Sepsis Symptoms And Treatment
Sepsis Symptoms And Treatment: A scary and life-threatening illness (or condition) known as "blood poisoning", named Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS), is called, simply: sepsis. SIRS is mild sepsis at first, but the immune condition triggered by an infection--most often from a bacteria, or sometimes set off by virus, parasite, or fungus--can become serious rapidly.
Definition: Sepsis strikes as ones immune system becomes over-stimulated while fighting an infection, causing widespread inflammation, throughout the body, which triggers formation of microscopic blood clots. The miniature blood clots begin to block the small blood vessels, called capillaries, reducing blood and oxygen flow and causing vital organs to begin to fail (causing tissue to die), such as in the brain, heart and kidneys, and also tissues in your arms, legs, fingers and toes.
Sepsis occurs when your body's own chemicals are being released into the bloodstream to fight an infection, and those trigger inflammation in your immune system, throughout the body. Mild sepsis sometimes can rapidly lead to another condition called "shock, or septic shock", then causing blood pressure to drop seriously which can cause death.
Inflammation can kill you -- not just the nasty germs. Tied up in your body’s natural defense against illness: inflammation tries to be good -- but while fighting germs and such, it can become over-excited and cause [your] death, too!
Mild sepsis starts as a "complication" of seemingly less serious infection -- but develops while the body is dealing with the original infection.
Sepsis Symptoms And Treatment
Steps
1. Get immediate intensive attention, if in doubt about possibly having symptoms of sepsis due to an infection. If treated medically, very urgently people can more fully recover from the "milder levels of sepsis". Recovery becomes more and more difficult as minutes and hours pass...
2. Realize not just any sore or infection, with or without pain or throbbing pain (which may be mild sepsis) will lead to amputations, organ failure, or septic shock, but it might! Drug resistant streptococcus bacterial infection can be the cause of the greatest concern. Strep is common and can settle in organs, cause damage and weaknesses can pop up later.
- Early stage, mild sepsis treated with antibiotics, quickly, is more curable, compared to the mortality (death rate) for a related condition during more severe sepsis complications, called septic shock syndrome, in which death is near 50 percent (about 1/2).
3. Watch for [unexplained] mild symptoms. Resting rates:
- Fever, high body temperature, greater than 101.3 (38.5 °C), possibly chills;
- Or Low body temperature, less than 95°F (35°C), in a warm place, perhaps shivering;
- Below normal blood pressure;
- Pulse rate is rapid, higher than 90 per minute;
- Respiratory rate higher than 20 breaths a minute (shallow/short breath);
- Has a probable or confirmed infection.
4. Be aware of reason(s) to raise indications of mild sepsis to severe sepsis, requiring immediate intensive medical care: if you exhibit "at least one of the following signs and symptoms, it may indicate an organ(s) failing":
 |
| Sepsis Symptoms And Treatment |
- Abrupt change in mental status: such as unusually confused, disoriented or dizzy (sudden difficulty speaking or behavior changes), possible seizures;
- Significantly decreased urine output (low kidney function);
- Abnormal heart pumping function/significant rhythm change;
- Abdominal pain (possibly pancreas, kidneys or liver, etc. impaired or failing);
- Difficult or labored breathing, fatigue, light-headedness;
5. Seek immediate treatment/hospitalization if several of those symptoms are observed: Severe cases often require antibiotics given in an intensive care unit for several days or weeks:
- Early treatment of worsening sepsis, usually with antibiotics and large amounts of intravenous fluids, in an intensive care unit at a hospital, greatly improves the chance for survival, before it causes blood clots, gangrene or one even develops septic shock.
Sepsis Symptoms And Treatment
6. Show caution, watching any inflammation or infection possibly becoming worse: the beginning symptoms of sepsis all depend on where an infection started, as seemingly minor as:
. Scrapes on a knee, deep paper cut, puncture by a construction nail,
. A tampon left in place longer than intended;
. Stress causes/increases inflammation:
- Poor diet, lack of sleep, over-work,
- Smoking, anxiety, worry, belly fat,
- Allergies, pollution and various chemicals;
. Serious infections or illness including:
- Pneumonia, lung infection causing sepsis,
- Abdominal infections (sepsis, possibly with deadly peritonitus),
- Kidney infection (sepsis and possible kidney failure),
- Bloodstream infection, bacteremia (bacteria in your blood -- normally such a sterile environment -- always a very bad sign)...
7. Avoid or prevent infections:
- Be immunized for illnesses, such as: Influenza and pneumonia. An immune system weakened by such common illness are more open to sepsis, and they're avoidable.
- Properly clean, possibly medicate and bandage up cuts, surgical wounds, or other wounds. Even, chickenpox blisters can become infected by bacteria.
- Wash your hands regularly: And if you or your family member or friend is in the hospital, ask about all health providers washing their hands, and putting on new rubber gloves between patients.
- Do not take antibiotics for common ailments of three day viruses or colds: Such improper antibiotic use may create drug-resistant bacteria that make sepsis more dangerous.
- Drug-resistant bacteria. Many types of bacteria now can resist the effects of antibiotics that once killed them. These antibiotic-resistant bacteria are often the root cause of the infections that trigger sepsis.
8. Keep unwashed hands (Avoid germs!) away from:
. Cuts, sores, scratched places (avoid staph infections);
. Face, mouth and eyes and other body orifices (avoid E. coli infections):
- Wash hands, going in and coming out of the bathroom (water-closet), toilet, handling public door handles, etc.
9. "Grow, feed and harvest" the healthier you: eating 5 or 6 "very small" meals of whole foods (do not eat processed foods, bleached grains, partially hardened shortening, including margarine, preservatives, low food value kinds of fast or junk foods, especially fried foods, avoid pork and other scavengers such as bottom feeders, including catfish, shell fish [the "cockroaches" of the sea]...);
- Sleep enough, and exercise, walking a lot; take supplements of vitamins, herbs, extra Omega3 fatty acids (good source: wild-caught, cold water fish), vitamin B (all the B-numbers), D3, extra E, essential oils (nuts and seeds) and minerals, eating a daily serving of life-giving, good-oil rich nuts (all kinds, especially walnuts, pecans, almonds), bright and dark colored veggies (but lovely, dark green veggies increase clotting ability) and colorful fruits (berries, cherries, melons,...), to increase and build better health.
Tips
* Make deadly, but tiny, blood clots less likely (with infections and for cardiovascular health, and for avoiding strokes), by everyday use of antioxidants, and blood thinning with daily taking only 1/2 an aspirin (aspirin is not best for children), or coated ibuprofen an acetaminophen pill/tablet, or other NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs). You can dissolve tablets in mouth or in a spoon, to avoid globs (chunks) of it irritating the stomach lining or esophagus (using special enteric coated aspirin or ibuprofen tablets that pass through stomach before dissolving are less problematic).
- Acetaminophen and ibuprofen reportedly do "not lead to Reye's syndrome, but there is a link between Reye's syndrome and aspirin, especially in children and adolescents", and also, severe Reye's syndrome can lead to "brain swelling, liver problems, coma, and sometimes death" especially in the very young.
- Natural thinners and anti-inflammatory agents may include some foods and herbs such as grapes, veggies (dark green ones, though great foods, increase blood clotting because they have vitamin K), tomatoes, peppers, cinnamon and ginger, etc.
- If you take "blood thinners", ask your doctor before using any extra vitamin K.
- Without septic shock, the "complications" of infections, especially the inflammation of sepsis, can cause blood clots to rapidly form in your blood vessels, within organs — leading to varying degrees of organ failure. Also, clots in large blood vessels of legs and lower torso can lead to "deep vein thrombosis" [blood clots traveling to damage the heart and/or lungs].
- Sepsis involves and causes gangrene, even if only microscopic small bits (dead tissue from not receiving adequate blood circulation, nutrients, oxygen through tiny capillaries...) which may increase clots, requiring special drugs or removing dead tissue -- perhaps, loss of toes, a foot, by amputations -- and complications of gangrene bits traveling to vital organs may become fatal.
Warnings
- An episode of severe sepsis may place you at higher risk for future infections.
- Sick with flu, a cold, infections, diabetes, etc. -- you have lowered resistance to opportunistic infection, and other illnesses, as do elderly persons, as age related immune weakness.
- If more severe sepsis develops, increasing bits of dead tissue and toxic material then may impair various tissues, if sepsis worsened such that blood flow to vital organs becomes very impaired.
