Angela Bordelon

 I got very ill. I was racked with a high fever, aches, pains.. nausea, fatigue, exhaustion. I wasn’t holding anything down, not even liquid. I was even more pale then I am currently. I couldn’t move on my own, because literally the pain was the worst pain I had every faced in my entire life. I had an abscess from a ruptured blood blister, that we thought was just needing drained, something ..common. I will spare you the details of the gross parts but needless to say I was not in a good place.

On July 6 2016, a week from when I had started feeling sick, thinking I had a summer cold, then maybe a flu or something, I was admitted to Clearview hospital after seeing a surgeon at Georgia Sugicare in Logonville. At his point, to be honest things are hazy, because of how badly I was doing. They handed me a form to hand to the hospital and I read the words… and they didn’t resister tome what was happening.

Four words, written hastily by a doctor. Four words that changed my entire life.

Necrotizing Fasciitis, Septic Shock

My husband knew what those words meant… He had to face his biggest fear that day, while I simply wanted to stop hurting, to stop throwing up.

Necrotizing Fasciitis…. Words that make doctors pale, makes nurses drop their jaw. Flesh eating bacteria. A seventy something percent death sentence. Septic Shock… meaning your body is shutting down from infection, organ failure.. permanent damage if you can survive it.

They removed a total of 13 pounds of muscle from my right side, 3 from my left, removing limp nodes and 5 pounds of excess skin in the process. I was literally cut from hip to hip, and upwards on my tummy.

Over the following month I was in side of a hospital room, first in ICU, then main floor, then in a private wound care rehab hospital.

When I was released, I had home health care, and wound care specialists to keep me alive, as \I still have massive open wounds on my abdominal area. I couldn’t go out with out getting clearance to do things.. I used a walker to get about, as I relearned how to do the simplest things like..walking.. standing, breathing. I wore a wound vac from July 6th to Sept 20th (Roughly)

There has been so many times I’ve wanted to throw my hands up, and scream. I have dealt with a full array of emotions from anger, rage, sadness, grief, hating my self, feeling betrayed by my own body. Anger when taking a single step with out the walker.. without the cane..solo seemed like something that was never going to happen. The rush of.. achievement when I made those very first steps, made that first step down the stairs with out someone holding me.. the rush of pride, being able to show that I was still standing, even though I had been knocked flat on my ass, and cut open in the process.