had the best time at a friend’s wedding. It’d been four days of non-stop drinking and partying. I was paying the price now! Still, I had a busy day ahead, so I powered on.
Dropping my kids Ava, 9, and Austin, 6, at school, I made my way to my job as a call-centre manager at a spa.
The whole day was a struggle. I felt exhausted, fighting to stay awake.
Thinking I was dehydrated, I downed two litres of water.
‘You alright?’ my sister and colleague Jenny, 26, asked.
‘Nothing sleep won’t cure,’ I laughed.
But the next morning, I felt worse – I could barely move.
My whole body felt weak and I was shivery.
Jenny took the kids to school and I forced myself into work – but I only did a few hours, before I had to go home...
This can’t still be a hangover, I thought. Must’ve caught a bug.
By the next morning, I’d developed cold sweats. I felt so terrible, I dialled NHS 111 and listed my symptoms. ‘I don’t feel right,’ I said. ‘We’ll get someone to you by 11am. If you can’t wait, though, call an ambulance,’ the operator said.
I just lay helplessly in bed, while Jenny rallied the kids.
By the time paramedics arrived, I was in such a state, shivering uncontrollably and hallucinating. Pain jolted through my lower back and stomach.
And when the paramedics took my temperature, they gasped.
‘It’s 42 degrees! We need to take her to hospital now,’ one said.
They rushed me to the University Hospital of North Tees. While I waited for a bed, my hallucinations got worse.
‘My head’s going to fall off. Will you catch it?’ I asked a nurse.
The doctors ran tests and then a nurse came to see me.
‘You have blood poisoning – sepsis,’ she said. ‘We need to get you on an IV straightaway for antibiotics.’
The doctors believed that it was linked to a water infection I’d had six days before. The antibiotics I’d been on hadn’t cleared it – so sepsis had developed.
I’d heard of sepsis…it could be life-threatening. Without quick treatment, it could lead to multiple organ failure.
So when I told doctors about my back pain, they worried my kidneys might be affected.
I had an ultrasound to check my organs. Thankfully, it all came back clear.
I wasn’t out of the woods yet, though. Pumped full of antibiotics, I just had to hope the drugs got to work quickly.
Meanwhile, my thoughts turned to the kids. I can’t die Ð they need me!
Later that day, Ava and Austin came to visit with their dad Anthony, 37.
‘Are you OK, Mummy?’ they asked.
‘Of course, I’ll be home before you know it,’ I said, putting on a brave face.
Thankfully, over the next few days, I started feeling better.
After five days, I was discharged and went to stay with a friend while I regained some strength.
With the kids by my side, I could smile even when I felt so low.
For a while, I was exhausted – but in December 2017, I went back to work.
I could only manage half days, but it was something.
And, by this January, I could get through a whole day without having a nap.
Now I feel more like my old self. I still get bouts of tiredness, but I consider myself so lucky.
It’s crazy that a hangover turned out to be something far more deadly.
If I hadn’t gone to the hospital when I did, who knows what would’ve happened. It just doesn’t bear thinking about.
With my kids by my side, I could smile even when I felt low