Renee Gutierrez

 I got NF August 30,2014 8 days after a hysterectomy . I remember not feeling like I was getting better . I think everyone I knew thought I was crazy even the doctors .I was calling doctors up to three times a day . The doctors were giving me pain medicine and all they would say was it'll get better just give it time . My aunt would go check on me and I kept telling her I'm gonna die nobody wants to help me and all she would say is for me to stop talking like that , but I just knew I was dying I could feel it. I remember the night like it was yesterday I was cleaning my surgery cut and my daughter was helping me ,she said mom there is a black spot the size of a dime .I asked her to take a picture and to me it looked like a bruise .I was in such bad pain I took three hydrocodones and two 800 ibuprofen I never have liked to take medication but I had too well I woke up throwing up burning with fever . I woke my daughter up to look at it she said mom the size is a lot bigger I really didn't get scared because I thought it was a bruise.  Three hours later I woke my mom up and asked her to take my kids to their other grandmas I just knew something was gonna happen and I didn't want my kids to be there. While my mom was gone I went to the bathroom, I picked up my shirt and I almost passed out my whole stomach was black with like water blisters and I smelt so bad ,when my mom walked in I told her I think we need to call an ambulance she said why. I said mom I'm gonna die ,she called the ambulance .I remember them asking me what it was and I said i don't know please help me . the ambulance sped to the e.r the took me straight in for a cat scan and within minutes three doctors were there with me . a woman Doctor ,Dr Martinez asked me if I had children I said yes she said I suggest you call them you have an infection it's necrotizing fasciitis and I do not think you will survive it I told her I was gonna survive it . I believe I woke up ten hours later with a wound big enough to fit a big backpack in it . Half my intestines had been cut out the infection ate away to the lining of my colon .I was in ICU and I was critical 13 surgeries later I went home with a wound vac and a home care nurse but I survived .To this day I have pain and other issues I know caused by this disease but every morning I thank god . I'm 4"11 and I survived this disease.