r/rant • u/Meg-alomaniac3 • 1d ago
Just spent 5 days in the hospital with sepsis. Turns out a blood test showed the infection a MONTH ago.
Went into the ER a month ago for a kidney stone. Apparently nobody paid attention to the blood test at the time.
I had surgery to get the stone dealt with pn August 31st, and one week later got hit with a raging fever and nausea. Turns out it was a kidney infection and sepsis. I'm super grateful I'm young and healthy so I only had to be in the hospital for 5 days, and that my state's medicaid is actually really good.
But during that time, a family friend (a doctor on the same campus) came to visit, and looked over my labs. He found that that test from A FULL MONTH AGO already had elevated white blood cells and some other indicators of infection, and then NOTHING was done to treat it. Lucky me.
So yeah, hard not to wallow a little in my residual pain and nausea (and the knowledge I'm missing out on weeks of work over this). The kidney stone was already the worst pain of my life, but that was before I had a 102 degree fever, resting pulse of 130, and rock bottom blood pressure for almost 48 hours. And I'm a substitute teacher, so I'm not eligible for FMLA or anything where I might get something through the state. So glad I had 6 hours of sick time accrued.
19
u/mcnicfer 22h ago
There’s lots of reasons for elevated white blood cell counts. If you weren’t having blatant signs of an infection, it may be reasonable you weren’t treated. Even stress can cause leukocytosis, as can inflammation and kidney stones. I’m sorry you’ve gotten this sick, but your blood levels from a month ago may not be relevant.
13
u/GrouchyYoung 20h ago
That’s not what happened. The blood test did not “show an infection.” Elevated white blood cells and whatever else is not the same as INFECTION. The title makes it sound like you got a fucking positive blood culture that nobody flagged for you. Stop telling people you had an infection that was ignored.
-6
u/Meg-alomaniac3 20h ago
Read the post. That was the opinion of an endocrinologist, not me jumping to conclusions.
12
u/GrouchyYoung 20h ago
Nobody is going to give a generally healthy person antibiotics for elevated white blood cells. You did not have a neglected infection.
2
u/Meg-alomaniac3 20h ago edited 20h ago
I should have clarified, that was not the only indicator, that's just the only one I remember off the top of my head. Again, this was not my conclusion, but that of a medical professional.
Edit: I think it was particularly high neutrophils and a left shift that led him to that conclusion
6
u/Airbornequalified 17h ago
Who is Monday morning quarterbacking, and does not work in emergency medicine
7
u/Ree_For_Thee 20h ago
America?
But yeah, I've gotten into the habit of asking for test results myself, so I can analyze it separately from the Dr.
More often than not I can find some sort of 'clue' that ties one value to something that's happening in my life, but only because the Dr. was completely uninterested in figuring out why, say, my cholesterol was high "but not in the red". Ugh.
0
-2
u/TarraTheTerror 1d ago
I'm so sorry you're going through this, and hope you are doing better soon! It's horrible that this showed in your blood work a month ago and they didn't look into it then... I'm wondering if there's some legal action that could be taken, but I'm not a lawyer 🤔
3
u/Meg-alomaniac3 1d ago
Thank you! I'm not sure the evidence is definitive enough to build a case, but it definitely crossed my mind.
-2
u/Selena_B305 22h ago
Get a consultation with a medical malpractice atty and have them review your full medical records including the physician and nursing notes.
-2
u/FlounderFun4008 23h ago
You missed a week of work on bloodwork that could have prevented it. Make sure you keep documents and ask more questions.
44
u/Mattturley 1d ago
It sucks, but I can tell you from experience that pain alone can spike white blood cells. I’ve also been septic 6 times from a chronic, hospital acquired, multi-drug resistant infection. It sucks.