09/30/2026
Christie Hammond shares her sepsis story.
Almost 15 years ago, I got a urinary tract infection. Six months after that, I got a kidney infection and didn’t recognize the signs before. The infection was pretty advanced and led to sepsis. I was out of town visiting my daughter and started to feel like I was coming down with a cold or something. Later that same day, I started to experience flu-like symptoms. I was achy. I felt like I had a fever. I had a headache, my head was foggy, and it was hard to think. I am also a type 2 diabetic, and I took my blood sugar reading after I started to feel odd later that evening. It was over 200, which was the highest I’d ever had at that point. I had bad anxiety. When I talked to my husband about it, he didn’t really take me seriously and said that we would go see somebody the next day if I wasn’t feeling better.
We went to bed that evening around 10:00 p.m., and at 1:00 a.m., I woke up having side pain and felt like I had a high temperature. I woke up my husband and told him I needed to go to the emergency room and that I wanted a full hospital with an emergency room, not simply an urgent care clinic. We went to the hospital, and they took tests and told me I had a kidney infection that was septic. I got into a room and they started intravenous antibiotics. My blood sugar remained high, I had a fever, and my blood pressure was a little bit high. I had no appetite because they were also giving me pain medication, and I could only eat juicy things, so my husband brought me green grapes.
I was in the hospital for four days, after which I was released. We live in Washington state but my daughter lives in Utah, so we had a few days to drive home. I slept a lot but still didn’t have much appetite, so on the way home I mostly ate chicken broth and salad. After recovering, I had no aftercare for the sepsis. At that time, I think perhaps doctors weren’t aware that any aftercare was necessary or that there might be after-effects.
I’m not sure if I can actually identify any after-effects, and no medical professionals have talked to me about possible after-effects. I have also dealt with depression for years and mostly thought that anything I was experiencing physically or emotionally was most likely attributed to depression.
I had excellent care at the hospital. The nurses were very attentive and very informative in terms of educating me. Once my husband understood how serious my condition was, he stayed by my side and made sure I had whatever I needed and advocated for me if I needed it.
It’s clear to me that I need to do some work in educating myself about what sepsis aftercare means. Prior to getting sepsis and a kidney infection, I had hydronephrosis on the kidney side that got infected. I have since lost the use of that kidney and only have one functional kidney.
We went to bed that evening around 10:00 p.m., and at 1:00 a.m., I woke up having side pain and felt like I had a high temperature. I woke up my husband and told him I needed to go to the emergency room and that I wanted a full hospital with an emergency room, not simply an urgent care clinic. We went to the hospital, and they took tests and told me I had a kidney infection that was septic. I got into a room and they started intravenous antibiotics. My blood sugar remained high, I had a fever, and my blood pressure was a little bit high. I had no appetite because they were also giving me pain medication, and I could only eat juicy things, so my husband brought me green grapes.
I was in the hospital for four days, after which I was released. We live in Washington state but my daughter lives in Utah, so we had a few days to drive home. I slept a lot but still didn’t have much appetite, so on the way home I mostly ate chicken broth and salad. After recovering, I had no aftercare for the sepsis. At that time, I think perhaps doctors weren’t aware that any aftercare was necessary or that there might be after-effects.
I’m not sure if I can actually identify any after-effects, and no medical professionals have talked to me about possible after-effects. I have also dealt with depression for years and mostly thought that anything I was experiencing physically or emotionally was most likely attributed to depression.
I had excellent care at the hospital. The nurses were very attentive and very informative in terms of educating me. Once my husband understood how serious my condition was, he stayed by my side and made sure I had whatever I needed and advocated for me if I needed it.
It’s clear to me that I need to do some work in educating myself about what sepsis aftercare means. Prior to getting sepsis and a kidney infection, I had hydronephrosis on the kidney side that got infected. I have since lost the use of that kidney and only have one functional kidney.
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