{"id":523,"date":"2020-11-09T18:41:53","date_gmt":"2020-11-09T18:41:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/?p=523"},"modified":"2020-12-08T19:41:57","modified_gmt":"2020-12-08T19:41:57","slug":"sepsis-oh-wow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/penile-cancer-information\/sepsis-oh-wow\/","title":{"rendered":"Sepsis. Oh wow."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
A cautionary tale.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

You really don\u2019t want sepsis<\/a>, or septicaemia, or a septic episode<\/a>. I don’t say this lightly, it\u2019s absolutely horrendous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cancer surgery often means big wounds. Wherever they might be, that also gives a lot of opportunities for infection.  At one point, I had two huge wounds in my groin which were not fully healed. I had an open wound where my drain pipe fed into my drain bottle too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I always made a huge effort to be really careful, changing my dressings and making sure they\u2019d been looked after, keeping everything clean \u2013 but I still managed to get an infection, and things escalated very quickly!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The night before I was due to go back to St Georges for a robotic operation<\/a>, I\u2019d had a restless night. In the morning I woke up feeling groggy and a bit sick but I got up and ready to go to hospital regardless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I jumped on the train and tube and walked from Tooting Broadway to the hospital, but felt terrible. I was dizzy and felt incredibly nauseous.  By the time I had finally reached the surgical admissions lounge, I felt like death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Admission.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

After I had thrown up neon green vomit a few times and met my consultants, I knew I wouldn\u2019t be having an operation that day.  My thighs had turned purple and everything was red hot and tingling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My legs were burning hot. It didn’t take long for the doctors to realise how serious my situation was, and admitted me as an emergency. I had to spend three days in hospital. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than anything else, it just gave me the opportunity to get some rest and focus on nothing more than getting better. But I was really seriously ill, I don’t think I\u2019ve never felt so close to death.  I had a temperature of 41c, my skin looked grey and I needed regular fluids and antibiotics intravenously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My drain bottle filled up with the pus that was being drawn out of my legs. My heart rate was all over the place and my blood pressure wasn\u2019t healthy.  It took me two nights just to start to feel normal again!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s so important to take good care of your wounds. If you don\u2019t, it might not be the cancer that kills you, it could so easily be the sepsis!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recurrence<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

In November 2020, the cellulitis came back<\/a>. I’d noticed over a couple of weeks that my legs were getting stiff, and really starting to ache. One morning, I woke up at 2am with a temperature of 40c, and was (not so) promptly admitted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I spent another couple of nights<\/a> in hospital, this time at the Lister in Hertfordshire. If lymphatic fluid is allowed to collect, there’s a much higher chance of infection. I’ve started to take lymphedema much more seriously as a result. I even kept a log<\/a> of how I dealt with the swelling in my right leg, and how compression helped me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A cautionary tale. You really don\u2019t want sepsis, or septicaemia, or a septic episode. I don’t say this lightly, it\u2019s absolutely horrendous. Cancer surgery often means big wounds. Wherever they might be, that also gives a lot of opportunities for infection.  At one point, I had two huge wounds in my groin which were not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"hide_page_title":"","_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[18,10,11,12,20],"yoast_head":"\nSepsis. Oh wow. ><\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After 4 operations from the waist down, I was recovering well. Then one morning my legs turned dark purple, and I ended up in hospital. I have never felt so close to death\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/penile-cancer-information\/sepsis-oh-wow\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sepsis. Oh wow.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A cautionary tale. You really don\u2019t want sepsis, or septicaemia, or a septic episode. I don't say this lightly, it\u2019s absolutely horrendous. Cancer surgery\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/penile-cancer-information\/sepsis-oh-wow\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-11-09T18:41:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-12-08T19:41:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Black-Knob.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"116\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Knob.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/\",\"sameAs\":[],\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/#logo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secureservercdn.net\/160.153.138.71\/y53.743.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Black-Knob.png?time=1621067374\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secureservercdn.net\/160.153.138.71\/y53.743.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Black-Knob.png?time=1621067374\",\"width\":500,\"height\":116,\"caption\":\"Knob.\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/#logo\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/\",\"name\":\"Knob.\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":[\"WebPage\",\"MedicalWebPage\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/penile-cancer-information\/sepsis-oh-wow\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/penile-cancer-information\/sepsis-oh-wow\/\",\"name\":\"Sepsis. Oh wow. >\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-11-09T18:41:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-12-08T19:41:57+00:00\",\"description\":\"After 4 operations from the waist down, I was recovering well. Then one morning my legs turned dark purple, and I ended up in hospital. I have never felt so close to death\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/penile-cancer-information\/sepsis-oh-wow\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/penile-cancer-information\/sepsis-oh-wow\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/penile-cancer-information\/sepsis-oh-wow\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sepsis. Oh wow.\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/penile-cancer-information\/sepsis-oh-wow\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/penile-cancer-information\/sepsis-oh-wow\/#webpage\"},\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f85f55c09e676f183efe9e0aac67e03e\"},\"headline\":\"Sepsis. Oh wow.\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-11-09T18:41:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-12-08T19:41:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/penile-cancer-information\/sepsis-oh-wow\/#webpage\"},\"wordCount\":513,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Cellulitis\",\"lymphedema\",\"NHS\",\"St George's Hospital\",\"The Lister Hospital\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Penile cancer information\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f85f55c09e676f183efe9e0aac67e03e\",\"name\":\"JL\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e67376e949d1897e1028d6fc312d5a90?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e67376e949d1897e1028d6fc312d5a90?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"JL\"},\"description\":\"Jonathan was diagnosed with penile cancer in the autumn of 2019. After 5 major operations, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy treatment he decided to use the pandemic as an excuse to write knob.blog. His writing brings an unvarnished perspective of cancer care in the UK, and the challenges of dealing with a rare, male cancer. He writes on a wide range of health topics, with a focus on cancer treatment and hospital care in the UK.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/author\/jonlittle5579\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knob.blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}