Amber Phillips

Mine started with a completely insignificant kitten scratch to the belly. I felt fine on Friday Sept 2 but suddenly became very sick at 4 am on the 3rd. While throwing up I felt this little pop in my belly below the belly button. I looked down and saw a little bulge sticking out and thought I'd given myself a hernia getting so sick. I tried to put off going to the hospital but the pain just kept getting worse. I finally asked for a ride from my mom and got to the hospital about 7 am. My blood sugar was very low, so the first few hours at the ER they were busy trying to fix that. Finally a Dr came and dud about a 1 second ultrasound and next thing I knew another Dr walked in and introduced himself as my surgeon. They didn't know what was wrong but told me it was either a blood clot, a small abscess or a carbuncle. I was told worst case scenario would be a 2 inch incision but that was unlikely. I was told 20 min surgery, in and out, nothing to worry about. But when the surgeon saw me again just before surgery and saw how far it was spreading they got worried. A few mins later it had spread another inch all the way around and they knew it was necrotizing fasciitis. I was very lucky the surgeon caught it so fast, I only had 2 surgeries and 26 days in hospital. But even though they caught it quickly they did not expect me to survive. Before my second surgery they prepared my mom for the worst, that I had only a 10% chance of surviving the surgery and they needed to verify her number so they could notify next of kin when I didn't make it. I have been out of the hospital for almost 3 months now and recovering fairly well at home