A West Belfast woman has opened up about years of poor health which ended in a devastating sepsis diagnosis - a diagnosis which changed her life forever.
Siobhan McCallin, from the Falls Road, is speaking out to raise awareness ahead of Sepsis Awareness Month in March, when her and other families affected by Sepsis will be walking 5K every day.
For Siobhan, a mother-of-four with a passion for education, the day she was told by her doctor that due to her health she was looking at medical retirement, she admits it was a huge blow.
Speaking to Belfast Live, Siobhan said: "I went to St Catherine's, St Dominic's and St Mary's Teach College, so I never really left the Falls Road. My entire teaching career was up in Christ the Redeemer in Lagmore and that was really special to me.
"My health issues started during pregnancy and all my children were four very complicated pregnancies. The children were all in the Neonatal Ward and it was very stressful. For my second child, I had a huge kidney stone which was the beginning of the real serious health issues.
"I went through a few years of surgeries and all of that, I thought, was the end of things but I collapsed in school one day and was readmitted to hospital for 13 weeks. They noticed my kidney was shrinking and they decided it needed to go. It was challenging but loads of happy things happened. My daughter would come every day dressed up as a different character.
"I got out and everything was going really well and I fell pregnant with my third child where I was very ill and in ICU. I bounced back and had a strong mental resilience. I was lucky because my husband is a real special person and always saturated me with literature which helped me push on and fight.
"One day I was in work, in school and this cough developed, it sounded almost like a pretend cough. It was very noticeable and one of my colleagues said to me 'you don't look a great colour'. I don't remember how I got home. I started to shiver. My skin turned blue and very short of breath. I went to the hospital and I was very lucky because the doctor who saw me acted immediately.
"I was brought straight into Resus and over the next few days I can't remember too much because I was in and out of consciousness. I was given the diagnosis of Urosepsis, as a result of a kidney infection. The doctor told me I was lucky to be alive. One in two people who get Sepsis die.
"Another doctor spoke to me about some patients needing amputations and I started to get very frightened because I had never heard of Sepsis before and that is why I am speaking out about this. If you act quick enough, you increase your chances of survival and not having to have the loss of limbs or organs. Looking back, it is traumatic for me, thinking about what could have happened."
Siobhan was able to go home to her family after this and all of the things that followed discharge of hospital in the past, she says, included eating healthier and tonics.
Post-surgery, though, things were extremely difficult for Siobhan, with each time she attempted her stairs she was collapsing into a ball on her floor.
"I was very confused a lot of the time and my family would joke and call me Dory," she added.
"My doctor looked into all of these things I was experiencing and said I had post-Sepsis syndrome and that's when medical retirement was first mentioned. I didn't even want to think about that. In my mind I thought I would be a school principal in five years.
"On a good day I'd empty the dishwasher and do a bit of stretching but I would end up like a starfish on the floor after a basic task. The stairs were my enemy. It felt like I was climbing Mount Everest.
"I had to surrender a lot of my responsibilities and that was tough. I'd be crying every day. I couldn't look at myself in the mirror because I didn't recognise what I was looking at.
"Even getting dressed was a challenge - I needed help putting on my shoes, I couldn't put my own bra on, and as a woman, it is degrading. Having to have people come and wash you."
As time went on, doctors found out that there was an active virus in Siobhan's body, called CMV, at the same time as Sepsis. This was linked to ME: Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.
There is no cure for the disease which is severely debilitating for Siobhan.
And as she lay still in bed most days, during the really tough days, she says negative thoughts would dominate her way of thinking - so through poetry, she learned a more positive outlook.
"I felt like I was lying at the bottom of a pit and I could see no way out," she added.
"My sister had been working with a group who were doing creating writing to help them with their chronic illnesses so I wrote positive affirmations and saturated myself with positive podcasts.
"I started to write poems and all of a sudden people responded well to them. I could see myself again in a different way. I started to feel like I was involved in life again.
"A lot of people aren't as lucky as I am, I am alive. Each time I started to write down what I had to be grateful for, I realised my list was getting longer and longer, and it is continuing that way."
To get involved in the Walk for Sepsis in March, please follow the link here.
